Forgetting a Legend?
As the Zelda series continues to grow in length and the demands for the game become greater and greater, I sometimes have to step back and wonder if the gamers themselves are forgetting much of what the series is about.
I have grown up around the Legend of Zelda series. My parents played it when I was younger. It wasn't until my twelfth birthday that fate would have it that the toy store would not have the latest Mario Gameboy game and that I would instead choose Link's Awakening. Back then, it was all about the swords and the love of puzzles. The mystery and the intrigue. Even saving a beautiful princess on the side with unknown magical powers. Artwork danced around these concepts, especially for A Link to the Past: Seven maidens trapped in crystals. You, the last of the bloodline of heroes. The day of the great Cataclysm. And then, a lone, forgotten blade that only you have the power to withdraw from its moss-covered pedestal. Something remarkable, right out of a King Arthur legend.
Back then, concepts of timelines didn't occur to us. In fact, we were lucky if we knew that a next Zelda game was even planned. It didn't matter. Delayed gratitude seemed to make the victory of Ocarina of Time that much sweeter.
Today, forums are filled with screaming fans as they blast and flame Nintendo for deciding to work on Twilight Princess a half-year longer. It was approximately a five year wait between Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time. And now people can not wait for more than a year after the release of both Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap?
And people no longer seem to care about the magic and mystery surrounding the games. Timelines, a constant desire for facts, and an almost overpowering obsession over graphics and gameplay. Yes, while these make up any good game, I still miss the days, and perhaps I'm being a little old school in saying this, when the game script was maybe one page long and you relied solely on the game instruction booklet to fill you in on what little storyline there was. I find it interesting to note that aside from LA, which had two pages, all of the "classic" Zelda games' instruction manuals were at least five pages long, if not longer. Whereas Ocarina of Time had only one and a half, and Majora's Mask had a sucky poem that asked more questions than answered them.
Wrapped up in game quality and quantity, it has become all a little too obvious to me that the Zelda community now misses something. As a webmaster of MCLoZ, I have posted up on my site many of the favorite images that I have that I felt represented the games as a whole and sent a certain thrill down my spine. I can no longer count the many cold e-mails I have received from visitors who wish I would create an all-Twilight Princess layout. I'm not interested in one game that's not even released. I'm interested in all the games. And not just for the graphics. I miss just sitting there exchanging midis with a good friend over the internet and talking about how these tunes sent shivers down our spines. Perhaps the song was from the ending to A Link to the Past, or perhaps it was something simple such as the theme for Animal Village from Link's Awakening.
The aura of the games is something I fear that the Zelda community has lost and will never find again.