Legend of Zelda Say That Again You Little Shit
And so just to clarify last calendar week's video, I quite liked Zelda: Majora's Mask, which I'm sure the fanboys would be quick to offset waving around like they're doing the Dance of the Vii Veils with my opinions. Not sure why though, since the main things that appealed to me were the bits that felt most unlike the usual Zelda game. That is to say, rather than a bland simplistic tale of a standard blank slate hero defeating a villain characterized equally evil mainly by request usa to assume that he is, in an unchanging wheel predetermined by fate, it was instead a grim story themed effectually futility, indifference and identity crisis.
It might seem like I experience the need to continue the defensive every time someone, horror of horrors, accuses me of liking Nintendo now. Just it'south not the allegation that annoys me; it's this implied notion that yous can only ever like Nintendo and support everything they do, or exist one of the ignorant outsiders who don't. Come up to call back of it, that's the false dichotomy that blights virtually all net debating.
Simply I digress. I made a little funny in the ZP review to the issue that it'due south surprising that Nintendo fabricated a game that garnered critical acclaim with a new and interesting gameplay mechanic, then proceeded to not even try to milk the shit out of it with numerous similar sequels. I suppose the fact that they eventually re-released it on 3DS is a bit of a brief suck on the udder, simply otherwise they've been pretty restrained. It's most like they feel a little bad-mannered about it, peradventure because information technology'south tonally rather far removed from the Nintendo company line.
I think the interesting question to ask ourselves is this: could Majora's Mask be made today, in the industry as information technology stands? Anything goes in the indie circles, obviously, only could it ever exist considered and adult as a full-on triple-A first party release, equally it was back in N64 times?
No. I strongly doubt that it could. Most obviously for the fact that the timing mechanic could give a shit for how the player wants to experience the game. Make no fault, you might exist the one with the ocarina shoved in his gob merely you're dancing to its melody, motherfucker. Sure, you can mess effectually and decide for yourself what tasks you want to undertake, only if y'all're not finished undertaking by the time the three days are up, so you're going to have to undergive everything back and outset again. I find it interesting that there's so much of the game you can miss, just considering most of the people and events involved in sidequests are working to a schedule regardless of your actions. It'southward non the case that characters simply await indefinitely in their little rooms for the player to enter, at which indicate they are instantly ready to concisely express the most salient points of the situation.
This is almost completely unique in the field of video game structuring. Nigh video games simply guide the player along similar it's walking a dog, yanking on the leash when the dog takes exploration too far. Fifty-fifty in a sandbox game where the player chooses their own route, all the enemies, story missions and encounters are kept in stasis, waiting for them to approach and so that they can activate, similar the pop-up paper-thin monsters on a cheap ghost railroad train. Meanwhile, Majora's Mask feels like a game world existing without necessarily existence aware of the role player inside it.
You tin can see something like in Lure of the Temptress or Oblivion; NPCs motion effectually pursuing their own lives even when the player isn't around or looking at them. In those cases, though, it doesn't do much more than inconvenience the actor when they are trying to pursue an objective relating to specific characters. There is an unavoidable need for the player to be all-important, only Majora's Mask provides that in a more than roundabout manner, by letting the player echo the consequence cycle equally many times as they wish. And just equally Bill Murray's character discovers in Groundhog Mean solar day, what initially feels like a curse eventually reveals itself to be a sort of gradual omnipotence.
That's what makes information technology unique, and every bit we know by now, the business of gaming doesn't like uniqueness. Video gaming has moved on from its experimental youth, and as tends to be the case with a new medium, has become old enough that the easy solutions are now the bad habits. Enough precedent has gone by that sure things are established as The Way Things Are Done. We accept names for all the standard items on the checklist, like 'critical path' and 'histrion grooming'. It gets harder and harder to break things down the fundamentals and effort something completely new, peculiarly for an installment of a long-established franchise.
Mainly I can't picture being able to effectively deliver a 20-second lift pitch for the game. I'd picked up some details here and there, but I never understood how the time loop gameplay worked until I started playing information technology myself, and it'south difficult to explicate to another person in a game design context. Time resets and the player loses everything. So does that mean you lot have to complete the entire game in the iii days or first all once more? No, when I say lose everything, non everything-everything, yous keep the tools and songs you lot've found, you simply lose the consumables that can be easily refilled past running outside and mowing the lawn a few times.
No, what we mean is, everything the player has achieved gets undone. But that's a hard sell, too. One of the main things that drives commercial game design these days is that the actor has to constantly exist feeling similar they're achieving progress. This is why the concept of 'Achievements' was invented. And why they're called 'Achievements' equally opposed to 'Drops in the ocean of futility'.
I suppose my point is that Majora's Mask probably couldn't exist made today because games are designed these days for the sake of maximum accessibility. If a player is confused for ane 2nd too long by a menu interface it goes dorsum for another iteration. Fifty-fifty Night Souls has a consistent sense of progress; Majora's Mask is an thought birthed from the intention to deliberately drag the actor downwards and fuck with them. I don't retrieve publishers would purchase that nowadays, and it'south a shame, because sometimes deliberately fucking with the player can make a strong creative statement. That's why I desire to make a game for the Xbone that makes the console catch fire and explode. I'm thinking the Arts Council volition give me a grant if I show them Ryse: Son of Rome.
Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/why-the-n64-majoras-mask-could-not-be-made-today-as-a-aaa-title/
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