Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Kytim89]

Wouldn't that be like each state having their own money? Hyrule is basically one country, correct? I think keeping the current system where colored rupees represent different amounts works best, but that's just my opinion.

Why has no one ever thought of creating a Bank of Hyrule where Link can deposit his extra rupees and then return to get them or make another desposit?

[King of Twitch]

Wouldn't that be like each state having their own money? Hyrule is basically one country, correct? I think keeping the current system where colored rupees represent different amounts works best, but that's just my opinion.

It broke apart because the Zoras wouldn't stop using the Gorons as....well you know.

 

Why has no one ever thought of creating a Bank of Hyrule where Link can deposit his extra rupees and then return to get them or make another desposit?

That would be opossumble.

[MegaByte]

Why has no one ever thought of creating a Bank of Hyrule where Link can deposit his extra rupees and then return to get them or make another desposit?

Maybe not in Hyrule, but they did in Termina.

[Shorty McNostril]

Wouldn't that be like each state having their own money? Hyrule is basically one country, correct? I think keeping the current system where colored rupees represent different amounts works best, but that's just my opinion.

Why has no one ever thought of creating a Bank of Hyrule where Link can deposit his extra rupees and then return to get them or make another desposit?

Unless you could do it on the fly, it wouldn't fully solve the problem.  And being Hyrule they probably wouldn't include E-Banking in Link's box of tricks.  You would still have to trudge all the way into Castle Town (presumably) or maybe the nearest city/town/dwelling to empty your wallet. 

Not very convenient when you are out in the middle of nowhere or in a dungeon.

[broodwars]

Wouldn't that be like each state having their own money? Hyrule is basically one country, correct? I think keeping the current system where colored rupees represent different amounts works best, but that's just my opinion.

Why has no one ever thought of creating a Bank of Hyrule where Link can deposit his extra rupees and then return to get them or make another desposit?

As MegaByte pointed out, Majora's Mask says "hello".  And, unfortunately, money was even more worthless in that game than in the other 3D Zeldas.  You only deposited your money to get the heart piece for having a ridiculous amount of rupees deposited at the same time.

[Adrock]

What they should do is have this ridiculously difficult to attain albeit cool-looking armor that drains Rupees whenever it's even equipped and protects Link against damage by subtracting large amounts of Rupees per hit for some reason, and when Link runs out of Rupees, the armor bogs him down so he can't even wear it to look awesome. That way, the player will always be driven to have and find Rupees since the armor magically reduces the amount of Rupees at all times... forever. They should call it like Magic Armor or something.

[Shorty McNostril]

Which is one of the last items you get. It is of no help for the first 3/4 of the game.

[Stratos]

Which is one of the last items you get. It is of no help for the first 3/4 of the game.

Same could be said of the Fierce Deity Mask in Majora.

[Shorty McNostril]

I wouldn't know. I've never played majoras mask.

*looks left, looks right* please don't smite me.

[ThomasO]

I wouldn't know. I've never played majoras mask.

*looks left, looks right* please don't smite me.

I've only played the first game on the NES and Twilight Princess. I bought Ocarina of Time on VC a little less than 4 years ago and I played it for 10 minutes and quickly lost interest.

[broodwars]

What they should do is have this ridiculously difficult to attain albeit cool-looking armor that drains Rupees whenever it's even equipped and protects Link against damage by subtracting large amounts of Rupees per hit for some reason, and when Link runs out of Rupees, the armor bogs him down so he can't even wear it to look awesome. That way, the player will always be driven to have and find Rupees since the armor magically reduces the amount of Rupees at all times... forever. They should call it like Magic Armor or something.

Twilight Princess was so spectacularly easy, though, that there was never really a reason to use that armor.  I only even bothered to purchase it for the sake of completionism.
 
I really wonder what Nintendo's going to do about the challenge level of these Zelda games.  I haven't been truly challenged by one since I originally played Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, and when played years later they really aren't that challenging.  It's not a huge knock on the games, but I would like the franchise to start respecting (as the 3D Mario games seem to have) that its players have gotten older and gotten better.

[King of Twitch]

I really wonder what Nintendo's going to do about the challenge level of these Zelda games.  I haven't been truly challenged by one since I originally played Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, and when played years later they really aren't that challenging.  It's not a huge knock on the games, but I would like the franchise to start respecting (as the 3D Mario games seem to have) that its players have gotten older and gotten better.

Why has no one ever thought of creating a way to choose your own difficulty level at the start of the video game?

