作者：Joshua

任天堂总是电子游戏行业的佼佼者，但它们却无法，甚至不愿意效仿其它行业领袖的做法已一再影响其发展。

这会给《塞尔达传奇》造成哪些影响？虽然不少人认为该系列自成一种题材，但其中仍包含与其它电子游戏相似的元素。过去10年来，这些游戏已在许多方面获得改进，而任天堂的作品却始终如一。《塞尔达传奇》以自己方式引来万众瞩目，并向行业引进一种全新理念。比如《天空之剑》中的完美全动态控制模式，但在此过程中，任天堂错失了其它电子游戏开发商引进的创新理念。

在下一代《塞尔达传奇》问世前，任天堂应停下脚步，注意其它开发商的举动。采用创新模式固然值得赞赏，但并不是所有非原创理念都相当糟糕。

我希望下一代《塞尔达传奇》能包含某些特殊理念。

the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword(from geeksandgames)

设置令人难忘的故事

《塞尔达传奇》中的时间轴已不再神秘，但其故事仍平淡无奇。任天堂曾开发出令人难忘的世界与角色，但在我看来它们并没有给人留下深刻印象。“缺乏创见”最适合描述Hyrule大陆发生的事件。

而Hyrule大陆历史似乎在不断重演。我们已旅行多时，访问多个世界，并阻止恶魔一再复活。

问题是，任天堂并不注重故事元素。《Hyrule Historia》与Eiji Aonuma的评论表明，任天堂总着眼于玩法方面，而后才在游戏中添加故事。我并非认为玩法不及故事重要，但我希望，以后任天堂可以更注重故事设置。

幸好，任天堂似乎已意识到这个明显问题。我支持推出时间轴。我认为这样能使故事更加精彩。

此外，《天空之剑》也比以往更注重故事情节。其节奏设置也更加稳妥，总体上看，我认为任天堂在《天空之剑》的故事设置上已取得重大进展。但只有时间能够证明它以后是否会进一步完善。

当然，讲故事通常会涉及到声音。

配音的必要性

这已不是新颖话题，一直以来它都是《塞尔达传奇》社区的讨论热点，但我坚信，配音只会给该系列带来正面影响。游戏行业正迅猛发展，配音也是如此。不含配音只会让《塞尔达传奇》显得过时，令其故事索然无味。

最近我一直在玩《最终幻想XIII》。虽然事实上不少作品的配音并不出众，但仍有大量作品在配音方面表现出色，《最终幻想XIII》便是其中一例。作为典型的全新电子游戏，该作中的所有过场动画均配有完整声音。

多年来，有关《塞尔达传奇》配音的主要争在于Link是玩家而非电子游戏中的原始角色，如果赋予Link声音，而其效果可能会与玩家自己的想象存在出入。尽管玩家们并没有扮演同个“Link”，但此类争论也涉及Zelda与Ganondorf角色（有时针对所有角色）。

事实上，新《塞尔达传奇》中的所有角色（包括Link在内），都拥有各自个性与声音类型。优秀故事要求角色在某些方面有所发展。虽然该故事仍不够精彩，但如果其中角色不具备个性与情感，那各个游戏事件的趣味将不及一半。其中角色缺乏的主要特点是真实声音（游戏邦注：Midna与Fiare是特例）。

我认为，为角色配音会让玩家与角色产生疏离感是一个荒谬的说法。在玩《最终幻想 XIII》时，我并不希望Lightning与Sazh无法出声。相反，配音能赋予角色更多乐趣！

《塞尔达传奇》确实需采取配音举措，如果它确实添加了配音，我绝不会留恋那些无声的角色。

玩家便利性：保存与穿行

ss-saving(from zeldauniverse.net)

令我十分惊讶的是，任天堂并没有利用两种主要改变模式增加电子游戏便利性。过去几年来，任天堂一直致力于吸引新玩家，那它们为何会忽略掉快速穿行与自动保存的？

显然这要追溯到《塞尔达传奇》初作时期，那时的任天堂开辟了快速穿行举措。该作中总囊括更快的穿行渠道，但却一直隐藏在玩法机制背后。在某种程度上说，任天堂这种快速穿行方法确实是精妙的设置，但也具有不必要的局限性。

在《Fable》系列中，玩家可以打开菜单，访问曾经达到的区域。游戏内部会显示穿行时间。其它电子游戏中也包含类似的快速穿行系统。

fable3-fasttravel(from zeldauniverse.net)

而在任天堂的这种设置中，玩家没有可找寻的道具，没有可识记的歌曲，没有标志性雕塑。你的所有举动便是打开菜单，选择目的地。

另外，任天堂还忽略自动保存性能，也就是随处保存玩家记录。事实上，《天空之剑》似乎已倒退发展！它是《塞尔达传奇》系列中仅有的一款带有保存点的作品。在此之前，玩家已可以随处保存数据，但失败后只能从某个特定位置重新开始。

上述性能在电子游戏中已越发常见，它们均能为玩家提供便利，方便新老玩家更加容易地访问游戏。

后记

坦白讲，我还未真正体验过大量电子游戏，因此可能还是疏忽了某些《塞尔达传奇》应该增添的趋势与性能。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2012年2月18日，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Modern Game Design and The Legend of Zelda

by Joshua

Nintendo has a always been a leader in the video game industry, but their inability or unwillingness to follow the lead of others has repeatedly hurt them. Nintendo’s online presence is a common example.

