The Linearity Complex by Tazy Ten

I might as well post a rant.

Reading through the Zelda Forum, you can find that it’s no secret that AI and SD hate all the Legend of Zeldas that aren’t the first 3 or like the first 3. I kind of bring this to attention in one of the topics, but I think I came off as an ass. I shall remedy this is a Blog Post because I like talking behind people's backs It'll just be confusing to argue with AI and SD in the Zelda Forum some more. I’ll start with my opinions on the games that AI and SD bashed.

I’ve been playing Majora’s Mask recently, and so far I’ve enjoyed what it had to give me. It really challenges you to manage your time and figure out what to do and where. This includes having to spend entire 3 day cycles in a certain area waiting for something. I can see how it hampers exploration and it is a short game if you just breeze through the dungeons, but this is a completionist’s dream getting all those masks, items and solving everyone’s problems. You can see how Majora’s Mask is almost an Anti-OoT, since it emphasizes the NPCs over the exploration.

Then there is Wind Waker, which for all intents and purposes was an experiment on the Zelda series that was an average success. The Island placement was sub-par, and would’ve been an improvement to lump 3-5 islands on one grid piece. The triforce pieces did have a tint of enjoyment (particularly getting the maps) but the actual searching for the pieces was rather anti-climactic. It probably would’ve been better to have a small dungeon to fight through for the pieces, but I’m getting off topic.

I’m concentrating on the linearity, which is apparently a problem. Linearity? Bad. We need 10 or more choices within the first 30 minutes or it’s not worth it and not fun. I would much rather run around an EMPTY wasteland, not be told where I’m going or what I’m doing, find the 6th dungeon and get bum rushed by rabbits.

I don’t like non-linearity. With no objective or general direction of where to go, I’ll bop around randomly and sometimes try to push a square key into a Santa Claus Shaped Hole until I snap the game in half. I need DIRECTION. I don’t live in this world, I have no idea what the main character is thinking, I have no reason to go to one dungeon instead of some other dungeon and I will continuously drown trying to get into the boss room because I can sidle along the edges a bit. If you give me no direction, I have no direction of where to go. You all act as if non-linearity can be a deal breaker, when it can actually give the game more than it really needs. It can make a game empty, worthless and when you get right down to it, if you just want to run through the game and beat it quickly, is a CHORE. There’s a reason Bethesda includes fast travel in their games. There’s a reason not all games have wide expanses of green fields connecting everything. And there’s a reason Nintendo never did a game like Zelda 1 or 2 ever again .

In fact, non-linearity can be a sign of a bad game. With no direction, anyone could go an area that they can get their ass handed to them easily, especially if they need an item or clue that you get in the 3rd area. That’s terrible game design. I wouldn’t bother with such a s***ty game if it was by some worthless 3rd party. Back then, it was great design. You could complete the game in any order, and if you had the skill, get the Master Key and breeze through the rest of the game. Now? It’s s**t. We need some coherent storytelling, at least some characterization or a good intro, before I can even bother hopping into a zeppelin (which I could have avoided completely if I were thrown out of town with nary an explanation) and find the Santa Claus Key in the First Boss’s Vaginal Region. How would I know there was a Zeppelin in town that would fly me to the first dungeon? Sure, having NPCs hold your hand can be seen as the Game Designers yelling “Hey, Dumpy!” at you and pointing at the Zeppelin, but if NPCs are good enough, they can make up for any pushing the game does, and possibly make it better than any non-linearity could make up for. In fact, most great games put you on one path and lead you towards a single goal. Super Mario Brothers, Resident Evil 4, Ratchet and Clank, Half-Life 2, etc. are about as straight-line as you can get, and yet they are so fun that people find themselves playing it again. Meanwhile, you’ll play Grand Theft Auto maybe once, since you’ll probably play a long open-ended game the whole way and be done with it.

Non-linearity is not “perfect” by any stretch of the imagination, just like how linearity is not always dull, lazy, and not worth playing. Non-linearity can be just as dull, lazy and not worth playing, and linearity can be just as perfect. It’s everything else that makes a game good.

In short, please do not drop me in the middle of the desert with a sword and tell me to go find dungeons, I’ll just die of starvation.

K and thx
Tazy