The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

[SuperLink]

I'd like to see Oracle Ganondorf but perhaps only in flashbacks or legend or something, I really don't think Ganon should return to fight the same Link three times, that's harsh.

[Dantemustdie00]

Yeah I liked to see a new villain that ain't Ganon or Vaati this time.

[SuperLink]

Yeah I liked to see a new villain that ain't Ganon or Vaati this time.

What's the issue with Vaati?

 

I'm not saying he isn't overrated (he is a little) but it's nice to have a recurring villain who isn't Ganon; plus he isn't dead in this timeline yet.

And the last few Zeldas have had original villains. In my opinion ST and especially PH had quite weak villains (except Chancellor Cole he was fun), so I do worry that Nintendo would make a really uninspired generic villain like those guys again.

 

I wouldn't be against a new villain so long as they were a really good villain.. but I also wouldn't have anything against them reusing another villain besides Ganon to give them a little more canon importance. How about drawing the Dark World and Twilight Realm in somehow? Or a different incarnation of Demise? Or holy crap what if (if they decide to bring the Master Sword back) we had Fi and Ghirahim returning with Ghirahim as Fi's Dark World counterpart? I wouldn't say no to that at all There are lots of neat possibilities and it's a good opportunity.. so I'd be kinda sad if we were stuck with generic evil beast #3453 like Malladus or Bellum.

 

Also for what it's worth, Veran and Onox were both pretty good villains, especially Veran.

Edited May 2, 2013 by SuperLink

[Octarine]

Actually... Onox claimed that he was from the Dark World, didn't he? Not that I expect it to happen in a million years, but that there could be a way to work the Dark World's return in with that somehow, with another giant dragon boss as the punchline. I couldn't argue with that.

 

...though that might spoil the "Onox and Veran were actually Twili" theory, which has always been a personal favourite of mine.

[SuperLink]

...though that might spoil the "Onox and Veran were actually Twili" theory, which has always been a personal favourite of mine.

I love that theory too.

 

I'm still under the impression that LttP2 is set before the Oracle games rather than after, it might explain how Link lost his memory of Zelda (that's a nitpick but eh)

But if it was set after those games and LttP and had Onox and Veran, I think I'd be ok with that too.

 

However Nintendo don't seem to reference or even appreciate Capcom's Zelda games all that much? So maybe they won't get any reference here either.

[Salamander]

Hey, I'd never heard of that unused Oracles Ganondorf design.  It is pretty interesting...

 

 

Onox, at least, claimed that Twinrova had summoned him from "the Dark Realm."  But that's the only time it's ever mentioned (a probably separate Dark Realm appears in Spirit Tracks).  Maybe it might be a good idea to retcon that into the Dark World and claim that the Golden Land remained corrupted after Link retrieved the Triforce - after all, as noted above, the Oracles show the Triforce not in the Golden Land but in Hyrule Castle...

 

I'd also like the villain to not be Ganon, dorf or otherwise, and since they probably can't have gotten that near to the story or the final boss when the game was still in the remake stages, then it seems like there may be hope for at least an original chief henchman, even if Ganon does show up at the end.  Since Twinrova are still around in this timeline, and definitely alive up to the Oracles, then if the game does take place before the Oracles, they'd be perfectly-positioned to be the villains - especially with the Oracles games on the eShop to introduce them to newer fans.  Hmm.

 

Actually, that reminds me of an idea I had earlier.  The painting gimmick is easy to forget, but it is very interesting and clearly important, and probably rooted in the story in some way.  Aonuma also said that this ability was inspired by Phantom Ganon's ability to enter portraits in OoT.  So maybe there is an attempt to revive Ganondorf using some kind of magical portrait?  Maybe even a painting with some sort of connection to the now-extinguished Dark World, in which Ganon's spirit still exists?  That seems like a good way to keep the "past" gimmick in (even if it's actually irrelevant and not even in the Japanese title).  You could then have a title of something like "A Portrait of the Past," retaining the titling convention of naming each game after its key gimmick whilst linking to the original title.

[WarioBone]

I would absolutely love to see Veran and Onox return, but this "them being Twili" theory is interesting...I'd like to read up on it some.

 

EDIT:  Well, that was fruitless.  Every link was just to a bunch of people saying "No this is a stupid theory fuck you".  So whatever.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Waribro

[Octarine]

The full weight of evidence for the theory is that Veran is blue and has an imp form like Midna and Onox looks a little like a burly Zant, which is to say that there really isn't any at all. It's a cute idea, though, isn't it?

 

...if you were really desperate, you could probably even take it a step further and say that Veran and Onox actually are Midna and Zant. The Oracle games and Twilight Princess do have a few other odd parallels, after all, like Maple and Beth.

[WarioBone]

I think it's safe to say that they took inspiration from Onox and Veran, but everyone seems insistent that they ARE Onox and Veran.  That's insane.

[Salamander]

I must have missed the part where a Twili's true form was that of an immense dark dragon, which was the case with Onox.  His humanoid form was a total sham.  Veran's true form looks more like a corrupted Great Fairy, which I find to be a far more compelling origin story, too.  It'd be nice if ALttP2 shed a little more light on the idea of a "Dark Realm," which could perhaps be the persisting existence of the Dark World, but I simply don't trust Nintendo not to claim that it's been once again cleansed/vanquished forever at the end of this game.  They've emphasised often enough that they put story second after gameplay, but I find the retreading going on here particularly depressing after they made story such a key element of their previous game, Skyward Sword.  Anyone who's played ALttP will know it all already.

