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Zelda: Link Between World gets Hero Mode, 90 staffers involved in development
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Good stuff, wish I could choose from start tho
Holy Order Sol
Member
These things don't exist?
Not picking up boss heart containers is how I've been doing it since SS. Keeps exploration and sidequests worthwhile.
Though you could that while playing Hero Mode too.
Still wish I could play Hero Mode from the start but I expect to play through the game more than once anyway.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Hero mode being an unlockable doesn't bother me. Many people may never play a game more than once, but traditionally Zelda games get replayed again and again down through the years by fans.
Wind Waker, Hero mode at the start was for the die-hard fans who had already played it so many times and would be even more bored by the default difficulty.
Besides, given the experimental nature of this game I am not sure you'd want it to be very hard on the first playthrough due to having to experiment with dungeon orders and item usage. Don't forget, if you die while holding a rented tool, you lose it. That sounds like a bad combination for hardcore difficulty + first playthrough not knowing what to do and where to go.
Wind Waker, Hero mode at the start was for the die-hard fans who had already played it so many times and would be even more bored by the default difficulty.
Besides, given the experimental nature of this game I am not sure you'd want it to be very hard on the first playthrough due to having to experiment with dungeon orders and item usage. Don't forget, if you die while holding a rented tool, you lose it. That sounds like a bad combination for hardcore difficulty + first playthrough not knowing what to do and where to go.
A Link to the Past
Banned
Soooo you just don't enjoy challenge.
Coffee Dog
Banned
Or an awesome one? I'd love that. It would make combat more tense and give me motivation to upgrade my health.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I'm sure some would prefer it. I'm just pointing out this game sounds a bit different, whether it's unlocked at the start or not doesn't matter to me.
Exactly. I feel many are just posting their default response without thinking too much about it. It makes sense here to play through it once on the standard setting and then go for your hardcore run the second time through. It's a way to get two distinct playthroughs and keep them fresh.
Not artificially created challenge, no. Something's backwards if the player has to create their own fun.
Spieler Eins
Member
But it's the game that provides the new mode...
We were talking about reasons to play the game again after the 1st time, meaning after the mode unlocks.
Holy Order Sol
Member
I know people hardly even beat games once these days, but among those who do there are still those who would play through a game again even if there wasn't an unlockable mode anyway.
Well, that's what Hero Mode is. It's an excuse to play the game a second time. I suppose that's how Nintendo views it.
Poltergust
Member
I don't agree with this at all. In fact, I think a game that gives players options as to how they want to play it is designed very well.
Like those Super Play videos of NSMBU. Those were amazing to watch, and it's great that the game was designed to allow for that kind of play. That's the sign of great game design.
A game does not need to explicitly give you a reason to replay it if its design implicitly allows for multiple ways of playing it.
Velcro Fly
Member
I think the non linear dungeon order and hero mode give plenty of reason to replay. It's no Master Quest, but it's better than nothing. I'd take a hero mode on just about any other Zelda game as opposed to just nothing.
Incitemaybe
Member
Insane any of you would argue with less options.
If hero mode was available from the start, I wouldn't use it.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be an option for the myriads of other ways humans may choose to play the game.
If hero mode was available from the start, I wouldn't use it.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be an option for the myriads of other ways humans may choose to play the game.
It just occurred to me that the perfect way to balance wind waker is to not collect the boss heart containers.
I don't like hero mode because it inevitably makes the game about managing inventory and potions as opposed to actually being challenging. By removing recovery hearts the game just become a frustrating. It's why games like halo have an auto heal system - you have the challenge of battle but you don't spend your time doing busy work in between (traipsing back and forth for med packs in other fps games - recovery hearts are pretty much every where in zelda it may as well be auto heal).
But by avoiding the boss hearts, it's like you're getting more damage, but keeping the reward of heart pieces feeling substantial.
I don't like hero mode because it inevitably makes the game about managing inventory and potions as opposed to actually being challenging. By removing recovery hearts the game just become a frustrating. It's why games like halo have an auto heal system - you have the challenge of battle but you don't spend your time doing busy work in between (traipsing back and forth for med packs in other fps games - recovery hearts are pretty much every where in zelda it may as well be auto heal).
But by avoiding the boss hearts, it's like you're getting more damage, but keeping the reward of heart pieces feeling substantial.
What The Forest Taught Me
Member
What they also should have done was create the game in beautiful hand-drawn 2D with charmingly detailed sprites after the spirit of the original. Instead, they opted for a jagged, low-poly 3D aesthetic and some frankly ugly character models. In terms of visuals, it looks like a lazy effort to these eyes.
