Zelda news!

[Dark Jaguar]

Nintendarse, I agree. I loved LTTP because of how many items were put in there I had never seen before (and yet they kept the boomerang and bow, the non-ditchable items all Zelda games should have, though Zelda 2 lacked both and the Oracle games lacked one). It's not the main thing mind you, but it was cool to get something like the "hookshot", play around with it, and find yourself being hauled across a room. OOT was the same way with all it's cool new things like the boots and playing the ocarina instead of just using it. WW did recycle many items it seems, but they also added some, like what you mentioned, the deku leaf. It would be cool to see the next one have more unique items no one's seen yet.

Oh, as far as heart containers go, they have been a mainstay in every single Zelda game ever. Exploration has always been rewarded primarily with strength. New players tend to get lost and accidently go on mini-quests instead of main quests. Most people I see playing Zelda tend to have a very decent number of hearts by the end of the game without too much purposefull exploring. I mean, if health went up some other way, like experience, it would kinda ruin it for me. Now don't get me wrong, I don't really have that much of a problem with levelling up. However, I always MUCH prefer the idea of going on various quests and challenges to gain my strength to the somewhat redundant and even occasionally dull prospect of fighting over and over and over.

Rather, an idea for making things harder AND levelling the playing field would be total removal of those blasted hints, and it's not just the verbal ones either. The hookshot in WW REALLY killed the mystery of using a hookshot, which is finding out for yourself what things the hookshot can stick to, or wondering "hmm, is that the solution?". Instead, in WW we get the stupid target icon pretty much YELLING at you "THIS IS THE SOLUTION TO THE PUZZLE! STOP THINKING!". I KNOW it would have taken me much longer to figure out those wall masks could be yanked down if it wasn't for that icon shouting the answer to me as I scrolled by trying to hookshot to some other place. (Though, in all fairness, the idea of using the hookshot to pull something TO you to solve a puzzle WAS a very great puzzle. I just wish they didn't make it so obvious with the target thing.)

By including various new types of puzzles, using new types of items, and removing all the standard hint giving things (it wasn't TOO bad I guess with the fairies, but the various glaring signs in WW were just plain bad for puzzling). In fact, to let people have a challenge when they want one and hints when they want those, why not make it so the hints are things you have to actually seek out? Now Prime had one solution that worked out well (though I wish it was off by default as I have said, and LL probably thinks too), and Link's Awakening ALSO had a nice hint system (you had to solve OTHER puzzles to get your hints from stones). However, the best I've seen is in a game that really sucks but did the hint system right. Phantasmagoria (really cheesy game, cheesy story, cheesy puzzles, and for what's supposed to be a scary game you can't even die until the last chapter) used a "hint keeper". I think something like that should go into future Zelda games. Instead of something like a stone vibrating and annoying you into hearing the hint lest you go insane, it sits in the background, in the menu screen actually, never once telling you it HAS a hint, but it ALWAYS does and all you have to do is activate the hint keeper from the menu to get your hint. It's totally out of the way and you can even forget it's there, but it is for those who need help. That is likely the best solution. Amazing that such an otherwise terrible game would end up having such a great solution for levelling the playing field as far as puzzles go without totally spoiling puzzles for those who want NO hints (like my whole family when it comes to puzzles in games).