The Missing Link, or What's That Midget Doing Here? -
August 24, 2001 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot.
Speaking of weird stuff, why is Mario in a back brace?
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Good golly gosh, all the exciting news that's coming out as of late's almost enough to make me change my mind about retiring... almost.
I'm not surprised that Square's thinking of putting together an animated TV show, but I am surprised that it'll be anime, and not CG. Admittedly, their CG experience has tended more towards short, extremely detailed work, which doesn't always translate well into making much longer stretches of material, but I'd still think they wouldn't have had a problem putting together any number of half hour episodes with the look and feel of the FFT opening movie.
Still, they can undoubtedly sell any number of copies of an FF6 spinoff to ravenous fanboys, and if that helps them get over their financial losses from the movie, so be it. And if they can put some of what they've learned about plots in the past few years to good use on these new shows, so much the better.
Onward.
| Clarification |
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Yo Chris,
When you say you're weeping at Zelda, you mean bitter tears of joy, right? I mean, holy crap, who wouldn't want the chance to play a living, breathing Rankin-Bass cartoon? Add some rotoscoped Orcs and it's like Ralph Bakshi's taken over my damn GameCube. Dear lord, I'm in absolute awe.
But I'm sick of Spaceworld debates and tired of people tossing stones at one another over the merits of the new look for Zelda. My throwing arm's worn out, for one thing. So instead, let me ask a more serious question, one no doubt on the minds of every GIA visitor.
Where's the site's coverage of Virtual Hamster 4? I mean, this is Spaceworld week, and yet one of Nintendo's crown jewels goes unnoticed? I weep, and not the good kind of weeping like your Zelda joy. It's the bad kind, the one that leads to either fatal hyperventilation or violent crimes of passion.
J. Parish
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Who wouldn't want the chance to play a living, breathing Rankin-Bass cartoon? Guilty. My childhood fantasies always tended to look more realistic and subdued than bright and colorful; thinking of characters who have to live in that world, day in day out, gives me a tremendous headache. But this is one of those times when I can't tell if the devious Mr. Parish is being sarcastic or not, so I'll let it slide.
The one thing I can't understand is being "sick of Spaceworld debates"; the news isn't even 48 hours old, and I can't say I've seen an unstoppable deluge of Zelda letters, either here or on the message boards. There's plenty of time yet to beat this thing deep into the ground, believe me.
And as for Virtual Hamster 4...
Eh, what's the point of making a joke? It's ludicrous enough as it is.
| Who else wouldn't want to play a Rankin-Bass cartoon? |
| That's not Zelda.
That's the Black Cauldron.
Words cannot express my disappointment.
-JCC
Hey Chris,
I think this almost sums up my feelings on the Zelda GC topic...
- Jeff Davis, GIA editor in search of an RPG for GC
WHY MIYAMOTO?!?!?!?!
WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?!?!?!!?
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The flipside of this is that Miyamoto's doing exactly what he wants to do, and what he's always wanted to do with the Zelda games: recreate the childhood experience of wandering around through the fields by his house, pretending he was off on a mighty adventure. I think the disappointment comes from people (including myself) who have been there before and now wanted something else out of Zelda, something much closer to the darker, more serious adventures we got in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
But Miyamoto's clearly not interested in going where people like Kojima are going, and at the moment, I can't quite decide if I'm disappointed that his particular genius won't be trying to out do MGS2 in terms of realism, or relieved that not everyone's dedicated to bringing us intense, adult entertainment in the form of grim, to-the-death gaming.
| Hey, there was some sort of delay announcement, wasn't there? |
| Yo Chris,
I think that the delay of the GameCube could end up hurting Nintendo very
badly in the critical holiday season against the Xbox. It seems that
Nintendo wants to delay the launch so that they can have more systems
available. However, wouldn't it just be better for them to release the
system two weeks early and have less units at launch instead of waiting? It
seemed to work pretty well for the PS2, as it caused a huge fervor and the
hype lasted for months. I can't imagine that so many units will be produced
in that two week span that it'll be worth it for Nintendo.
And the Xenosaga trailer? I've been downloading it for over 24 hours now.
You've gotta love slow dial-ups mixed with slow servers.
--The Steve
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Both before and after the far more important news about Zelda came out, I couldn't be that bothered by this announcement. Who knows what Nintendo's up to, whether it's lessening the competition with the XBox, trying to increase launch supplies, or just reorganizing things to tick people off; it's only two weeks, and it's not that big a deal.
In fact, I can see an up side to it, for me and almost everyone else who's in school at the moment: rather than coming out right at the beginning of November, in the thick of the semester just before things start to ramp up on final projects, final exams, and whatnot, the GC is coming out the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which means I can pick it up and play it over that holiday week when I've got some breathing room, without it interfering with anything else.
| Miyamoto: a name you can trust since 1984 |
| Chris,
I've heard only extremely negative reactions to the new Zelda, and it all makes me wonder: what the HELL is up?
