Tag: The Legend of Zelda

Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – Ocarina of Time

It’s only a few weeks now, before the arrival of the Nintendo Switch.

As much as I’m counter to the preorder culture, I did buy my Nintendo Switch only minutes after watching the January presentation by Nintendo. I got my Wii U very late in its life, around Holidays 2015, so I’ve had to rush to get the games I wanted for the platform, which I’m still enjoying to be honest. Continue reading Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – Ocarina of Time

The Triforce and Heart Pieces – My History with The Legend of Zelda

It’s no secret that I love The Legend of Zelda Series with a passion. It’s perhaps my favourite game series of them all. With every release, the chance to explore the reimagined and rebuilt Hyrule and its many parallel worlds fills me with child-like glee. I feel like a kid again every time I play a new Zelda title, and even if I find it too easy, I still thoroughly enjoy the experience.

But my love of Zelda isn’t just because of the world, or the characters, the gameplay and the familiar elements we’ve come to expect from the series. My relationship with The Legend of Zelda and Nintendo has a long history and deeper meaning to me. Continue reading The Triforce and Heart Pieces – My History with The Legend of Zelda

Preview: Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim

Disclaimer: The opinions found of this article are first impressions on a preview demo, which may not represent the final quality of the game.

Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim is an upcoming action adventure game where you play the eponymous Viking Boy, setting out on a quest to find out what happened to the men of the island. The left a long time ago on their usual rounds of pillaging and scavenging and haven’t made it home, leaving their village and island unprotected and their families fending for themselves with dwindling resources. On hearing from an Oracle that the men are in danger and unwittingly pulled into the role of saviour, Tyrim does the only thing he can, set off on a grand adventure!

I received a preview copy from Katie Hallahan from Phoenix Online Publishing on behalf of the developers, Overflow Studios and spent over an hour playing the demo, which covers the starting island and village and introduces you to the main mechanics, particularly the crafting that will be instantly familiar to Minecraft (and Terraria) players, and the beginnings of Cornerstone’s plot. By the end of the demo, I found a new organisation: mysterious robed sorcerers capable of controlling stone (aka Earthbenders). I found them in a crypt but I no explanation about what they were doing there in the first place, or the purpose of their ritual work. Is it related to what happened to the Island’s warriors? Or are they part of something else? I hate not knowing! Continue reading Preview: Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim

Awesome Game Mechanics – Pickups

In the past I’ve spoken of Annoying Game Mechanics, of those that we find in games and after so many uneven implementations we instinctively groan when we see them again. But not all game mechanics are annoying, not all have good and bad moments. Some mechanics are just freaking AWESOME!

These Awesome Game Mechanics don’t need further tweaking. They’re the pinnacle of innovation and refining. Sure, you can build on them and add new features, but there is nothing left to fix about them. They are nearly if not completely perfect.

The first one of these I’ll talk about is Pickups:

Best Examples: Doom, Tomb Raider, Mario Bros, The Binding of Isaac and many others. Continue reading Awesome Game Mechanics – Pickups

Annoying Game Mechanics – Tutorials

Annoying Game Mechanics are those that just make you groan when you see them in a game. You’ve seen them at their best but you’ve also seen them at their worst. You can’t love them but you can’t hate them either, but you can definitely be annoyed!

This week the mechanic I’m having an issue with is Tutorials! Continue reading Annoying Game Mechanics – Tutorials

Annoying Game Mechanics – Collectibles

Annoying Game Mechanics are those that just make you groan when you see them in a game. You’ve seen them at their best but you’ve also seen them at their worst. You can’t love them but you can’t hate them either, but you can definitely be annoyed!

This week the mechanic I’m having an issue with is Collectibles!

These are the items, trophies and knickknacks strewn around the maps, there for you to find. They’re an optional quest, something else to do when you’re not saving the world or looking for a princess in another castle. They expand the gameplay—sometimes even padding it—and may or not include some sort of challenge to collect them. Maybe you need to do a tricky platforming segment, or climb a steep hill with limited stamina or defeat a powerful enemy to find this little thing.

