Zelda Producer Aims to Stop "Hand-Holding" in A Link Between Worlds

[StewShearerOld]

Zelda Producer Aims to Stop "Hand-Holding" in A Link Between Worlds

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma wants A Link Between Worlds to be a "game where it would be fun to get stuck."

Back in the day, half the fun of a Zelda title was trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do next. That feeling of being happily lost is something some might argue recent entries in the franchise have been missing. In turn, series producer Eiji Aonuma hopes to lessen some of the "hand-holding" in the series' next iteration, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and craft a game that returns players to a time where wanderers aren't necessarily lost.

"We wanted to make it a game where it would be fun to get stuck and be lost," said Aonuma. According to Aonuma, this goal has sometimes run contrary to many of the lessons the company has learned from the modern gaming market. "I think that one thing all game developers worry about when they're putting something into a game is, 'Will people notice it? Will people realize what they're supposed to do?' And we kind of have a bad habit of hand-holding, trying to make things easier for everyone. But more and more, I start to think that that kind of isn't actually that fun."

In turn, Aonuma has tried to guide the team making A Link Between Worlds to create a game that offers help for players who really need it, but also leaves enough ambiguity so that gamers will have the freedom to explore, get lost, and figure things out for themselves. "There's actually one area in the game where I fought for three days with my director over whether we should have a hint in there or not," he said. "As a result, after the end of that we actually decided to take it out. So if that part of the game is too difficult, it's my fault." Somehow we suspect there won't be too many Zelda fans holding it against him.

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/12/4829872/the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-eiji-aonuma-interview-nycc-2013>Polygon




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[Dragonbums]

Back in the day, half the fun of a Zelda title was trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do next

That was back then. Now if a game tried to do that, you would have a fuck ton of reviewers take points off the game's initial score for "poor" direction and confusing flow.

I'm not talking about Zelda games. I'm just talking about all games in general.


Hand holding is essential now. Otherwise a game that should of gotten an 8/10 would only get a 7/10 because the reviewer couldn't be assed to use their brain for 10 seconds and figure out themselves what they need to accomplish said task and how.

 

[evilengine]

there is a difference between not hand-holding and plain not explaining it. If the game actuals gives you plenty of clues as to where to go/what to do then it's ok, but don't blame me if I look at gamefaqs because I get stuck when I didn't pour the golden snicker juice at the base of the yoo-hoo tree and play the nightmare serenade on the tilly drums, when the game never tells you anything and you just have to take a wild guess. Hate that stuff.

 

[JediMB]

I would think the easiest and fairest solution, generally, is to either have a switch for Hint System: On/Off, or--instead of constantly nagging the player and pointing out to her/him what to do--you can have those nice little talking statues, like in OoT and (I believe) Link's Awakening, where the player can seek out hints on her/his own volition.

While I tend to always deactivate hint systems and such, I think it's important to recognize that different people have different capabilities, and it would be foolish to abandon part of the established audience for a long-running franchise.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Back in the day, half the fun of a Zelda title was trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do next

That was back then. Now if a game tried to do that, you would have a fuck ton of reviewers take points off the game's initial score for "poor" direction and confusing flow.

I'm not talking about Zelda games. I'm just talking about all games in general.


Hand holding is essential now. Otherwise a game that should of gotten an 8/10 would only get a 7/10 because the reviewer couldn't be assed to use their brain for 10 seconds and figure out themselves what they need to accomplish said task and how.

They would probably use words like "archaic".

I'm glad he's aware of it, i hope he continues this thought in the WiiU Zelda game. I'm still baffled that every single reviewer out there decided to praise the living hell out of Skyward Sword even though the game seems to assume that the player is dumb. There's good stuff in there, but it's ruined because they keep repeating everything and they keep stating the obvious.

 

[DaViller]

Well I applaud any game that goes the good old way of letting the player figure out shit on theyr own. Dark souls let you into the world with precisely this much information "theres on bell up and one bell down no go and get fucked up". Thats how you make a fucking game.

I had lots of fun with skyward sword when it didn´t treat me like I had a chromosome to much or to little and its good to see zelda try and move away from such bs.

 

[Genocidicles]

snip

But doing that would probably give us a situation like Skyrim, where it assumes you have the hints turned on and so never actually tells you where to go.

