More Zelda: A Link Between Worlds details; Aonuma felt fans may have started to get bored with traditional Zelda games
IGN has put up a new feature on Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The article has more details about the upcoming 3DS game, plus a few more comments from Eiji Aonuma.
Head past the break for the latest on A Link Between Worlds.
– Link is a blacksmith’s apprentice in the game
– Nightmares have caused him to be late for work on a regular basis
– Hyrule is almost the same as A Link to the Past
“When we created Skyward Sword, by checking the internet and seeing comments people made about it, it came to mind that maybe the users have started to get bored with Zelda, the traditional Zelda. So we’d like to try and change that up. We thought then that it would be more important to implement a kind of hand-holding system, where users would always know what they were supposed to do. But maybe it’s different – perhaps it’s also fun to just get lost in the game and try to figure out what to do by themselves… I’m really happy that I’ve managed to release a game with new features and a uniqueness to it.”
– The opening echoes both Ocarina of Time’s, in that Link dreams of princess Zelda being snatched away by some nameless, looming, pig-shaped evil, and Link to the Past’s, in which a dream leads him through the Hyrule Castle gardens to the bowels of the castle, where Zelda sits captive
– Link heads underground into a dungeon while taking care of an errand
– Dungeon has torches, bats, and a level puzzle
– Puzzle drops a pile of snakes on your head if you pick the wrong one
– References to other Zeldas
– Paintings in Hyrule Castle depicts the events of Ocarina of Time, where the Seven Sages sealed Ganon away
– Impa appears as an old woman
– Dampe the gravekeeper is also in the game
– Same goes for Sahasrahla from Link to the Past
– Yuga soon appears and begins turning the descendants of the Seven Sages into paintings and stealing them away
– Takes awhile for the wall drawing mechanic to be introduced
“Miyamoto and I feel the same about this. If players reach their goal easily, it’s not really a very exciting game. A game should be something where users try to solve the puzzles and try to overcome something and get a feeling of achievement from the experience. That’s more important.
“But if it’s too difficult, if we don’t actually give enough hints to the users, then at some point they’re not going to be interested in playing the game anymore. So that balance is always important, between difficulty and hand-holding. There was a certain period [at Nintendo] where people thought that games should make it easier to progress and go forward. But Miyamoto and I think that’s not the core part of the fun of a game. Sometimes just getting lost in a game can be really good as well. We’d like the game to be [made] in a way that even for hardcore gamers, hints are sometimes available. What’s important is making that selection of options available.”
