Zelda Begins — Day 2: Thought Process
November 22nd, 2006 by Pierre-Alexandre Garneau
I’ve got less time to spend on this game concept this week, so I don’t have a full concept at this point. I did spend some time on it however, so I decided to make a post about my current thought process.
To reinvent a classic such as Zelda, I think the best way is to seek what’s missing from the game. Good as it is, there are a number of elements that could be improved and questions that could be answered in that game. There’s one question in particular I’m thinking about:
Who Are Those People?
We know very little of the two main characters in Legend of Zelda. Who, exactly, is Link? They show him as some random farm-boy or something, but as soon as you give him a sword he goes slicing through hordes of monsters everybody’s afraid of. Something smells fishy here… How did he become such a killer?
And what about his family? I don’t remember ever seeing his mother or father — in Wind Waker you saw his grand-mother, but no mention of his parents. Suspicious again. You’ve got this guy who’s a prodigy with a sword and whose parents disappeared mysteriously. There’s something to ponder there.
As for Zelda, it’s even worse. Usually her only personality trait is that of a bubble-head damsel in distress. Why is it her legend? She usually doesn’t do anything. I’ve thought about making her the hero in this game — make it her actual legend, rather than the “legend of Link that’s credited to Zelda because she’s royalty”. In any case, I’d like to do something more interesting with her.
A More Realistic World
Another thing I’d like to try is to have a more realistic world. Zelda games are like fairy tales — everybody is happy, the whole population lives in villages with about 10 inhabitants, the king is wise, and so on. It’s fine for what they’re doing, but after so many games it feels like it’s lacking depth. The world doesn’t seem real, it’s just some abstract background created as an excuse for puzzles.
For this remake, I’d like to have a more realistic setting. The gameplay could perhaps be more open-ended, maybe more action-packed. While I want to keep icons of the series (sword, shield, bow and so on), I want to get rid of the stuff that doesn’t make sense. And change Link’s outfit a bit (hey, it worked for the X-Men) for one that doesn’t make him a gay icon. (I don’t have anything against gays, but men in tights just aren’t cool)
That means no more dungeons in unlikely locations that have no purpose except as a challenge to Link. Villages and towns should be bigger than 3 houses and a graveyard. People should be pissed at you if you go into their house uninvited to break their pots. You shouldn’t get your money by cutting grass with your sword. And so on.
So anyway, that’s where I’m at right now. The most concrete idea for a game I have right now is Prince of Persia meets Assassin’s Creed meets Grand Theft Auto, but I’m not sure what that means exactly, nor how to make that work on the slightly under-powered Wii.
You can proceed to flame me for destroying your childhood 
I believe the not detailing Link’s history is because they made a concious decision not to. If they detail a history that is too different from yours then you are less likely to identify with the character. There is a Miyamoto quote somewhere about it but I don’t know where.
http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2006/11/22/zelda-a-retrospective-in-six-parts/
I don’t know how much Zelda you’ve actually played but this is actually a pretty nice retrospective and shows how Nintendo has played with the formula a lot themselves.
It’s might not be Zelda anymore depending on what you want to change so that is why I was saying to do something original but I should have said “zelda inspired”. Have fun though.
Oh yeah, I’m definitely not sticking too close to the existing games. I don’t have to get Nintendo’s approval for this, so I’m having fun coming up with something more original, but still Zelda-inspired
And I agree about the reason for the lack of details about Link. That’s a good approach really, the same that’s taken in Half-Life for example. At the same time, it leaves some mystery that’s fun to explore with this project.
Thanks for the link