 

[The_Echo]

Back in the day, half the fun of a Zelda title was trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do next

That was back then. Now if a game tried to do that, you would have a fuck ton of reviewers take points off the game's initial score for "poor" direction and confusing flow.

Because it would be poor direction. It's not fun not knowing what your objective is. At least, not for me. I can handle being stuck because I can't do something. But I absolutely hate being stuck because I didn't know something, and that's even worse when nowhere in the game was I given the opportunity to find out prior.

Hand holding is essential now.

If telling the player how to play your game is considered "hand holding" these days, then yes I suppose it is. Really, it's always been that way. When you don't tell your player bugger all, you get a game like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

But personally I'd define hand-holding as an infinite tutorial. Something like how in Arkham Asylum simple actions are accompanied by an on-screen prompt ("Press A to hop over a wall") literally the entirety of the game. That's hand-holding. Or, even in Zelda itself, the characters Navi and Fi and their insistence on reinforcing the goals and information that might have been given to you just moments ago.

 

[JediMB]

snip

But doing that would probably give us a situation like Skyrim, where it assumes you have the hints turned on and so never actually tells you where to go.

Or we get situations like the Metroid Prime games and a few other titles where it wasn't a problem at all.

The developers just have to, you know, keep in mind that there will be people who play with the hint system disabled.

 

[Darmani]

It does seem some designs play more to reviewers or pr and public appeal as to the whole of the game.

 

[mew4ever23]

I'm in favor of not treating us like we were dropped on our heads as kids. Just as long as there's something to point us in the right direction, instead of grabbing, and pushing us there.

 

[Covarr]

My reaction to this is to ask, "How far back are you going?" A Link to the Past wasn't hand-holdy, but a smart player wasn't likely to get stuck trying to find the next dungeon, either. The original The Legend of Zelda, on the other hand, had ridiculously abstract puzzles without adequate clues, and it was kind of a pain for it.

P.S. THanks

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Just how un-hand holdy are we talking here? Are we just talking about abandoning the annoying support character that constatly flat out tells you what you're supposed to be doing and where to go whether you want to hear it or not, but like in LttP, still being given an indication of where you were supposed to go? Because I'm all in favour of that. However if we're talking like the Sierra Adventure Game un-hand holdy where you run around the world lost for hours, possibly days, and possibly dieing a lot; and the only way to figure out what the hell you're supposed to do is consult GameFAQs then no I'm not in favour of that.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Sounds awesome. The more I see and hear about this game, the more I'm interested!

 

[Dragonbums]

Back in the day, half the fun of a Zelda title was trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do next

That was back then. Now if a game tried to do that, you would have a fuck ton of reviewers take points off the game's initial score for "poor" direction and confusing flow.

If the game gave no hints, no clues, absolutely fuck all indication as to where you are supposed to go then yes, the game deserves to have points taken off the score.

There is expecting you to have god like powers in knowing what your supposed to do, and there is a game that drops you hints on what to do without being overtly obvious about it so it challenges your sense of intuition.

Professor Layton games(or at least the last one I played.) have got to be one of the few game series I can think of that doesn't hold your hand like your an idiot when it comes to finding out what to do next.

 

[hickwarrior]

Just how un-hand holdy are we talking here? Are we just talking about abandoning the annoying support character that constatly flat out tells you what you're supposed to be doing and where to go whether you want to hear it or not, but like in LttP, still being given an indication of where you were supposed to go? Because I'm all in favour of that. However if we're talking like the Sierra Adventure Game un-hand holdy where you run around the world lost for hours, possibly days, and possibly dieing a lot; and the only way to figure out what the hell you're supposed to do is consult GameFAQs then no I'm not in favour of that.

Really, I trust this guy with the experience that he has gotten over the years he made zelda games to not fail in it spectacularly. People don't like to be nagged every time, but they do like some clues as to where they need to go next. As to how they will remind the players, maybe they could just give you a map and make you mark things in a way understandable to you. I'd be all for that way of doing things.

EDIT: However, I do think this game might be grindy... From what I've read around here, you can access all the dungeons. But you have no way of knowing what you'd need to complete it. Hope they allow you to gather info about that at first.

Also, you need to know how high the prices of those tools will be. if they will be like 200 or 300 rupees per tool, that's going to get boring realy quick.