I don’t mean health pickups and powerups, pieces of heart or mushrooms. Those are central mechanics, those we can call simply “pickups.” I mean the truly optional, those that if you took them out, the core gameplay would not change. I mean the Flags, the Gold Skultullas, the hidden memoires and ancient artefacts. As much as we dislike the idea of having to go around the maps looking for a tiny object or creature, we all do it in the end, because we hope there’ll be a big reward for the effort we put in.

And that ultimately is what separates the good Collectibles from the bad one. There is a function to them, a purpose to the scavenger hunt. Maybe it’s an upgrade or simply another ending to the game.

The staple of an annoying mechanic is that it’s seen both good and bad days. The following are some of the best and most disappointing uses:

Good:

  • The Legend of Zelda has always done collectibles right, giving you a big reward for your efforts.
    • Ocarina of Time had the Skulltulas, and every 10 or so would break the curse on one person and they would give you a reward.
    • From Wind Waker onwards you had loot bags for monster drops. These could be exchanged for treasure or in Skyward Sword’s case, used for upgrades. You might think the upgrades a central mechanic, but they’re really not, as you don’t really need them at all, nor does the game hint that you should do it.
  • TheEzioAuditore Assassin’s Creed games had you collecting Seals—through eitheraparkour gauntlet or a combat one— that would earn you the most powerful armour in the game, usually unbreakable and with more defence than any other piece of gear.
    • Not only did it have those, but also the Animus Fragments in Revelations and the ciphers and special puzzles in the other two games and completing each would reveal a part of the truth.
  • System Shock 2, Bioshock and Dead Space all have Audio and text logs, and while the benefit from them isn’t necessarily mechanic (such as a password), they help their title’s storytelling in a very rewarding way.
  • Batman: Arkham City made the inane Riddler Trophies useful, by setting them as prerequisites for the challenge rooms where Edward Nygma stashed his hostages.
  • Bloodborne has the “One-third of Umbilical Cord”. Taking three of them and selecting a particular option near the end, unlocks the game’s final ending. Again, you might consider this one central to the game, but they are in no way signposted and you can even find more than three, thus I consider them collectibles.
  • The Witcher 3 has Gwent Cards. As much as I dislike the minigame itself (I was a Dice Poker master!), the cards are a form of collectibles. There’s even a sidequest called “Gotta Collect them All!” Each card can bolster your deck which in turn can lead you to making some serious money.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles has special items thrown around its massive maps. You’ll come across them as blue balls of light hovering over the ground. You’ll often use these little items, which are completely random by the way, as objectives in some of the game’s thousands of subquests. And beyond that, you have an adventuring journal where you can ‘use’ these items to fill up the current zone’s collection for Flora, Fauna, Mechs, etc., and gain a small item when you’ve completed a set.
  • Final Fantasies have always had some form of collectible:
    • Final Fantasy VIII much like The Witcher 3 had cards (only this card game was quite fun!).
    • Summons are mostly optional in the game, and collecting them can be one of the most satisfying things to do, as there is always a challenge to be found.

Bad:

  • Speaking of Assassin’s Creed, the series has also had its fair share of ridiculous and pointless collectibles.
    • As much as I love AC2, the feathers were unnecessary and tedious. The point of them is to give Ezio’s mother closure, but surely there are better ways than hunting for 100 random feathers in the environment.
    • The different flags found in all the games are a colossal waste of time, especially the Assassin’s Creed 1 and Brotherhood’s.
    • The Animus Fragments in Black Flag are the epitome to pointless collectibles. They really give you nothing for collecting them, just an achievement.
  • While Arkham City did make the Riddler trophies useful, it added the Catwoman Trophies in…just because. They add nothing and simply pad her segments, which aren’t remotely as fun as Batman’s.
  • The Legend, Anniversary and Underworld trilogy for Tomb Raider added Relics to the game, and they do nothing but unlock concept art, which is a complete waste of time. Give me something useful, not something I’m already slowly unlocking by just clearing the game.
  • Alice: Madness Returns has perhaps the most pointless of all collectibles. You can find memory fragments, which show you either a conversation or an image relating to Alice’s past and her mental state. The problem is they don’t offer any answers or insights into the plot. The real memories, the ones that do offer something interesting, are obligatory and found at the end of each level.
  • Alan Wake had you running around collecting all manner of nonsense, from Manuscript Pages to Coffee Thermoses! They completely broke any immersion, something that was already hard to come by with such a padded game (levels outstayed their welcome and then lasted for another half hour) without adding something so pointless as knocking over can pyramids.

