Loss of Luster
By Wraith
Zelda. One of the first things I think about when I hear that name is the time put into it. The painstaking hours of exertion that have been daubed into that single cart. The precision of graphic animation. The Legend of Zelda was a masterwork of its time, and although not heralded the same by many, its predecessor as well. A Link to the Past seemed as good as it could get, and then little brother the Ocarina of Time came along to take that trophy. In my eyes, things are nothing but a roller coaster climbing up and up... To the inevitable drop? Ah yes.
The announcement came not long ago on Nintendo's web page. Three game boy games to simultaneously come out at the same time. But so soon after OoT? It was a huge shock to me. I prayed to Diana that it would be a simple April Fool's joke. But when I looked at the calender, surprise, It wasn't April. It was the truth. The sacred accuracy and hours posed in the game would be stolen away. There was nothing to look forward to. Alas, the "Industrial Revolution" of games has finally arrived.
Another sock to my throbbing gut. Rumors that Sega... Sega of all people were helping to develop the games. Sure, they might make good games on the Dreamcast, but certain games on lower-bit systems (*cough* GENESIS) had a bit to be desired. And they wanted to fool with my Zelda? No way. I was even agreed with by an enemy of mine that Sega should stay with their crappy games and controllers that hurt your hands. Zelda has always been a Nintendo game (excluding the Phillips CD-i games) and it must stay that way.
The future of Zelda? In my opinion, there WAS no future in Zelda. But then, I recalled Gaiden. The game that seemed to be a small trivial add-on to a game might be the savior of this quandary. An unclear story of a Falling Lunation, perhaps, will drag Zelda out of the hole. I know that you yourself reading this has to concur that we don't want our game to become like Mario. Not like an assembly like of hundreds of games that four people buy. Zelda is the game of the millennium. Want to know why?
Zelda, unlike other action/rpg/adventure games, is something treasured. If you were playing Mario, beat King Koopa, and then took out the cart, what would you say? Of course you would say, "Hm, I think I'll play Final Fantasy now." What if you were playing Zelda? You beat Ganon and get all the pieces of the Triforce, or inserted all the crystals. You would say, "I think I'll play it again.". You see the love and devotion of Zelda's fans right now. What will it be like in the future?
Say two guys are at one's house, he's playing... Oh... Zelda 35. "Hey," Bill says, "we better get this game done." "Why," his friend Bob asks, "we just picked it up?" "Because, stupid," Bill replies, "We have the other 23 Zelda games that came out yesterday and there's a dozen more scheduled for tomorrow!"
Yes, I know it sounds a bit drastic and sarcastic, but you get my approximation. There will be no promising future for The Legend of Zelda unless the integrity of the old school is kept up. Things will be like Mega Man if Nintendo follows the current path. There are storm clouds on the horizon. A great philosopher once said, ‘In everybody's life, a little rain must fall'. And brother, you better have a big umbrella.
~Wraith