[Caterkiller]

I really wonder what Nintendo's going to do about the challenge level of these Zelda games.  I haven't been truly challenged by one since I originally played Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, and when played years later they really aren't that challenging.  It's not a huge knock on the games, but I would like the franchise to start respecting (as the 3D Mario games seem to have) that its players have gotten older and gotten better.

Why has no one ever thought of creating a way to choose your own difficulty level at the start of the video game?

Oh we thought it, Nintendo just wont do it.

[Adrock]

I wouldn't know. I've never played majoras mask.

*looks left, looks right* please don't smite me.

I am the Scourge of God, appointed to chastise you since no one knows the remedy for your iniquity except me. You are wicked, but I am more wicked than you. So, be silent!

Oh, THAT kind of smite. How silly.

Anyway, Majora's Mask was good. I could never bring myself to beat it more than once. I tried though it hasn't aged particularly well. However, that's a matter of opinion. I kind of feel like if you didn't play it 10 years ago, you're probably better off waiting for the inevitable remake. Hey, it might even come out on 3DS.

[Ian Sane]

Why has no one ever thought of creating a way to choose your own difficulty level at the start of the video game?

That's lame and out-of-date.  These days there are games that let you change the difficulty level in the middle of a saved game.  It kind of sucks to have to start a brand new save if you picked a difficulty that was too easy are too hard for you.  This solves the problem.  And then games like Left 4 Dead attempt to dynamically alter the difficulty based on how well the player is doing.
 
But Nintendo always has to re-invent the wheel so we get the super guide.  That's Nintendo's difficulty level option.  Either beat the game yourself or have the game beat itself for you.  It's not the worst idea in the world but I think it is stuck between two extremes.  Using the super guide provides no sense of accomplishment while beating a game on an easier difficulty setting still can.  If I can't beat a game I want to be able to just tinker with the difficulty a bit, not remove all challenge.  If I want to just see a game be completed in front of me I can watch walkthroughs on YouTube.
 
Of course is Nintendo going to even offer the super guide in this?  The concept seems to work far better for linear level-based games.  How do you do such a feature for a game like Zelda where a player can do things in different sequences?  It could work on dungeons though, since they are pretty much linear.
 
Honestly if I could just set at any time the amount of damage the enemies do that would be good enough.  I find the lack of challenge in recent Zelda games is more due to the enemy hitting me and it taking off so little energy.  If I can set that myself that would make a world of difference.
 
Though I find that I really don't like dying a lot in videogames.  It sucks to have to repeat things constantly.  What I like is the sense of danger.  I want to feel like I COULD fail but 90% of the time I actually don't.  It's fun to think "man that boss almost killed me!  I won in just the nick of time!"  It isn't fun to think "oh God, I died again!  I can't believe I have to go through all this another time!"  So I think dynamically altered difficulty levels is the ideal way to go.  And if someone just wants a game to be super easy or super hard then they can turn off the dynamic difficulty and just select one level that it sticks to the whole time.
 
The magic armor in Twilight Princess, again, makes me wonder how Nintendo thinks we play their games.  Do they honestly think I suck so much that I need this armor to stay alive?  It would only be useful to the most inept players, who probably could never get so far.  Kind of like how someone too stupid to use a normal controller would also be too stupid to hook a videogame system up to a TV.
 
Oh, and they could solve the tressure chest thing by just marking any chests that have been opened but still have their treasure in them differently than empty chests and unopened chests.  Right now they just have two icons.  Add a third and no one goes running around for a chest on their map that is just useless rupees they already could not fit in their wallet.

[MaryJane]

The first two Zelda's are restrictively hard, and I have still yet to beat the first, and probably never will. I thought OoT was somewhat easy, but LttP wasn't that hard either, except a couple of bosses. I found TP and WW to have a good level of difficulty, but as with all Zelda games, for me it has been about the weapons/gameplay, and story. Nintendo has yet to disapoint me on those aspects.

Edit: Just want to note that I pretty much suck at videogames, but I still love them.

[Mop it up]

Zelda has a difficulty setting of sorts: Heart containers are optional. If the game is too easy for you, don't pick up heart containers. If it starts to get too hard, go back and pick up the ones you passed up.

[Ian Sane]

  Zelda has a difficulty setting of sorts. Heart containers are optional. If the game is too easy for you, don't pick up heart containers. If it starts to get too hard, go back and pick up the ones you passed up.

That's a pretty lame difficulty setting.  What if I just arbitrarily allow all enemies to get free hits on me first before I fight back?  Isn't that the same idea?  I can apply that sort of self-handicapping to every game ever made.
 