 

The collectopaedia actually gives you stuff! (Image Credit: Xenoblade Wikia)
We all remember these! (Image Credit: ZeldaElements.net)
Yep, ground monster horn makes the bow much more badass, everyone knows that! (Image Credit: ZeldaDungeon.net)
One of many to collect for Altair’s armour! (Image Credit: Assassin’s Creed Wiki)
These can get very creepy, very fast. (Image Credit: Youtube)
Arkham City made these worthwhile. (Image Credit: MobyGames)
But Arkham City also added these worthless ones. (Image Credit: GamesRadar.com)
This gave was freaking fun! And collecting the cards was awesome! (Image Credit: FFShrine.org)
Leave it there, Edward, it’s not worth it! (Image Credit: CheatCC)
Don’t bother Ezio, just go find a Hen and pluck the feathers off! (Image Credit: GamesRadar.com)
In a game with overpowered relics as a focus, you have useless ones to find! (Image Credit: GamesOver.com)
Really Alan? You need coffee this much?

The Weekly Puzzle – Firebaaaaaargh Not Again!!

Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.

Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every once in a while I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!

Last week I presented you with a fun puzzle-y scenario, three in fact and they’re still open. Go check them out and let me know what your solution is!

This week’s puzzle is from one of my favourite games of all times, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In the Dark World’s 7th dungeon, Turtle Rock, you come up to a room with a pit, two doors—one of them locked—a railway track and a bunch of unlit torches. With the help of the Cane of Somaria you create a platform on the rails to light the torches floating over the void. The problem is you need to use the Rod of Fire and the torches don’t stay lit for very long.

issue10-1
This place, first friggin’ puzzle and it stumped a lot of people!

This can be a frustrating puzzle but I love it just because of that reason. It’s the last ‘traditional’ dungeon—the next one, Ganon’s Tower I consider ‘endgame’—the game it throws everything it has at you, to stop you from rescuing the last maiden, Princess Zelda, and this starting puzzle is a perfect example of how intense Turtle Rock is. The Rod of Fire takes a big chunk of magic per use and the torches light out quite fast, so you need to figure out the right moments to light them with as few blasts as possible and still get to the door before the torches die out. It takes some good thinking, a little strategy and some luck!

A Link to the Past has many fun and engaging puzzles. Hell, the entire Ice Cave is one big layout puzzle, but I had to mention one of them and this was the most memorable one for me. How about you, any interesting Zelda memories?

Annoying Game Mechanics – Platforming

What are Annoying Game Mechanics? It’s those mechanics that when you encounter them you can’t help but groan. You’ve seen them at their best and worst, but a part of your is just, well, annoyed!

If you find the series name familiar, then you might remember it from its 1001Up days. But now, after careful and hard negotiations (not really, the 1001Up crew are lovely people), AGM has made its move to The Mental Attic. Hope you enjoy it here as much as you did before and make sure to visit AGMs former home as well!

This week the mechanic I’m having an issue with is Platforming!

I’m not talking about platformer games, not Mario, Sonic (no matter how bad some Sonic platforming gets) or even Shadow of the Colossus and Assassin’s Creed. No, what I mean is platforming in games from other genres. Most commonly, you see them in action adventures, to serve as a break from the adventure and/or action elements.

When done right, they can enhance the game’s experience by giving you an additional challenge to overcome or simply be a break from the overall gameplay and give you something fresh and exciting! The problem implementations are those that lack any form of challenge or more specifically the risk of failure. If there isn’t even a chance you might mess up, there’s no excitement possible. You’ve seen these, the obligatory climbing sequences on rails. If something bad happens it’s because you deliberately failed or it was scripted to happen, as the game attempts to use the platforming to enhance its cinematic side and not the game’s experience.

Then there’s Lazy Platforming, where your character does it mostly on its own, jumping over gaps and obstacles without needing your input. These aren’t necessarily bad but they are very tricky.

