TP was missing "soul," as John TV said. Bland characters, bland environments, muddied further by muddy textures and a dark realism the system simply couldn't pull off. No real sense of urgency. What was even at stake? The people in Hyrule Castle Town didn't seem too concerned about the force field over Hyrule Castle, for example. The final battle, while fun, literally transpires in a random flat corner of Hyrule Field. The game has FANTASTIC dungeons... but the splintered and largely linear overworld, coupled with the tedium of the intro and various bug hunts, dragged things down. I liked the game quite a bit, overall, but it furthered my disenchantment with the series, where each new game feels more like a chore you're obligated to undertake as a fan of past installments. Thankfully, ALBW looks to buck that trend with legitimately refreshing gameplay and pacing.
Part of the problem for me with TP was the combination of low resolution gamecube textures with the game's vision of starting off with a dark and colorless overworld, and having it gradually change and become more colorful as you progressed through the story. It's an interesting concept but it didn't work very well for me, and actually diminished my desire to be in that world until about after the second dungeon when the game also started to open up a bit more. Combined with the purposefully murky twilight realm areas where you only play as a wolf at first, the game's opening comes off as a bit overbearing. Again, as a concept this isn't bad because it has the potential to provide context to Link's rise to power. It could have given the whole progression a very epic feel to it, but eventually, in no small part due to the game's large scope, it becomes tiring. Also, the contrast would have been greater (and more rewarding) if by the end of the game Link gains true mastery over his environment, but this never really happens, at least not in the Wii version where combat controls aren't as accurate/easy to pull off.
We consider NSMBU a 2D installment alongside Other M, so I don't see why we wouldn't consider ALBW the same.
Who in their right mind can consider Metroid: Other M a 2D installment when you move around in three dimensional space form all sorts of angles and even go into first person regularly?!
I think it's time we started moving away from the strict categorization of 2D and 3D, as this is something Nintendo have also been doing in recent years. We should try to look at it differently, from a designer's point of view, and see what each perspective brings to the table, and how different mechanics are affected by it. Field of view, adding complexity with regards to controlling the camera, or shifting that complexity to a different part of the gameplay should all be taken into account, preferably not just between different games, but between different scenes/parts of the same game.
In Zelda's case, one thing I noticed from the video comparison between LTTP and ALBW is that navigating the overworld is much simpler and quicker with a top down camera, as opposed to an over the shoulder or 3rd person camera which is the norm in 3D Zeldas. You constantly see all around you and are able to extract relevant information out of your surroundings with more ease. The cartoon-style graphics also play a big role in this: It's almost like reading a subway chart vs. trying to visualise the actual paths the tunnels would take in 3D space underneath a city. Symbolism and abstraction go a long way towards immersing you in the world and giving you that sense of control and responsiveness. Understanding the player's relationship with his environment also becomes a non issue.
After seeing playthroughs of ALBW I honestly wouldn't mind a Wii U Zelda with similar top down camera. Maybe the designers could incorporate the ability to switch back and forth between top-down/otherwise fixed-at-a distance camera and an over the shoulder one, or even top-down/fixed and first person if it makes sense. This is something Other M started to explore, and while people didn't appear to like it, I think the concept should be revisited and further investigated. Sometimes you may want to accurately see the world from Link's perspective, or control him in combat at eye level, but there are also other times where players desire that stark contrast between the adventurer and the scale of his surroundings for that picturesque look that is oft quoted on GAF.
Considering GAF's previous game of the year was that Winnie the Pooh flash game, this makes ALBW a shoe-in for GOTY 2013
Fantastic orchestral style! Dramatic, but not overly so.
Definitely a great composer!
I just think they should stop half-assing it. Either Link is suppose to be me, a blank heroic slate with no discernible personality whatsoever for the player to cast himself on, or he's a living breathing character who's totally crushing on Llia in Twilight Princess with cornball romantic cutscenes and shit. I think the mute Link concept is something that worked better in the older 2D games. But that's just me and how I like Zelda. I haven't really cared about any of the 3D Zelda's narratives outside an individual moment here or there, so the increased lengths they go to tell these stories is kinda lost on me.
This is an interesting topic for discussion. If you think about Link as an archetypical mythological hero, then it really is necessary to straddle that fine line between being an avatar and being a superman. The same goes for many protagonists in these kinds of stories. Look at Squall in FFVIII or Luke Skywalker or Perseus etc. They have their dramatic moments, but as a whole don't stray as far away from the norm as other characters in their respective story-arcs that they become alien.
