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Kool-aid!'s The Legend of Zelda (NES)
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| [January 26, 2008 03:03:47 AM]
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GAMEPLAY
My second round of gameplay was both very rewarding and also very frustrating. I started out the session finding the sixth dungeon, which I was able to enter despite not yet finding dungeons two through five. I had to navigate a maze to get to this dungeon. The only way to solve it was to pay another character to tell you the way through. Then I found the dungeon. Unfortunately, I was killed by some sword throwing centaur like creatures. These swords caused two hearts of damage, and I had four (you get another heart after beating each boss). So I could only take two hits before dying. And these monsters threw swords as if they had some sort of sword machine gun. So I was killed. And I continued to go back only to be killed again and again.
But I did not give up and made it to the next dungeon. Unfortunately again, I found I needed to bypass two locked doors and was only given one key. I found a bunch of merchants who sell keys at high prices, so I figured I’d just come back. So I was back to wondering around the map looking for dungeons. There were more merchants, some gamblers and some “wise men.” They had semi-helpful advice for finding more over priced merchants and so it was just luck when I ran into the next dungeon. I cleared it out with little trouble. The boss was too tough to fight with a sword, but a wise man hinted that the monster hated smoke, and so I made short work of it with a few bombs. Another thing I found about this dungeon was that the monsters dropped a lot of money, so all those items were now buyable.
So I bought a stronger shield and headed back to the dungeon to get more money to buy a key for that dungeon I was stuck in earlier. Yet again, disaster struck, as I couldn’t find the dungeon again. I aimlessly wandered around looking for the dungeon and I just couldn’t find it. I was really missing a map at that point. There was just nothing to reference myself too. I eventually found another dungeon and just continued on.
I did some research online on the game and found that a key component of the game was the manual and map that came with the original game. Earlier, the game told me to look up items in the manual and that it contained all sort of tips and tricks for finding dungeons. And it also had a real map with landmarks. I really missed having this manual a lot during my session. I felt like I would have made it through a lot faster if I had that information. Because for me, I felt like I was shooting in the dark and I only knew what I was looking for because I was already familiar with the story and goals. There is an interesting relationship between the game and the package. The game is very hard to play without the manual. However, the designer never expected the player not to have the manual. A poor design choice perhaps?
DESIGN
I figure I’ll jump right into the manual issue. Now, the idea of the manual being so integral to the gameplay is an interesting one. The idea of using physical objects in the game is definitely something that should be explored. Having a physical map in front of you to navigate a fictional world makes the entire experience much more immersive. Instead of instructions of how to play, the manual seems like somewhat of a guidebook, almost as if it was part of the game itself. Knowing how popular the game was when it came out, I imagine knowing how to get through this game was a revered skill. So if someone did get stuck, I guess they could just ask the local master for some advice. It that why, the gameplay almost becomes part of the community. I wonder if this was intentional, or maybe the manual was just an afterthought after they figured out how difficult this game was.
These are some of the strong points, but I experienced first hand the weaknesses of the approach. It was very hard to me to play this game. I felt like I was just wondering around, waiting for something to present itself. I bet I could have found that dungeon I lost again if I had a helpful map with me. And was it wise for the designers to assume that every player would have access to this map? I played this game on my Wii, a situation that the designers never could have foreseen. But what if the game was lent to me by someone, without the manuals? For what if I checked these games out from the library? Without access to these supplemental parts of the game, my experience was much less enjoyable. I imagine if I were a less then serious game player, I would have walked away from this game.
The difficultly of the Legend of Zelda may have been a help though. Perhaps the notoriety of this game caused players to rise to the challenge and try harder to beat it. I know when I was playing, I was frustrated, but I didn’t give up. I had a desire to keep playing, to see it through, even when I kept dying over and over again. I cannot deny that this game was incredibly popular, so the designers must have done something right.
Besides these issues, the game really was a lot of fun. Zelda is a classic game, and I already fell in love with the gameplay long ago. But even without the manual issue, I had trouble. Enemies would switch back and forth from being too easy and way too hard. I felt like I would get stronger to combat the stronger monsters, but the transition did not feel as smooth as it was in later Zelda games. All the game play introduced in this game is common place now, but for the time, it was something new and exciting. I can at least tell it was new, because it felt loose and sloppy at places. But I don’t mean that as a bad thing. To me it proved that the designers were trying something new. As a last note, I enjoyed being able to tackle the dungeons in any order I wished, or rather the order I discovered them. That non-linear gameplay helped to make mean feel like I was really in another world, a real world.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Jan 26th, 2008 at 23:04:08.
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| [January 25, 2008 11:27:44 PM]
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SUMMARY:
The Legend of Zelda is a classic action-adventure fantasy game. The action takes place in the fantasy land of Hyrule. The player controls Link, a young hero determined to rescue the Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. To do this, Link must collect the 8 pieces of the magical triforce, which is hidden in 8 dungeons. The player must use Link’s items and sword fighting skills to defeat the monsters and solve the puzzles standing between Link and Zelda.
GAMEPLAY
I was already very familiar to the game play of The Legend of Zelda. The series has a very long history and I have played most of the series’ games. The action is viewed from an isometric perspective, where the player can view their avatar, the iconic Link. The HUD consists of a simple world map, with just a dot to show the players’ current area. There are no land marks, so all the player knows is their relation to the boundaries of the entire world. There is also a life bar, which comes in the form of hearts, and two item boxes, one for each button. There are also counters for the player’s bombs, keys and rupees, the currency of Hyrule.
Upon starting the game, I was give little instruction or back story. I waited at the start menu, and a screen told me to rescue the princess by getting the triforce. And then it showed me a picture of every item and to look in the manual for details. When I started the adventure proper, I was put in the middle of the world with a shield and no instruction. I found a sword in a cave in a nearby cave and was then able to fight monsters. With no apparent direction, I just started to wander around. I encountered monsters in groups of two or three which I could easily defeat with my sword. But it wasn’t longer before I found myself overwhelmed against groups of four or more monster.
I was very surprised to find this game to be tremendously difficult. Starting off, I had only three hearts, and most attacks take away a half of a heart, so about six hits. Sometimes, enemies would drop heats or fearies, which would heal Link, but it didn’t seem to happen often enough. I would find myself wandering around with one heart or maybe even a half of heart. It seemed like a strange mechanic, because I could mostly only get more life by killing enemies, but I didn’t want to fight with enemies because of my low life. It’s strange that I have never run into this problem in the later games, perhaps because of the addition of hearts inside of bushes and pots.
Eventually I discovered the entrance to a dungeon. Inside was a series a rooms and puzzles. The typical structure was to find a locked door and a path that lead to a dead end. The trick was the keys was somewhere along that dead end. The keys were pretty easy to find. Most puzzles consisted of finding the right block to push, or killing all the enemies. I also found my first items, some bombs and a boomerang. The boomerang became my favorite. Combat became much easier as I would use it to stun and enemy, and then finish it off with my sword. I came to a boss, and easily defeated it with bombs. It’s strange how some fights where so hard, while others where so easy. With my first piece of the triforce in hand, I set off to find the next dungeon.
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Kool-aid!'s The Legend of Zelda (NES)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Friday 25 January, 2008
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 12 August, 2009 |
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