The staple of an annoying mechanic is that it’s seen both good and bad days. The following are some of the best and most disappointing uses:

Good:

  • Overall, the Legend of Zelda uses Lazy Platforming, but Skyward Sword gave it an interesting twist: Stamina. When you run, climb or performing any platforming you have to pay attention to your stamina. If it runs out you’re in for a long and painful fall or left out of breath and helpless, until it refills.
    • The Handheld 2D Zelda titles though have been using Active Platforming ever since Link’s Awakening, by means of a jumping item. Call it a feather or a cape, you often need to time and perfect your jumps to progress and really master them if you plan on collecting secrets.
  • Even with the Autograb feature, the LAU Tomb Raider games have amazing platforming because there is a great degree of challenge involved. You’re never just climbing, but also avoiding traps, making tricky jumps or even leaps of faith when the camera won’t do what you want it to. It keeps it exciting.
  • Even more so than the previous example are the Core Tomb Raider games, the ones developed by Core Design. In these the platforming was superb and without autograb you had to make sure the jump was spot on and collecting secrets was extremely challenging.
  • The Batman Arkham games use a mix of active and lazy platforming. Lazy for running and jumping but active for everything else, and in a game where everything is a hazard and everyone is out to kill you, the platforming damn well works. The best part of it is the gliding, a twist to platforming by giving you limited flight.
  • Speaking of limited flight, Soul Reaver invented that mechanic. Gliding as part of platforming was one of Raziel’s signature moves and possibly the hardest thing to master in these games.
  • In an already difficult game, Dark Souls keeps it going with some very tricky platforming. With varying running speeds and environmental hazards, the game will make you dread the idea of jumping a gap. But then again, Dark Souls makes you dread every other sequence as well.
  • InVerbis Virtus does platforming really well. Not only do you have your usual moving platforms but with the use of its spells, the platforming becomes another puzzle you need to solve. In this case platforming isn’t a break from the overall gameplay but it part of it.
    • Having said so, there is a degree of frustration when the voice recognition doesn’t pick up what you’re saying.

Bad:

  • Resident Evil, from the 4th installment onwards started using Lazy platforming and for what it adds to the experience they might as well have cut it out. Worst of all are the high-action chase sequences that are nothing more than quick-time events disguised as platforming.
  • Thief (not the original series but the reboot) is guilty of the worst kind of Lazy Platforming, the one that adds nothing to the experience. You’ll climb pipes and ledges in 3rd person but there are completely bland and could’ve been replaced with something a bit more exciting, maybe some grappling and climbing like they did in Far Cry 4.
  • The Castlevania Lords of Shadow series—excluding Mirror of Fate—also features plenty of worthless platforming, especially climbing sequences where you only press UP, before something big, dramatic and entirely cinematic happens.
  • Platforming in Devil May Cry is a mess and rarely works well. When it does it’s brilliant but more often than not it stumbles and just frustrates you. In this series’ case the problem mostly lies with the fixed camera, as it will often obscure the ledges or items you’re jumping towards. And as is always the case with fixed camera your directional input changes with the angles, making it even more frustrating!
Ugh…that jump…
Fly Link Fly!!
The zip-cord added a lot of challenge…and finicky controls
Stamina changed the game for Skyward platforming
These games had hardcore platforming
Pretty much how you’ll overcome any obstacle
Fixed camera angles and platforming do not mix!
At least these segments are short…
Just push the directional keys and you’ll get through this, no challenge whatsoever!

Annoying Game Mechanics – Flooding Puzzles

What are Annoying Game Mechanics? They’re those that when you find them you can’t help but groan. You’ve seen them at their best and worst and now they just annoy you on principle!

If you find the series name familiar, then you might remember it from its 1001Up days. But now, after careful and hard negotiations (not really, the 1001Up crew are lovely people), AGM has made its move to The Mental Attic. Is it permanent? Who knows, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy it here as much as you did before and make sure to visit AGMs former home as well!

For this relaunch of Annoying Game Mechanics, I’ve chosen one that I’ve recently seen while on my Classic Play series: Flooding Puzzles.

