2nd August 2005, 4:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 2nd August 2005, 4:34 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
Interesting take on it. Something that departed might actually be easier to do, as far as story and artistic freedom, if it just didn't have anything to do with the Zelda storyline at all. That said, you could actually do that right now if you could just get a team together. :D The reason it seems like a tough fit to me is, well, actually it really doesn't contradict anything but it would add elements that could restrict things in the future. What I mean is, you have made an interesting Final Fantasy style situation, where the very existance of the world actually depends on the state of the triforce. As in that game, altering the triforce (or in many FF games, the elemental crystals) has drastic consequences on the very way the world works. This is a lot more drastic though. This is something like the ending of Chrono Cross, with the entire world and all it's people being utterly remade into the modern world. Actually Illusion of Gaia ends in a similar way... Hmm... At any rate I always thought the world would be able to persist without the triforce completely. I had imagined a future event where the entire triforce, after being abused both by light and darkness (as for how light could abuse it, imagine too much depending on being able to just wish the world back to normal, and as a result, you start neglecting to save everyone, because you can just wish them back to life after all and there are more important things) is shattered and vanishes forever. The world was made before the triforce, so it could subsist without it, but the heroes would need to learn to live without dependance on the triforce (and by extension, dependance on the 3 goddesses).
Anyway, you also make an interesting storyline idea of Zelda vanishing completely due to the destruction of the triforce part the Zeldas of the world have always been alligned to. (Oh and don't think I didn't notice the idea that a world without any wisdom at all takes the form of modern society, brilliant joke on your part.) She may be a preselected vessel for wisdom and all, but from what I gathered it simply selected whoever was most alligned to wisdom at the time when one who isn't in balance grabs the triforce, so it could have been another, if it was in another time. I think by extension what I'm trying to say is that her existance probably doesn't depend on the existance of the triforce, but her preordained purpose kinda does.
No matter, anyway your idea has merit but to REALLY strike home as a "twist ending"... on the moon, you may want to more or less make up a whole new world. Imagine starting the whole game off where all the players assume that's simply the way the world is and the fantasy elements are something encroaching on it. When it's revealed the only reason the world is even like that is due to a catastrophe in a fantasy world (of your imagining), it could really do a better mind warp than one who already thinks from the start "this is a ZELDA game, it's not supposed to BE like this!".
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Moving along, I think I'll try and expand on my ideas for a story. I've kinda humored it for some time, but it's basically set in something RESEMBLING the present day but set in the kingdom of Hyrule. I'll sort of bounce around here so pardon the mess. They might still have a king or have gone on to some other leadership, whatever, but if I ended up making the king into a president, at this point it might be seen as... well cheesy.
So anyway, setting it in something like modern day has only one real purpose, giving Link, or whatever other character I may have in that game, access to new kinds of gameplay. Think of the technology they added in certain parts of other Zelda games purely for the purpose of gameplay. They put a phone on Koholint for example, simply because it was the easiest way to give you access to Uncle Ulrira. Well, I suppose they could have had HIM in all the huts, following you around, but this worked too.
Anyway, Link could drive around and have to manage actual traffic. The traffic part of things wouldn't really be an option if he was riding a horse. The idea would be some high speed chases, action movie style, only it'll actually be fun because you are doing it. As for the look, I'm not thinking suburbia at all. What I'm thinking is an interesting artistic style take on an "alternate present". I always loved the look of those very roman temples in Zelda 2, so I was thinking all the buildings could resemble that in their design. That means a lot of roman style collumns. I only have a rough idea for the look, but the idea is that it'll almost look like a magical version of our present era. Speaking of, magic would still be commonplace, because it's a Zelda game. I'm just a little sick of the whole "rediscovering magic" story archetype anyway. From here it could play out like standard Zelda, only very highly populated with all those old dungeons being tourist attractions, or else just roped off as too dangerous. I'm thinking the villian, just because I love shadow Link battles, could basically be someone resembling Link at least in build and fighting style. In a weird way, a very courageous lad who's just plain "not afraid to do what I want for MYSELF, no matter the odds". Basically, someone bouncing around rooftops who loves a dangerous situation, but really is a very selfish person anyway. This is a result of me wanting to constantly fight "against myself" style battles throughout a game, and only with a character who isn't the sort to sit around plotting in the background, or hide in some uberfort, can this be done.
