Zelda Is-Ought

02/12/15

I'm not a fan of Zelda in its current form. Though, I haven't played the most recent Zelda, for the 3DS, which I hear does lots of things I wish Zelda would do.

My favorite Zelda is the first one. It wasn't always my favorite. My favorite, like many others, used to be Ocarina of Time, and for a short time I really appreciated Wind Waker. But when I went back and played the original, there was something really quite amazing about it.

From the very beginning, you are free to try what you will. Almost the entire game world is available to you, there are very few walls in place that only crumble when you've done something specific. Specifically, one dungeon requires an item from a previous dungeon (the raft), and the final dungeon requires all pieces of the triforce. Other than that, almost anything can be tackled or found in any order. It is only the player's ignorance and lack of skill that will hold them back.

This is the only Zelda game that does this. With every sequel, less and less freedom was so openly trusted to the player. Only recently, with A Link Between Worlds, am I aware of the Zelda Team even purposefully making the dungeons playable out of order.

Until recently, this was my argument that Zelda games ought to be more like the first one. I would also argue that sales-wise, the only game that sold better than the first Zelda was Ocarina of Time, and that's incredible considering the first Zelda was an unknown entity and sequels got the free marketing of being a Zelda game.

But recently I watched an episode of Game/Show that mentioned the Is-Ought problem. The Is-Ought problem was a thing I was aware of, but I didn't really understand what the problem was until this episode of Game/Show.

Basically, you can't take what something is and derive from it what it ought to be. And that's exactly what I was doing with Zelda. Which, now I understand isn't fair. Lots of people prefer Zelda as it is now. Maybe more would like the Zelda I prefer, but the evidence for that is flimsy at best.

And if I'm so confident a Zelda following the old philosophy would do well, maybe I should make my own.