I’ve been sincerely leery about picking up the new Zelda game for the 3DS, "Majora’s Mask 3D."
Typically, I’d be all over it. I love Zelda — the lore, the characters, the stories. I own a copy of “Hyrule Historia,” the book detailing the past games and finally giving us a definitive timeline of the series. My work lanyard ends in a Jesus piece-esque logo from Wii U's “Skyward Sword.”
I even have the gold Zelda 3DS, which took two hours standing in line at a Target a couple years back after Thanksgiving dinner (never doing that again). Long story short, I’m a big fan of the series.
The last Zelda game I finished completely was “Oracle of Seasons,” made by Japanese developer Capcom, which landed on the Game Boy Color 14 years ago.
There have been others: “Twilight Princess” for the Wii, “Ocarina of Time 3D” for the 3DS and more recently, “A Link Between Worlds” which came with my 3DS system. They have all been started. They have not been finished.
I ought to include role-playing games as well if we’re talking about adventure games. The last one of these I saw through was “Final Fantasy IV Advance” on my Game Boy Advance. That was 10 years ago.
My track record with this side of the adventure genre is marginally better than Zelda, despite having bought all of the Advance versions of Final Fantasy as they came out and finishing only one. Additionally, I recently started a new game of “Bravely Default” on the 3DS after hitting a wall with my original save file.
So, what’s my deal? Why can’t I sit down and clear out the beautiful and massive genre known as adventure? It’s simple: impatience. The games I mentioned have some great stories, and since I enjoy good narratives, I get hooked and want to see them through.
That drive turns to impatience when I’m faced with a go-anywhere, do-anything design approach, as it asks (and in some cases requires), for the player’s wanderlust to get the most out of it. For example, the Zelda series has hidden items and bonus games to play that greatly help main character Link. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Linearity in RPGs, with some exceptions, would make playing them pointless without the sense of adventure.
(Photo courtesy of Bethesda Softworks)I do have one exception to the above, however. “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” is a game that is well known for keeping players sidetracked. This is due to the near endless amounts of side-quests and side-stories that are all much more entertaining than the main plot, and the fact that there’s so much to see. Still, I’ve had the game for years now. That main story isn’t getting finished anytime soon.
Then there’s Pokemon, a series that, despite encouraging exploration, still gives you the chance to burn through the main story straight through. But they’ve gotten easier in recent years — I disappointingly cleared the 3DS X version over its release weekend with nary a scratch on my team of monsters.
I’ll say this: I’m scared to pick up “Majora’s Mask 3D,” because I know very well that I’m going to start it and not finish it. That copy would do better in the hands of someone who would finish it, and more power to them. To be frank, I’m jealous of that person. But that isn’t to say that I don’t like adventure games. I like them a lot. It’s fascinating to explore the big worlds built up around the character to find hidden items and talk to interesting people. I just need to get over this block of impatience, this desire to burn through a story as quick as possible. In the long run, it’s going to force me to miss out on some great games.
Reach the reporter at Damion.Julien-Rohman@asu.edu or follow @legendpenguin on Twitter.
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