Finding heart pieces is a big part of Zelda and finding ALL of them is usually one of the most challenging parts of Zelda.  A hardcore gamer wants to find all of them.  So the option is either make the game harder or don't get 100%?  That just doesn't fly.  No matter what the player is deprived.
 
Plus I don't cut Nintendo a break anymore when they say "well couldn't you just do this?"  Why don't they just put some difficulty settings in?  Why do *I* always have to come up with my own workarounds or compromise on this or that when it comes to Nintendo?  How about THEY just provide me what I want for a change instead of giving me excuses or telling me what I should want or how this weird ass goofy solution fulfils my request?

[ThomasO]

Given the size of Zelda, adding more layers of difficulty might require a crap-load more time to be put into the game to ensure game balance for all situations. Putting more enemies in places or simply giving enemies higher HP and attack power is a cop-out. Easy difficulties may seem like a joke to even novice players, and most players will probably avoid the higher difficulty levels. A one-size-fits-all difficulty is just fine with me.

[Mop it up]

What if I just arbitrarily allow all enemies to get free hits on me first before I fight back?  Isn't that the same idea?

Isn't selecting Hard over Normal that same idea?

I can apply that sort of self-handicapping to every game ever made.

Isn't selecting Hard a self-handicap? You chose to make it harder. I see no difference.

It isn't like you have to go out of your way to avoid heart containers. When you beat a boss, just step into the light ring/leave the room without picking it up. You're giving yourself less hits, which is what most hard settings do anyway. Seems perfectly fine to me.

As far as 100%, just collect the heart containers after you finish playing through the game. That's usually what I do anyway.

[MaryJane]

TP had unnecessary armor, could SS have unnecessary weapons like LttP?

In terms of adding difficulty, I don't see that because it was pretty difficult/required luck/a brother who is better at videogames to get the magic cape, cane of byrna(?), and ice rod.

I would say getting heart pieces isn't adding difficulty in a true sense, because getting heart pieces isn't like talking to someone you have to speak to in order for the game to proceed. Usually the more skilled players are the ones who get the most heart pieces, empty bottles, bigger bomb bags and quivers, etc.

I also wonder if this Zelda could see some DLC for replay value. Side quests, extra dungeons, and old dungeons springing to life again because of a resurgence of evil, leading to a Majora's Mask like sequel of SS as a WiiWare game that requires SS disc to load game... I would like to see that anyway.

[Luigi Dude]

I'd imagine that the boss fights will be harder thanks to the Super Guide since those would be the easiest part of the game to implement the Super Guide.  Plus I remember an interview around E3 where I think Aonuma said he wanted the boss fights to be more engaging and challenging.  Which is one of the reason why Link changes his weapons in real-time and even drinks his healing potions in real-time as well now. 

So this leads me to believe that they'll at least be a Super Guide for the boss fights since it sounds like they want to really increase their difficulty this time.  And since the Super Guide has so far allowed Nintendo to get away with really increasing the difficulty for Mario and Donkey Kong, it looks like it'll help Zelda as well.

[Shorty McNostril]

Super guide for Zelda? Awesome idea! The guide character can be Tingle!!!

[Sundoulos]

Didn't the originally-released patent for the super guide include drawings of a Zelda-style game?  http://kotaku.com/5127251/nintendo-patent-reveals-potential-paradigm-shift-in-design

It would be interesting to see how they might implement that in a 3D Zelda game, though  it might just be better to have a built-in hint system.  (Buying hints would be a great use for all those extra Rupees lying around Hyrule, as well.)

[SixthAngel]

But Nintendo always has to re-invent the wheel so we get the super guide.  That's Nintendo's difficulty level option.  Either beat the game yourself or have the game beat itself for you.  It's not the worst idea in the world but I think it is stuck between two extremes.  Using the super guide provides no sense of accomplishment while beating a game on an easier difficulty setting still can.  If I can't beat a game I want to be able to just tinker with the difficulty a bit, not remove all challenge.  If I want to just see a game be completed in front of me I can watch walkthroughs on YouTube.

You can't really have different difficulty settings in platformer.  Making platforming easier would essentially require you to make an entirely new level unless you want it to be slower/faster goombas.  They didn't really reinvent the wheel because the wheel doesn't work for their game.  Wait for the super guide to be released in different genre before you decide to rip into it. Isn't this basically what people do to beat super meat boy: watch somebody else play it on youtube and copy them? This is pretty much the acceptable way to help you in a platformer and Nintendo included it in the game.