What does this have to do with the Legend of Zelda? While many consider the Legend of Zelda series to be a genre of its own, the series still shares many similarities with other video game genres. In the past ten years, there have been many improvements to those similar genres, but Nintendo has appeared to ignore them so far. Instead, the Legend of Zelda blazes its own path and introduces its own innovations. Full-motion control were perfected by Skyward Sword, but in the process the game missed out on the innovations introduced by other video game developers.

Before the next Legend of Zelda game is released, Nintendo needs to stop for a moment and pay attention to what other developers are doing. Being innovative is great, but not all unoriginal ideas are bad ideas.

There are a handful of specific ideas that I would like to see in the next generation Legend of Zelda game. You have likely read some similar arguments in the past, but that doesn’t make them any less valid.

We have the timeline; now give us a story worth remembering!

The Legend of Zelda timeline is no longer a secret, but the story is still lackluster at best. Nintendo developed an unforgettable world with unforgettable characters, but they aren’t involved in many events that I would call unforgettable. “Uninspired” better describes the events in Hyrule.

Instead, the history of Hyrule seems to repeat itself. We’ve traveled through time, visited alternate worlds, and stopped evil from being resurrected over and over again.

The trouble begins with Nintendo not focusing on the story. Hyrule Historia included comments from Eiji Aonuma specifically stating that Nintendo has always made the gameplay their primary focus and added the story later. I am not arguing that gameplay is not important or less important than the story, but in the future I would like to see more focus on the story than is currently given.

Fortunately, Nintendo seems to have taken notice of this growing problem. I was an advocate of releasing the timeline. I argued that releasing the timeline would only make the story better, and I believe it has.

Furthermore, Skyward Sword focuses more on the story than ever before. The story could have been paced better than it is, but overall I felt Nintendo made great progress with the story in Skyward Sword. Only time will tell if they can improve it even further in the future.

Of course, telling a story usually involves speaking.

It’s past time: The Legend of Zelda needs voice acting.

This argument isn’t anything new, and it is regularly a hot topic in the Legend of Zelda community, but I am a firm believer that voice acting would have only a positive impact on the series. The industry is moving forward and voice acting is part of it. Not including voice acting only serves to make the Legend of Zelda appear outdated and makes the story even less interesting.

I’ve recently been playing through Final Fantasy XIII. While it is true that there are many games with less-than-great voice acting, there are just as many games with fantastic voice acting, and Final Fantasy XIII is one of those games. As is typical of newer video games, Final Fantasy XIII has countless cutscenes and all of them are fully voiced. In fact, I have not encountered any character dialog that is written even outside of cutscenes.

For years, the primary argument against voice acting in Legend of Zelda is that Link is the player–not a original character in the video game–and if you give Link a voice then he may not sound the same way the player would have envisioned. Despite not having the same “link” to the player, similar arguments are cited for Zelda and Ganondorf (or sometimes for all characters).

The simple truth is that the characters in recent Legend of Zelda games, including Link, have had their own personalities and voice-types. A good story requires that the characters have some kind of development. While the stories are still nothing amazing, the events of each game would not be half as interesting as they are if the characters had no personality and showed no emotion. The only major trait the characters lack is a real voice (though Midna and Fi are the exceptions).

The idea that players will become detached from characters who speak is ridiculous. I’m not playing through Final Fantasy XIII wishing that Lightning and Sazh didn’t have voices. On the contrary, the voice acting is what makes the characters interesting!

The Legend of Zelda desperately needs voice acting, and when it is finally added I won’t miss the silent characters for a second.

Player conveniences: saving and traveling

I’m very surprised Nintendo, of all companies, has not taken advantage of two major changes that have made video games more convenient. For the past several years, Nintendo has been working to attract new people to video games, so how did they overlook fast traveling and autosaving?

Granted, Nintendo pioneered fast traveling dating back to the original Legend of Zelda. The Legend of Zelda has always included ways to travel around the world a bit faster than normal, but it has always been hidden behind a gameplay mechanic. In some ways, it’s very neat that Nintendo has been able to justify fast traveling in this way, but it’s also unnecessarily limiting.

In the Fable series, players can open a menu and warp to any area that has already been visited. A certain amount of in-game time passes to justify the traveling time. Other video games include similar fast-traveling systems.

There are no items to find, no songs to memorize, and no statues to locate. All you do is open the menu and select your destination.

Another strangely missing feature is autosaving, or at the very least the ability to save wherever you are in the game (and begin from that point). Skyward Sword actually seems to have moved backwards! Skyward Sword is the only Legend of Zelda game with save points. In the past, players have been able to save almost anywhere, but could only begin playing again from specific locations.

Both of these features are becoming more and more common in video games, and both would give players conveniences that only make the games more accessible to both old and new players.

What did I miss?

Truth be told, I do not actually play a ton of different video games, so it’s likely I’ve missed some trends and features that ought to be added to the Legend of Zelda series.

Furthermore, I’m sure more than a handful of readers will have something to say about voice acting in the Legend of Zelda. Let us know in the comments!(source:zeldauniverse)