**Be warned that the following is a comparison between two games in the same series, and nitpicking at all the little things the game has issues with* I was thinking the other day: is all the hype over a sequel worth it? In just a few weeks, Halo 3 is coming out and will no doubt bring discussion on if it was on par with the original, or a outright poor end to the series. We have done this many times, and either had awesome results (Resident Evil and RE2), or very disappointing results (Halo 2's story when compared to Halo 1). Is it our own expectations that it should be just like the original, or modified so it has something new? With this, I want to take a look at a series that has generated a bunch of hype, and one I am very familiar with: The 3D Legend of Zelda games on consoles (Not counting Phantom Hourglass). First, you have Ocarina of Time: The one that started it all and was considered a classic due to its design, story, music, characters, and so on. Next is Majora's Mask, a game that built on Ocarina, but not try to surpass it. Its whole purpose was to be a side story that did not have much relation to the main storyline, but still have the same feel that Ocarina did. In my opinion, it was a success. Wind Waker was, and still is a controversial game due to its cell shaded graphics and overall flow. Plagued with development problems, consumer outlash against the product's direction, and trying to get it out before the Christmas season in Japan. The main one I want to compare, however, is Ocarina to Twilight Princess. TP is a interesting game, one that has many more bumps and bruises then other Nintendo produced games. The hype around it from the time it was unveiled was all around its graphics. The sure fact that the sequel to Wind Waker would not have the same graphics style was pretty much the only reason it was hyped as much as it was, sort of "returning to its roots" with Ocarina. Just to give you a general idea: it has been close to 9 years since a proper Ocarina sequel was made that fans would approve of. Then, we get into the development woes. It was first announced at 2004's E3, with little info besides the small trailer. Then we get to E3 2005 when fresh details came up: Its title, some minor plot details about Wolf Link, and some general things you could do. Biggest of all was a estimated 2005 release. Not only that, but this was also the year the "revolution" was announced, with no games or details on the controller. Then we get into late 2005, where the game was delayed until spring of 2006. No biggie, since Ocarina and Wind Waker had similar delays. Spring comes around, and we find it was delayed until well into fall. At this point, the game was going on 2 years of knowing about its development, with little details until 2006. Besides trailers and some screenshots on rare occasion, it never got the amount of media coverage Ocarina did. Then, E3 2006 comes around and we find out a major bombshell: the game will be released on the Wii at launch later that year. A game that was once meant to be a end to the series on the gamecube would be launched before the cube version itself to promote the Wii, a move that many were pissed off about due to buying a gamecube just for that version. Then, the game launches, and not long after that we find out about the development woes. We find out that the gamecube version was actually not being developed for some time, and that they were focused more on the Wii version. Not only that, but the polish the game has shows. Few side quests, the magic meter being cut, enemies and bosses that do little damage (The last bosses of the game only do about half a heart of damage, which is pathetic. Many enemies don't even do that much). Dungeons that varied on either high quality or just plain out a waste of time and rushed (Mostly the temple of time and the twilight palace, as well as Hyrule Castle). Few enemies, a plot that felt like something was changed dramatically in the middle and never rewritten (Mostly about Ganondorf), and little interaction with other characters besides Midna. In fact, lets focus on one of the main things the game was being hyped for: the overworld. It was once said that the overworld itself is 3 times the size of the one in Ocarina, which is quite true. However, there is nothing to do in that overworld. Barely anything to collect, 3 major villages in the game (with one of them having no purpose after the second dungeon), and no real sidequests. For example: Death Mountain in Ocarina had a bunch of stuff to do and collect (Heart pieces, two dungeons, the crater, getting the biggoron sword, magic upgrade, etc). In TP? A few pieces of heart and one dungeon. Even the sumo minigame couldn't be redone once you do it the two required times you needed to. There was pretty much nothing there. My point is this: games will always have hype, but will they live up to it? I am not saying TP is a bad game, I got a good 50 hours out of it by collecting everything. However, I just feel like the development was trying too hard to make it just like Ocarina, and then had development issues once they were forced to move it over to the Wii as a launch game (Which always kills any sore of development freedom by forcing a non-complete game to be ported over to a system in a limited amount of time).
I don't recall the overworld in OOT (The main part in the middle) have much for Side Quests, other than for getting Epona. But the TP overworld? I thought most of it was pretty good, except the reeeallly big one. There's just nothing interesting there. Nothing even worth exploring to be honest. Imo, SOTC has the best empty overworld of any game, if you can get past the load times and the fact that millions of years were spent on it alone. lol. But really, you can go out of your way and find some Ruin to go into, for no reason other than for exploring. I did that a bit in TP after getting all the items, but you can't really do much, that is, unless you have the infinite reach latch on to any surface double hookshot cheat on, which I really want to try.
The problem is expectation. When something is hyped and it is something you want you start making unrealistic expectations about how good it will be, how much an improvement it will be over past games etc. and you're going to set yourself up for major disappointment. Don't believe the hype! The last game hyped up that was worth the huge excitement for me was probably Mario 64. There have been plenty of incredible games since, but every one of them had something I could pick out as being slightly disappointing or not living up to my expectations.
Your right about Twiilight princess. It was just too linear for me. IT NEEDED SIDEQUESTS. In fact, OoT was also too linear for me, besides the Poes what really was there... And even twiilight princess screwed up with the collecting of the souls. I mean in the end... what the heck did it do? My first 3D game was Majoras Mask and for me that is my favorite (the mask collecting was just alot of fun). Wind Waker is my Second Favorite as the sidequests imo were simply awesome. Indeed I completed everything from the Tingle Tuner to the Photographs.
Also, I was expecting TP's story to not feel like filler material. Unless there is a direct sequel, that is. I was mainly expecting the games ending to be a big flood. Forget about the fact that WW had a different graphical style. Thats like saying none of the Zeldas share a timeline because the graphics change each time. And Miyamoto said there WAS a timeline. I agree on Ganondorf appearing pretty much out of nowhere. Though he did have some backstory in this game, its not until pretty fucking far into the game where you find out Ganon is going to be in it. I know Ganon usually appears in the end of each game as the "True" villain in lots of Zelda games, but in the 3-d games? The OOT Ganondorf you see worm his way up to the top, and you fight his Phantom versions. He then goes up in his Castle and plays the Organ all day, but it was pretty cool at the time. Then Wind Waker Ganondorf. Huge twist! He actually has emotions and feelings! ZOMG! He doesn't WANT to rule Hyrule now, he just wants to bring it back. Too bad he died. And then there's TP's Ganondorf. No personality, he probably even has less dialog than his A Link to the Past counterpart, and its all the same crap about "I have the Triforce of Power I cannot be defeated" thing. I think the better villain this time around was Zant, but he kinda went cuckoo for Cocoapuffs. All in all though, I'd still give the game a 9.0 or something around there. For comparison I'd give SOTC about an 8.0 (for a few reasons, mainly game related). It kind of felt like a big tech demo.
