Wednesday 20 February, 2008

Gameplay

It is the infusion of the vast array of facets employed in this game that makes it fun to play. The hundreds of enemies, which vary in difficulty and weapons used to kill them, never seem too difficult to beat, but are just enough of a challenge to keep the player glued to the screen. The same can be said for the successive tasks throughout each level. The game difficulty accelerates upwards at a slow but acceptable pace. What I’m trying to stress is that the point of this adventure game is to have an adventure, not constantly be bombarded by close to impossible enemies. The story is also awesome in the way that it brings together all these different races spread across the land of Hyrule to ultimately prove that unity and good will prevail over evil. Whether this is done peacefully, however, is up for debate seeing as Link definitely kills a lot of stuff to achieve that peace, and in the real world violence only begets violence. So I guess it’s a good thing that Zelda is a video game and not the real world then, although that would be so awesome. I’d be much more inclined to kill a Deku Baba than a fellow human. Then again, I’m glad real life isn’t a video game.

The items in this game are at the crossroads of awesome and useful. The variety of gameplay that they allow is indeed quite huge. Link receives a new item in every level that allows him to complete tasks designed for that type of gameplay and mostly importantly each boss. Within Link needs to collect and use all of these items to defeat the final boss Gannondorf. Aside from the Hylian shield, the ocarina, and deku nuts, most of Link’s items are time sensitive to how old Link is. Bottles can be incredibly helpful for capturing fairies to gain extra lives and other random creatures or substances. In addition, items like magic beans aren’t at all necessary to complete the game, but planting them can be helpful for traveling short distances quickly or obtaining heart pieces. The most common items are Rupees which differ in color and therefore differ in value. Rupees are used to buy replenishable items. Other items can be gained through contact with the Great Fairies. They endow Link with a magic meter that has to be replenished as well as items that drain magic. The different magically powered arrows also consume magic. The magic meter is just one example of some probably intensely complex code that enhances gameplay exponentially. I’m glad that the game designers had to do that job. The job of playing the game seems like much more fun, although it probably doesn’t pay as well.

Design

The game is intricately webbed with dozens of side quests. Not all of them are necessary (Happy Mask Shop, fishing), but many of them are incredibly helpful to completing the game (heart pieces, Biggoron’s Sword). Collecting the shells of scratchy sounding enemies called Gold Skultula gains Link different upgrades from a house of people afflicted by the wrath of this spider as killing more of them relieves them of spider-like symptoms. Aside from the Great Fairy side quests, collecting heart pieces is the most crucial and most rewarding system of side questing in the game. Collecting four pieces of heart gains Link another heart container of life. The locations and ways in which these heart pieces can be obtained are often so spread out and different that it takes a serious amount of time to collect all of them.

The graphics and perspectives of this game are outstanding. Each level is styled according to the biome specific community that surrounds it. Likewise, the enemies are also themed respectively. The level Jabu Jabu’s Belly takes place inside a giant fish. The walls of this level pulsate different colors and breathe. The forest temple contains a twisted hallway that can change the direction of gravity and thus lead Link in a different direction. These are only a couple of the cool aspects of this game. The list of details goes on and on. At this point the best way to attempt to grasp the sheer awesomeness of this game is to play it if you haven’t already. And there’s no excuse for you to not have played this game if you enjoy video games. No excuse at all.

You are able to observe the important design elements of the game, but you should start getting into why these things are there. The chances are we have played these games, and we are interested to why you think these things are in the game.