268: Hey, Listen, I Like Navi

[Testsubject909]

I'm neither in the Love her or Hate her camp.

I've learned early in gaming to ignore certain noises or to set them back into background noise. Navi never passed off to me as irritating because I could easily ignore her when I needed to and just focused on the task at hand.

That said though. I do remember her being useful, so +1 for her I guess.

 

[felixader]

While i laugh at the one or other Joke i actually NEVER hated Navi. ^.^

 

[Ravek]

Navi was fine. I missed her in the later games.

That goddamned owl, however! Gah, it was always so annoying. And woe to the player who was bashing buttons to get it to shut up faster, and ended up asking it to repeat everything it said again.

 

[illas]

The point that you make about Navi being the one constant in an ever-changing gameworld is interesting and insightful IMO.

I'd never thought about it before, but simply *knowing* that she will be there if/when you get stuck is made all the more significant by the absence of any other help. Furthermore, I can recall being a bit... disconcerted... in the moments before the penultimate Gannondorf battle simply because she wasn't fluttering around my head; though thankfully, the z-targeting system still worked

 

[ClanCrusher]

I can definitely think of worse sidekicks. I mean seriously, you never had to escort her, you never had to save her, she didn't sit in some room miles away while sending you advice via radio, and she didn't constantly order you around (she just pestered you with advice).

Off the top of my head, I can't think of many sidekicks who can claim the same. So thank you Navi. Thank you for being a great sidekick.

 

[Silva]

I'm with you here, Navi was the magic at the basis of the narrative in the game. Without her, I think OoT would've only had half the heart that it did. And perhaps, her conversion to Tatl in Majora's Mask, and the total replacement by Midna in Twilight Princess (save for the fairy's function as a targeting crosshair), seem to have taken exactly that heart from those games. I would've loved some continuity (though I know that this is a sin against the franchise's traditions) for Navi to have been in more than just that game.

There was just something special in the spirit of Navi's encouragement to you when you faced Ganondorf in the initial battle. Sometimes, less is more. And what little help Navi did give was enough to cement her as a memorable companion for me.

 

[TraderJimmy]

Wow.

I laughed so hard at "and I am bad at spaceships." - I can't even explain why but it still makes me giggle.

 

[Double A]

Every good thing you listed about Navi has been done in other Zelda games without her. You can z-target in Wind Waker, can't you? Along with none of that "Hey! Listen!" crap you have to put up in OOT. It's like if you argued Tingle was necessary to Wind Waker - of course he was, but did he have to be so annoying? No. He didn't. He could have been the Happy Mask Salesman and annoyed me less.

 

[Unesh52]

Spoiler

Wow, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed.

Oh NOOOOOOO!! NAAAAAVIIIIII!

Yes, I liked her too.

Does anyone else notice that Link's eyebrows are actually covering his bangs a little? It just struck me as weird.

OT: I also didn't mind Navi. Her voice is annoying sometimes, and she has ridiculous capacity to not tell me what I need to know, instead blathering on about whatever was in the last cut scene. And you can't just skip the dialog boxes, which confused me because she'll repeat herself ad nauseum if asked. And sometimes even when not. And generally she promises more than she can give, not really "helping" to get through a dungeon so much as to go "Don't forget that X needs us to get/kill/fix Z, so hurry up and figure this shit out!" In other words, she's useless as often as she's indispensable. But for that specific reason, I ignore her almost completely in every play through, which is why I just don't mind her that much.

However, using her for the lock on system and shit was indeed brilliant and intuitive, so I'll concede that she is at least one of the better support characters over all.

 

[internetzealot1]

You're saying that I should like Navi for treating me like a dumbass?

But, honestly, I had nothing against the Navi until I discovered the Internet "Hey, listen" is just a funny meme everyone can relate to.

Oh, but you're wrong about Slippy. Who else is going to scan the boss's life bar? No one.

 

[flying_whimsy]

I thought Navi was useful, but then they gave us Midna and it was like having a little well-characterized companion for all those lonely worlds instead of just our well-meaning-but-somewhat-distant mother.

Still, though, it's better to have one than go through a game world like that all alone as you do in all of the Metroid games; after a couple hours of Metroid Prime 3 I kept hoping a metroid would stick to me so I'd have someone to talk to.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

Loved the article

Never quite understood the hate against navi...

Oh and tat'l was a jerk. i forget how many times i was referred to being stupid by her [b/]but[/b] she had character growth and at the end she wasn't so bad.

Never have found a reason to hate either of the characters

 

[orangeapples]

Navi is essential to playing Ocarina of Time. At least on your first play through. But when you've played through the game 50bajillion times and you already know everything and are playing the game non-stop, I can see her being annoying.

But I love Navi.

Tatl was the annoying one. Tatl always assumed you had played through Ocarina of Time or you were some seasoned fighter. "You don't know how to fight this thing? fine, here's what you gotta do..."

Navi on the other hand was always, "This is the enemy, here's how to kill it. now kick its ass."

And to all of the HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!! LIIIIIIIIIIISTEEEEEEEEEN!!!! haters out there:
Navi will only say "Hey" on her own accord. She wont say "Listen" until you press ^c. SO her saying, "Hey! Listen!" is only 1/3 her fault and 2/3 yours.

 

[mikekearn]

No. You're wrong, and you're a bad person who should feel bad for writing this article.

The ultimate point of playing a game, beyond anything and everything else, is to have fun. Having that little bastard of a fairy screaming in your ear for hours on end is not fun. Therefore, she is an example of bad game design, and everyone should hate her.

 

[DeadEnded]

I like Navi, so much so I found a .wav file of her HEY! LISTEN! and set it as my text message ring tone. Drives my gamer friends absolutely crazy, especially when I get a lot of messages right in a row.

 

[Korten12]

She never got on my nerves but I found her useless, she always told me the obvious such as.

During the water temple before shadow link appeared I went to the other side of the room and saw bars blocking the door and then she told me "Their are bars blocking the doors." Really? thats all you have to say? >.>

 

[Andres Cyanni Halden]

THANK YOU. I thought I was the only one who liked Navi.

 

[Quaidis]

I enjoyed reading this.

And I liked Navi. At least I liked her far more than the Water Temple... But maybe not as much as I liked Sheik.

 

[Quaidis]

Odd... For some reason my last post never came in. Test, test.

Oh, there it is. Okay, ignore this one. This post never existed. Forget it ever happened.

Dammit, stop reading!