[SuperLink]

Twili are pretty messed up, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had "true forms" of crazy natures like dragons and.. weird frog things like Veran.

 

But I really don't think they're Midna and Zant, that's grasping at straws a little. I don't mean to white knight, but it's really not in Midna's character to be all evil like that. I know that in this timeline, Ganondorf took over Hyrule which probably had some kind of negative effect in the Twilight Realm, but still.

[Octarine]

Yeah, it's pretty goofy. I gotta say, though, I could deal with just about any character derailment if it meant fighting a giant dragon-Zant at the end of Twilight Princess instead of another sword fight with Ganondorf~

 

It'd be nice if ALttP2 shed a little more light on the idea of a "Dark Realm," which could perhaps be the persisting existence of the Dark World, but I simply don't trust Nintendo not to claim that it's been once again cleansed/vanquished forever at the end of this game.  They've emphasised often enough that they put story second after gameplay, but I find the retreading going on here particularly depressing after they made story such a key element of their previous game, Skyward Sword.  Anyone who's played ALttP will know it all already.

 

I think there are a lot of things, even from a gameplay perspective, that could be done with the Dark World if they're not too afraid of deviating from the original. ALttP handled the concept decently for a first attempt, but we've had more than 22 years of Zelda games with "two worlds" at this point, and most of them have improved on the concept considerably. At this point, I think giving us at least a few more tidbits about how the Dark World functions would probably go hand-in-hand with a focus on improving the gameplay; there's a lot of potential there for some great parallel-world puzzles that the original never really tried.

[Salamander]

We can only hope, but alas, I'd far rather have seen it in an original game rather than a glorified remake.

 

...Hmm, I wonder if it's just Link that can turn into a painting.  Can he take blocks with him?  And surely there are existing paintings that he can enter and manipulate to achieve some effect?  Maybe the Dark World in this game is such a painting, from which Ganon's servants wish to summon their master?

 

Don't misunderstand me here, I really, really want to be wrong about this game being a rehash, and usually I'm really open-minded about Zelda games (I seem to be about the only person in the world who liked the Temple of the Ocean King, for instance).  It's just this one that really let my expectations down.  I guess I should've paid more attention in 2011 when Miyamoto said he wanted to remake ALttP.  The signs were all there, I just didn't think they'd do it!

[Detective Shadzter]

Zelda: A Link To The Past 2 features a massive surprise that will shock players - Aonuma
Eiji Aonuma also reveals it will run at 60 frames per second
http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/50376/zelda-a-link-to-the-past-2-features-a-massive-surprise-that-will-shock-players-aonuma/

[SuperLink]

Zelda: A Link To The Past 2 features a massive surprise that will shock players - Aonuma

My hype just broke through the roof in a single moment

[Marcello]

The surprise is Ganon's return. That would be a massive surprise.

[Salamander]

Link's a prince and the son of LttP Link/Zelda?

 

You're actually playing as Zelda dressed up in Link's clothing?

 

Ganon's back?

[Jolt_TH]

The surprise is that the game isn't any different from aLttP

[Maple the Witch]

I wonder if this game is going to screw up the timeline that's in the Hyrule Hystoria book.

[Salamander]

Actually, wait, here's a far more promising quote from the same article:

 

"Rather than forcing elements of the original story into this one, we've instead focused on bringing back the characters, so you can see what happened to them after the events of the first game."

 

...Granted, I don't know how many characters from the original I could actually name.  Zelda, Link, Ganon... the king... Agahnim... Sahasrahla?

[SuperLink]

I wonder if this game is going to screw up the timeline that's in the Hyrule Hystoria book.

I mostly doubt it, since it's a published official work Nintendo probably feel a bit more conscious of it than usual when making a game fit into a timeline. Skyward Sword also showed a lot of consciousness about what was after it.

[Octarine]

Actually, wait, here's a far more promising quote from the same article:

 

"Rather than forcing elements of the original story into this one, we've instead focused on bringing back the characters, so you can see what happened to them after the events of the first game."

 

...Granted, I don't know how many characters from the original I could actually name.  Zelda, Link, Ganon... the king... Agahnim... Sahasrahla?

 

The, uh... the flute kid? The maidens? The fat fairy? The dwarves? Link's uncle?

 

One of my biggest problems with A Link to the Past was that the characters didn't have a whole lot of personality. I've been hoping that this game will imbue them with some of that modern Zelda charm, so that sounds like they're on the right track.

[WarioBone]

"Rather than forcing elements of the original story into this one, we've instead focused on bringing back the characters, so you can see what happened to them after the events of the first game."

 

WAIT, so no Dark World?!

 

Unless that's more of a gameplay element.

 

Which it probably is.

[Patticus]

Um, I'm pretty sure they've already confirmed that the Dark World is returning. I might be wrong, though.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Actually, wait, here's a far more promising quote from the same article:

 

"Rather than forcing elements of the original story into this one, we've instead focused on bringing back the characters, so you can see what happened to them after the events of the first game."

 

...Granted, I don't know how many characters from the original I could actually name.  Zelda, Link, Ganon... the king... Agahnim... Sahasrahla?

 

This can be taken a host of different ways. It could mean that the characters will end up a bit more fleshed out from their one to two-note portrayal in the original, but it could also mean something as simple as "Hey, you know that flute guy? He runs the shop now! Crazy huh? ...Now get back to scrounging around bushes for rupees."