First of all, Miyamoto said he didn't want anyone to publish any screens yet. So the ONE that got through, well, it was a crappy-looking bootleg one.
All the people I've asked have said that the new art style looks 'retarded.'
'Why would they make graphics that look like THAT on a system so powerful?' people ask, brain-deadly, unaware that the single, glared, canted angle of a screen shot represents one frame out of the sixty that make up a second of Jet Grind Radio-kicking animation.
For another thing, if I've learned nothing else in half a life as a gamer, I've learned that Shigeru Miyamoto knows what he's doing at all times. If he were a product, that'd be his slogan: 'Shigeru Miyamoto: he knows what he's doing.' If I had any authority whatsoever, I'd promise you people that he's NOT going to let this game suck.
As for the issue of Link's age -- well, how old was he in the original Zelda? How about Link's Awakening? A Link to the Past? Those games, while featuring younger, super-deformed heroes, had plenty of ingenious material.
I know not a single person who takes the story to the Zelda games seriously. I mean, the original games had thirteen-page descriptions of the events leading up to the whatever of Hyrule or whatever, accompanied by a hot-glue model of a map of the kingdom, and I don't know a single person who took all that shit seriously.
As long as the gameplay is there, I think whatever Miyamoto has in store for the new Zelda will not disappoint. I mean, if the game is nearly as much fun as the whimsical and even slightly kooky Link's Awakening and/or Majora's Mask, how could the game not kick ass?
It's just the brain-dead 'mature' people, the kind who picked Zelda up at Ocarina of Time, because Link was 'grown-up,' who won't play it. I seriously wouldn't think you, Chris, were one of those people. I thought you were one of those people who could look beyond the exterior, and see the inner whatever. So stop crying, man. It ain't like Aeris got stabbed again or anything. There's to be no crying in the GIA.
Ahem.
Coincidentally, I bought Zelda: Oracle of Ages yesterday for $24.96 (yes, $24.96) at Wal-mart, then proceeded to Blockbuster, where I found Majora's Mask for only $15.
I was going to cut and paste a selection from the Gamespot VG forum, which I read like an addiction these days -- an addiction to stupidity, that is -- in which some guy rips on the GC for being delayed two weeks, saying he'll already have come to 'love' his Xbox by then, and be playing 'real,' 'mature,' 'grown-up' games like WWF Smackdown! 2 and Halo. Then, I realized that would be immature of me, to poke fun of those people, and point out their horrible grammar without pointing it out. I made a judgment call, and decided to be mature.
. . .
Okay, so I lost the link.
--tim rogers, wondering how coincidental it is that, in MSN's spellchecked mail editor, 'Gamecube,' 'Playstation,' and 'Dreamcast' get underlined in red, while 'Xbox' doesn't
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You thought Majora's Mask, a game which featured a firsthand view of the end of the world if you lost, was "whimsical"? Ok...
Did I take the game story seriously when it was relegated to a short introduction in the instruction book, which I only read because I couldn't get back to my Nintendo for a few hours? No. Did I take the story seriously when Ocarina of Time started featuring characters with interesting dialog, the specter of a world destroyed because you weren't ready to protect it, and more reversals than you can shake a stick at? Heck, yeah.
Will the gameplay be great? Sure, but by this point, I know what to expect, and I'd be very surprised if the puzzles in the new game were significantly better or different than what we saw in Ocarina. The gameplay will be great, and that's enough to get me to buy it, but not to get excited about it.
| Xenogears, Disc 2, Special Edition |
| Chris,
Man, it's only been about a day and a half, but I think I've done more arguing over the new Zelda than anything gaming related in ages. What's a little more going to hurt?
To get it out of the way, I personally like the new style. Looking at Miyamoto and his gaming philosophy, I must concur with the man himself in saying that he is much more suited to creating a more "kiddie" (if I must) game than what we saw at Space World 2000/E3. Miyamoto's games have always been fantastical, whimsical fare that lets you slowly take in the wonderment his worlds provide. That being said, while the N64 games were certainly darker than their predecessors, the difference wasn't major, and was hardly even noticeable at times. The simple upgrade in aesthetics that the GC offers only takes what was started to the extreme. I really don't think that type of mood and setting is something Miyamoto would feel comfortable creating. So, he simply takes the reigns of his project and turns into around in an attempt to make what he feels is the best game he can make. More power to him.
Unfortunately, his simple artistic decision seems to be opening up a whole can of "kiddie" vs. "mature" arguments. My stance? Really, who cares. I don't buy games based on their ESRB ratings, I buy what's good. Miyamoto games tend to be good (understatement), and I'm pretty confident he did what he did in an effort to make a better game.