You’ve seen them in almost every game imaginable. Those sequences where you have to raise or lower the water levels to open new areas or to make puzzle-related objects float. Exactly what the puzzle entails depends on the game but it’s almost become a staple of adventure games, especially action-adventures.

My problem with the mechanic is there are so many things you can do with water: you can alter its states, shifting from gas to ice and back to liquid in a fantastic chemical puzzle; you can use water levels to fill containers for weight-puzzles; you can have a fire & water puzzle, where you use one against the other; piping puzzles to direct the flow of water in the direction you want, among others.

Yet despite those examples, and the many more I can’t even begin to imagine, the implementation we most often see in video games is using flooding. Now every time I see this mechanic, I instinctively sigh and think “not this again.”

The staple of an annoying mechanic is that it’s seen both good and bad days. The following are some of the best and most disappointing uses:

Good:

  • The Water Temple from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time defined this puzzle for the modern era. A sprawling labyrinthine dungeon where you must raise and lower the water to open new areas, reveal treasures and gain access to previously impossible to reach ledges and doors. The Water Temple is famous—or infamous depending on whom you ask—and is one of the hardest Zelda dungeons to date.
    • A close second is the 2nd Dark World dungeon in A Link to The Past, which also featured levers to raise water levels.
  • The Tomb Raider series loves this mechanic, but no other game does it more often than Tomb Raider Anniversary, with almost back-to-back water-level puzzles.
    • The first one is in Greece in the Poseidon room. A vertical shaft where you must raise and lower the water a few times to get a raft to the exact place you need it to reach a ledge. This one also involves a fair dose of box pushing, pulling and underwater levers.
    • The second one is the previous example on steroids, this time not a vertical room but an entire ancient sewer/waterway. With long drops that will instantly kill you and checkpoints at the most inconvenient locations and times, this is a pain in the arse to play to be honest, but it is well designed and has a right way to do it…and the way I did it the first time around.
    • The third one involves flooding an entire room, then lowering the water to shoot some scarabs to open grates and then re-flood the area to escape. It’s not really complex but flooding plus platforming make it interesting.

Bad:

  • The Resident Evil series is famous for using these,notasbrainteasers but time-wasters. Simple crank puzzles to flood or drain areas.
    • Resident Evil 2 has the perfect example: Go into a canal, arrange boxes in a straight line, raise water level and go through.
    • Resident Evil 4 is another perfect example. The sewers under Salazar’s castle have a flooded section and the challenge of it all is making it through the area and its many one-hit-kill enemies to the crank you need to drain the water.
  • Wet-Dry World in Super Mario 64 is not one of my favourites. The initial height of the water depends on how high you jumped into the level and you raise or lower the water with coloured crystals, seven of them in total and spread throughout the environment. It’s a pain to find the exact one you’re looking for and if the water level’s high enough, it’s going to be a long swim down to the crystal you need. Hope you don’t drown!

There are many more examples of this annoying mechanic at work, but I can’t list them all. Do you have a favourite flood puzzle, or one you just can’t stand? Let me know in the comments and be sure to come back in two weeks for another issue of Annoying Game Mechanics!

Gallery

(Image Credit: lparchive) Disappointingly simple is what you get from flood/drains in Resident Evil
(Image Credit: ScrewAttack) The Water Temple brings nightmares to many…I loved it.
(Image Credit: VGMaps) Check the layout of this!
(Image Credit: Stella’s Walkthroughs) The Sanctuary of the Scion has the 2nd biggest one in the game
(Image Credit: Sai’s Gaming World) The Poseidon Room, the first Flood Puzzle Anniversary throws at you!
(Image Credit: pimpmyshed) You never even see the waterfall, you just crank away!
(Image Credit: Nintendo64Movies) My least favourite level in Super Mario 64
The Poseidon Room Artwork
(Image Credit: GamrTV) These hateful things…

What Games have given me

Every day you read news about some psycho in some part of the planet killing people or doing despicable things and then fall back on “a game made me do it” or some other game-blaming cockamamie excuse. And every time they do it, the media and politicians and even religious leaders raise the anti-gaming torches and pitchforks. Continue reading What Games have given me