Five Zelda Fanboy Misconceptions (by Carl B.)

December 31, 2010, by Carl B. - The Legend of Zelda is by far my favorite franchise in gaming, and even most of the iNintendo Staff share the same sentiments about Nintendo's series. Not a single game in the series has failed to captivate me, but as much as I love Zelda I'm also able to see the shortcomings of the series, unlike many fans that spend their time on Zelda message boards. After years of being somewhat active in the Zelda community I've noticed a trend of several misconceptions these fans have about the series.







The Water Temple is Hard

It really isn't. The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time is one of the most straightforward dungeons in the game. It seems daunting because of the need to raise and lower the water levels on each of the dungeon's floors, but once players attain the Longshot it's smooth sailing from there on. Players can't even completely explore the different floors if the water level isn't on the correct setting. The only trouble I've ever had with the Water Temple is forgetting to get one key early on; when the water level is lowered all the way there's a block on the bottom floor that Link pushes to find a path leading to a room with a small key. I always end up skipping over it and not having a key to get into the room before the battle with Dark Link. A legitimate complaint with the dungeon is having to go to the pause menu to equip/un-equip the Iron Boots, but this is more on the lines of equipment system failure than dungeon design. The problem was fixed in The Wind Waker when they set the Iron Boots as a regular item and it will be fixed in Ocarina of Time 3DS with the touch screen controls. The Great Bay Temple in Majora's Mask is much more difficult.

The Games Have Tons of Side Quests

This one's close, but it's still a common misconception among Zelda fans. Majora's Mask is really the only Zelda game with a great number of Side Quests (in the form of the Bomber's Notebook). Spirit Tracks had a lot of Side Quests as well, which gives me high hopes for the replay-ability of Skyward Sword, but there wasn't a system to track what Side Quest players are doing or what is available like in Majora's Mask. Other than those two rare occurrences, the only things to do in Zelda games aside from the main plot is to collect Pieces of Heart, upgrade Link's wallet, or find the occasional Gold Skultula or sunken treasure. Twilight Princess offered more of these mundane tasks than previous games, but the payoff for completing them wasn't nearly enough. New Zelda games need true Side Quests similar to Majora's Mask or even extra dungeons. Imagine being able to download remade versions of classic dungeons in Skyward Sword instead of scouring Skyloft and Hyrule for magic bugs. That's true replay-ability.

The Games Have Great Stories and Character Development

Talks about comparing Zelda games to Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls games go on frequently, and they almost always end up with people agreeing that each of these franchises have great stories. That's not true for either of these franchises, particularly Zelda. The first two games lacked story due to hardware limitations at the time, which is fine, but no Zelda game has really had a deep or engrossing story. A Link to the Past had some cool back story thrown in there and Twilight Princess tried to give players a real meaning for continuing Link's adventure. What little story the games have is told fantastically, which is a blessing because the series doesn't need to be bogged down with 40 minute cut scenes or long portions of dialog. Nintendo really attempted to develop several characters in Twilight Princess and it only ended up to work with Midna. In Spirit Tracks they tried to form a relationship between Link and Zelda, and they even held hands at the end of the game, but I felt that was more of a fan service than true character development. The odd case is Majora's Mask which not only had great story telling like the rest of the series, but the game had an actual story to go along with it. The Anju and Kafei quest was also relatively compelling.

There's a Timeline

I'm aware that Eiji Aonuma confirmed the existence of a super-secret-confidential Zelda master timeline. Tons of great timeline theories have come out of the Zelda community in the recent years, but don't be surprised if the "master timeline" is an exact copy of the most popular timeline theory out there. When the series started on the NES there wasn't a timeline in place. When Ocarina of Time came out there wasn't a timeline in place. In all likely-hood, there wasn't a timeline in place until Twilight Princess. Nintendo had already messed things up with the way games would place into the timeline so much that most fans are unsure of where the Four Swords sub-series should be placed. Even then, the games seem to have some relevance to each other.

Majora's Mask is Underrated/is the "Black Sheep"

I see this on Zelda forums almost everywhere, and it always grinds my gears. There seems to be this massive misconception with many delusional fans that Majora's Mask is either a severely underrated game or is the "Black Sheep" of the series due to its time mechanic. The batch of fans that think Majora's Mask is underrated believe that it's shadowed by its predecessor, Ocarina of Time, so much that the game didn't get recognized for what it was. That couldn't be further from the truth. Majora's Mask is a critically acclaimed game, no matter what some 13-year-old on a message board tells you. Majora's Mask has a Metascore of 95, a 91.92% on GameRankings, and some people believe it's even better than Ocarina of Time. The second batch of fans haven't even played Majora's Mask, or they haven't played it extensively. These fans dislike the three day cycle of the game, but fail to realize that time can be slowed down and players can warp back to Day One at any point in the game. Link's rupees can even be stored in a bank in Clock Town before he warps back, so there's no worry about losing money. Only expendable items like arrows and bombs are lost, and they can be bought right away in stores directly across from the bank. More recently, GameFAQs users voted Majora's Mask to be the game of the decade. The only "bad" review was from GameSpot, who gave the title an 8.3, which isn't a bad score in any stretch of the imagination. Majora's Mask isn't underrated. It's not the "Black Sheep" of the series, either. The right is reserved for The Adventure of Link.