Switching gears, no game tears me in half quite like I'm sure Xenosaga will. On the one hand, we have a game that will undoubtedly contain brilliantly done story and action sequences, complete with an engaging tale, and a cinematic quality as yet unseen in gaming. Watching the trailer, I honestly felt like I was watching an anime.
Therein lies the problem.
While I have complete faith that what's there will be golden, I can't help wondering just why the hell Monolith is making a game. It looks like we're going to have a fantastic story, and a fantastic cinematic quality that is jarred off balance by the occasional battle, or the ability to purchase items. It looks like its going to be Xenogear's second disc done better, but then again, does any gamer really want that?
Like I said, it tears me in half.
-Justin Freeman
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I think laying all that on the shoulders of Monolith is a little unfair; we haven't seen hide nor hair of the gameplay yet, likely not because there isn't any, but because at this point Xenosaga's best strategy is to get people hyped up about its plot, and that's exactly what the game's doing.
If we're lucky, given the copious amount of spaceships, robots, and guns we've seen so far, the gameplay will be a cross between ZOE and MGS, but worst case scenario, even if the narrative flow does look more like Disc Two, I'll still be ok with it as long as they get rid of the s...l...o...w scrolling text. Condemning a Xenogears game for having too much text is like condemning a Working Designs game for not being released with great haste; you know what you were getting going into, so why complain?
| Breaking free of the past |
| I don't get it... you DON'T like the look of the new Zelda? That's quite absurd... only two other games have I seen been so dedicated to creating a style wherein the images found were not takes on images already existing but their own: Final Fantasy VII and, of course, Grim Fandango. Cry watching the game industry mature and prioritize correctly if you want, but don't expect me to understand why...
-Mike
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Well, arguably everything borrows from something else, no matter how theoretically original it is; had more people played Jet Grind Radio, I'd expect a huge outcry at how Miyamoto was "ripping Sega off", although of course JGR had its antecedents, as did FF7. On the other hand, credit should be given to Miyamoto for throwing a curve ball nobody saw coming... albeit one that makes the argument of if Nintendo's innovating or just playing the same game over and over again more heated than ever.
| Return to innocence *Link proceeds to walk backwards...* |
| Alas, poor Link . . . I knew him, Chris. . . .
You're not the only one who was sent scrambling for the welcome sensory
deprivation of the nearest dark corner upon seeing Miyamoto's freakish
new take on Legend of Zelda.
Were this some experimental venture or an entirely new franchise he was
cooking up, it would be another story. But the way I see it, the
visual impact of the series has, over the years, evolved slowly and
naturally elsewhere. The darker waters Link stuck his toes into with
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask seemed--at least to me--a logical
progression. Not only was it the first time hardware was able to give
Link a believable adult form and Hyrule the living, breathing detail it
deserved, but we gamers who've been with the Hero since the NES era have
grown up. I suppose it seemed only natural that Link mature with us.
And I guess that therein, perhaps, lies Miyamoto's logic. Maybe our
turn with Link is over, and Nintendo sees the need for Legend of Zelda
to reinvent itself and for our Hylian Hero to be reborn entirely--for
all the kids who'll make their very first foray against Ganon on the
GameCube.
But, hell! Even so! Not only is he turning his back on we complacent,
trusting Zelda devotees with this drastic departure from everything
we've seen or were led to expect, but this little maggot Link just looks
oddly . . . I dunno, wrong; foreign. Totally absurd and outlandish
wielding that sword. Moreover, I suppose he speaks French in a bleating
little soprano and can summon a giant but gentle white dog named Belle.
I feel so betrayed, so used. . . . Hold me, Double Agent, and tell me
everything's gonna be all right.
~Erin "Zedelia" Mehlos |
Link does look quite odd, you're right, and it'll take some getting used to seeing the expressions on his face as broad cartoon emoticons: "He's scared! He's crafty! He's brave! He's in love!" I'd almost rather see the more traditional static portraits pop up next to dialog boxes than that.
More importantly, by your own logic, everything is gonna be all right... but for a new generation of 10 year olds, not the jaded post-Gen X gamers we've become. We grew up with Link, but Miyamoto clearly feels that the group who can best appreciate his work, artistically and perhaps financially, is a bunch of kids. And who's to say he's wrong?
Closing Comments:
Nich is in tomorrow, and you can email him about anything Spaceworld related that you like - except Zelda.
As the good people at Penny Arcade pointed out, there's a lot of other neat stuff on the system, everything from Mario to the luscious looking Soul Calibur 2. Zelda's not even going to be out for over a year, so for now let's tackle the far more important subject of how Spaceworld has affected your opinion about the Gamecube. See you Monday.
-Chris Jones, can't wait to play some Smash Bros. Melee while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner
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