The Quickening: The next Zelda will be the worst · 6:39pm Jan 15th, 2017
I'm pretty sure I caught your attention with that title, right?
Being one of the strongest cards of Nintendo and with the most recent event, presenting the Switch, I think it's time to analyze this topic and control the expectations from the whole community.
Author's note: This topic will cover only the 3D Zelda games, 2D Zelda games do not seem to have this problem.
If there are fanbases hard to complain, Zelda is one of the worst, without a doubt. And the culprit of this stigma is this game:
It's fault: being the best Zelda ever.
Since its humble origins, the series became a game which everyone expected to have new things. So, why am I saying Breath of the Wild will be the worst and why Ocarina of Time is the culprit?
At first, the idea of "the best of the best is what will come next" emerged. But when a product surpass the fans' expectatives, this is placed in a pedestal and this can be a double-edged sword.
Before Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past was considered the best (because, by the previous mentioned logic, the third one will be better than the second one and so on). But when the N64 game came out, a new era was born. An era "before Zelda and after Zelda." The innovative gameplay, the way of telling a story, the character development, the setting, the graphics, the music, to go from playing as a child to playing as an adult. All of this consolidated this game as the best, even to the point of having the "game of the year" award for two consecutive years.
But then, the question appeared:
The following games had the pressure of surpassing Ocarina of Time, and pleasing the fans wasn't going to be easy.
Here's a formula I came up with to explain this process, and this has happened to every Zelda that was released after Ocarina of Time:
The next Zelda, when it's first announced, it's speculated to be the best. And when it finally comes out, the expectations decreased and the fans think it ultimately doesn't surpass Ocarina of Time. Years later, a new Zelda is announced and it's speculated to be the best. And when it finally comes out, the expectations decreased. But what happens to the previous title? It's finally considered good.
Very tricky, isn't it?
When Majora's Mask was released, everybody complained about the music, the recycled character models, the length and the difficulty. Overall, the fans thought it wasn't better than Ocarina of Time.
When Wind Waker was released, everybody complained about the graphics (the biggest one, by far), the light-toned story, the boat sections and the length. Suddenly the fans started to see the positives of Majora's Mask: the graphics, the darker tone, the difficulty and the side quests. Overall, the fans thought it was a good game.
When Twilight Princess was released, everybody complained about the lack of originality in the graphics and story (saying it borrowed many elements not only from Ocarina of Time, but also other games like Shadow of the Colossus), the tutorial at the beginning of the game, the excess of dungeons and the bosses of them as well (not to mention, it came out close to the release date of the first Twilight book and both media had in common a character transforming into a wolf. It was a coincidence, but an uncomfortable one). Suddenly the fans started to see the positives of Wind Waker: the cell-shaded graphics, which boosted the expressive characters, the dungeons, the side quests and the ending. Overall, the fans thought it was a good game.
When Skyward Sword was released, everybody complained about the graphics (not everyone liked the blending between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess), the gameplay, the length and a more linear story. Suddenly the fans started to see the positives of Twilight Princess: the graphics, the darker tone, the music, the gameplay and the best companion in tht entire series. Overall, the fans thought it was a good game.
I guess you can see my point now...
And before you even say: this happened for fanboys or those who have so much nostalgia about this game that they think that any game can't be comparable. But sadly, these fanboys are about 70% or 80% of the fanbase and, unfortunately, they are the ones that make the most noise.
This tendency has been repeated since Ocarina of Time, and every following title has to suffer from the stigma of being better than the game the fans consider insuperable. I'm not saying Ocarina of Time is a bad game, on the contrary, it's a really good game. But every game it's good by it's own. Every Zelda is unique and different at the same time. Think about all what I've said and leave your thoughts on the comments (and if you're wondering, my favorite Zelda is Majora's Mask).
4383842 That's good to know! You can go to my profile page and check out my other entries.