My main man could be Link, but perhaps I want someone distinctly non-Link. I dunno, I might want a new species with unique abilities I plan on using the whole game, but really the idea is that this guy may have a different personality. Maybe this hero is actually sort of a coward with little self confidence, but is strong in wisdom. Someone who has to figure out how to be brave by the end of it all. Eh, the courage thing doesn't matter, but the wisdom thing is because I really would like to be able to design some tools in a Zelda game. Perhaps I could actually do some background manipulating of things on my own eh? I think that might be fun... Anyway, the idea is that it wouldn't be Link both because it would be odd to have that outfit in that era (if I had everyone wearing like jeans and stuff) and the personality might strike most fans as "totally not Link". I don't know, haven't really thought that out yet.
What I can say is it's growing though, and eventually I might just ditch Zelda as the basis completely.
Anyway, you also make an interesting storyline idea of Zelda vanishing completely due to the destruction of the triforce part the Zeldas of the world have always been alligned to. (Oh and don't think I didn't notice the idea that a world without any wisdom at all takes the form of modern society, brilliant joke on your part.) She may be a preselected vessel for wisdom and all, but from what I gathered it simply selected whoever was most alligned to wisdom at the time when one who isn't in balance grabs the triforce, so it could have been another, if it was in another time. I think by extension what I'm trying to say is that her existance probably doesn't depend on the existance of the triforce, but her preordained purpose kinda does.
No matter, anyway your idea has merit but to REALLY strike home as a "twist ending"... on the moon, you may want to more or less make up a whole new world. Imagine starting the whole game off where all the players assume that's simply the way the world is and the fantasy elements are something encroaching on it. When it's revealed the only reason the world is even like that is due to a catastrophe in a fantasy world (of your imagining), it could really do a better mind warp than one who already thinks from the start "this is a ZELDA game, it's not supposed to BE like this!".
------
Moving along, I think I'll try and expand on my ideas for a story. I've kinda humored it for some time, but it's basically set in something RESEMBLING the present day but set in the kingdom of Hyrule. I'll sort of bounce around here so pardon the mess. They might still have a king or have gone on to some other leadership, whatever, but if I ended up making the king into a president, at this point it might be seen as... well cheesy.
So anyway, setting it in something like modern day has only one real purpose, giving Link, or whatever other character I may have in that game, access to new kinds of gameplay. Think of the technology they added in certain parts of other Zelda games purely for the purpose of gameplay. They put a phone on Koholint for example, simply because it was the easiest way to give you access to Uncle Ulrira. Well, I suppose they could have had HIM in all the huts, following you around, but this worked too.
Anyway, Link could drive around and have to manage actual traffic. The traffic part of things wouldn't really be an option if he was riding a horse. The idea would be some high speed chases, action movie style, only it'll actually be fun because you are doing it. As for the look, I'm not thinking suburbia at all. What I'm thinking is an interesting artistic style take on an "alternate present". I always loved the look of those very roman temples in Zelda 2, so I was thinking all the buildings could resemble that in their design. That means a lot of roman style collumns. I only have a rough idea for the look, but the idea is that it'll almost look like a magical version of our present era. Speaking of, magic would still be commonplace, because it's a Zelda game. I'm just a little sick of the whole "rediscovering magic" story archetype anyway. From here it could play out like standard Zelda, only very highly populated with all those old dungeons being tourist attractions, or else just roped off as too dangerous. I'm thinking the villian, just because I love shadow Link battles, could basically be someone resembling Link at least in build and fighting style. In a weird way, a very courageous lad who's just plain "not afraid to do what I want for MYSELF, no matter the odds". Basically, someone bouncing around rooftops who loves a dangerous situation, but really is a very selfish person anyway. This is a result of me wanting to constantly fight "against myself" style battles throughout a game, and only with a character who isn't the sort to sit around plotting in the background, or hide in some uberfort, can this be done.
My main man could be Link, but perhaps I want someone distinctly non-Link. I dunno, I might want a new species with unique abilities I plan on using the whole game, but really the idea is that this guy may have a different personality. Maybe this hero is actually sort of a coward with little self confidence, but is strong in wisdom. Someone who has to figure out how to be brave by the end of it all. Eh, the courage thing doesn't matter, but the wisdom thing is because I really would like to be able to design some tools in a Zelda game. Perhaps I could actually do some background manipulating of things on my own eh? I think that might be fun... Anyway, the idea is that it wouldn't be Link both because it would be odd to have that outfit in that era (if I had everyone wearing like jeans and stuff) and the personality might strike most fans as "totally not Link". I don't know, haven't really thought that out yet.
What I can say is it's growing though, and eventually I might just ditch Zelda as the basis completely.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)