This. Hero Mode's nice, but it's no replacement for full-fledged map re-arrangement with different dungeons/enemy placements. And honestly, ALBW being the type of game it is (where Items and actual exploration may have more focus than usual) just BEGS for it, in my opinion.
When Aonuma and his crew are able to do the kinds that would finally be above and beyond what Miyamoto and Tezuka did back in 1986? That's when I'll likely be truly awed again.
Our stand alone DS games (Lock's Quest, Drawn to life, Scribblenauts) were about 30 people. 90 is a lot for handheld only.
Some AAA games aren't made with 90 people. I think Dishonored dev team was less than 90 (I could be wrong!)
abstract alien
Member
I hate replaying Zelda games, especially in the same generation. Guess I'll go hero mode some other time.
ridethepiggy
Banned
Not available from the start? Another let down for this game.
It is. For one ACIV is being developed for PC/PS4/XBOX1/PS3/360/WiiU. Zelda: ALBW is being developed for the 3DS.
Then it is a matter of whether the producer is counting QA testers, post production artist, contract developers, middleware staff, technical support, etc.
Actually a big differentiator can also be the cinematic production. I mean CG Production / Planning / Voice Acting / Recording staff alone can be in the hundreds. That's an issue Nintendo doesn't really deal with very often.
Silent_Ocarina
Member
I really don't like Zelda's implementation of Hero Mode at all. I don't even think Zelda needs difficulty levels. If they want Zelda to be reasonably difficult, I think it should show in the design of the dungeons and puzzles, not in the damage taken from enemies.
I've always hated the idea of a Hero Mode that lets you skip tutorials. Nintendo should be competent enough to design a game that seamlessly integrated tutorials in a way in which it wouldn't even be a big enough issue to create an entirely new mode to circumvent it.
I've always hated the idea of a Hero Mode that lets you skip tutorials. Nintendo should be competent enough to design a game that seamlessly integrated tutorials in a way in which it wouldn't even be a big enough issue to create an entirely new mode to circumvent it.
walking fiend
Member
Sure they are using those 900 to do something, beside tiddling tumbling; but at the end of the day, ALBTW is almost definitely going to end up being the better game.
But each to their own; I want to play both AC games and Zelda.
The staff for AC4 is 900 people??? Jesus Christ.
The credits to Fire Emblem Awakening list over 200 people and that's not even counting the voice actors and the localization team.
walking fiend
Member
3D Land had around 40-50.
Nintendo just isn't really that big; they are like 5000 big (that is like 5x of AC IV team), for all divisions expanding from hardware to software; they are one of the leanest companies in existence.
And I bet it will be 10 times more enjoyable.
Again. It's really arbitrary. For example, FIre Emblem used a lot of contract staff from outside companies. Generally when you do that you hire lots of people for a short dev time. Credits don't tell you how long or how much each person contributed. It also depends how many people you even feel like listing in the credits. You can just list a company or section sometimes instead of naming the 50-100 people belonging there.
NIntendo keeps their credits very short, as opposed to a SCE published game where every person from every SONY department of every country gets listed in the damn credits.
TheCongressman1
Member
In Zelda 1? Yeah, I always liked that.
Ugh - Miyamoto's quote about SS reminds me a lot of how he tried to ruin Sticker Star. Upending the tea-table sometimes works really well (Metroid Prime, Twilight Princess), but this guy seems to be off the mark more often than not meddling with other projects lately.
Then again, Pikmin 3 is one of the best games I've ever played so ¯\(°_o)/¯
Sticker Star's problem wasn't the lack of story. It was the sticker-based combat system.
It is hardly Miyamoto's fault.
Green Mamba
Member
Sticker Star's problems were both.
EDIT: And Sticker Star was, at one point, much more akin to the first two Paper Marios in terms of gameplay. It was changed because Miyamoto said it was too much like the GCN Paper Mario. He can fuck right off.
FreedomFighter
Member
I don't care about the art style anymore. The game is gonna be awesome to PLAY.
A lot of you guys are bitching about "hero mode" when nobody even knows what this new unlockable difficulty mode actually does. Aonuma said it's not like in Wind Waker, he didn't even call it "hero mode." He just said it's a more difficult mode. For all we know, they could've done new puzzles. We simply don't know yet.
Not really. Stickers and battle system were fine, the issues people had were the lack of rewards and experience that resulted from battling.
I always saw the coins as experience (as they alloy you to buy more powerful stickers and avoid some backtracking), but I can definitely see and understand why it was a problem for most.