Exploration and Rewards

This topic started its life as a pool about the proportion of Heart Pieces and Heart Containers, but seeing the implications it would bring(such as number of Heart Pieces to form a Container and the very own number of dungeons the game offers), I'd like to propose the following argument:

How would you make exploration fun, rewarding and a reason to come back to after the game being finished in the following Zelda game for the Wii?

Is increasing the Heart Pices to form a Heart Container enough? Simply take out the Heart Containers from bosses? Make it half a container? Return with a sticker book that allowed you to collect bits of story from the characters and the world, much like the Bombers' Book, allowing for even more side-quests and physical world exploration per se? Perhaps even make Magic more relevant and useful, while obeying the player to explore for Magic Containers or something like it?

I perceive this point as not only one of the most important gameplay mechanics of any free-roaming games, but also a huge part of Zelda's foundation that's not talked about half as much as I believe it should. The waning of that feeling of rewarding exploration has been a considerable problem with the series and I would like to see how the community would solve it.

Thank you for your attention and, if you'd like and may, please leave your ideas

One thing I would have liked TP to do is take a page from Okami and, instead of all those rupees, there would be different "treasures" inside those chests, which you would have had to sell for money. Some of the treasures would give vague hints about Hyrule's past that made you think.

Of course, this would merely be an aesthetic change, and it wouldn't really have affected the gameplay, but it would have made exploration far more interesting.

wat dubble a said would be cool

maby only need 3 peices of heart to make a container

and maby have little quests that u dont need to do but there fun and some how make the game easyer?(this may only work if the game is realy hard)

maybe have every enemy randomly drop a little sheet of paper, and you have to take those papers they drop to a person in castle town or something and have them desypher(spelt wrong) it. then you would have more info on the enemy. (kinda like a navi except not as bothersome to some people. also kinda like the nintendo gal in WW)

I made a thread about this a little while ago. A couple, in fact.

Anyway, back on topic. I think that you should be able to customise and "upgrade" link. You should be able to find spells and weapons as rewards; if you do not need a weapon, you can sell it as loot. Spells could be found as books. You could perhaps also find ancient scrolls and documents that could be translated to provide backstory and lore, like in metroid prime. Perhaps you could find enchanted jewellery that could power up link by making him stronger, letting him take more damage etc.

That said, I don't want Zelda to become some Borderlands or Diablo type game. Loot should not be the sole focus of the game.

Hey, remember the Rings from OoA/OoS? I thought those worked out pretty well as interesting rewards.

Something they need to do is Item upgrades. Like the Big Quiver in Twilight Princess, but more advanced.

You could do a sidequest that upgrades your Bow into a Longbow, or gives your Clawshot the ability to latch onto more stuff.

For me, Zelda doesn't have enough optional items. TP had the binoculars, but that was it.

I'd like to see more magic spells and items that are just useful to have around and not have a whole dungeon focus on them.

Just saying...

EDIT: Again, I feel just plain bizzar saying this, but I like Double A's suggestion as well.

Originally Posted by calc84maniac

Hey, remember the Rings from OoA/OoS? I thought those worked out pretty well as interesting rewards.

i started a thread that was talking about bringing the rings back, and what people thought that it (how you could improve them to fit in ZWii, for instance). Judging on the people who post in the thread, they generally thought it would be neat to bring back the rings back. ^_^

Not every secret place needs to have a reward. If you feel no need to explore unless you'll get a heart piece, then you don't have the true nature of an explorer. I loved Twilight Princess's exploration in that, while the prizes were more often then not useless, it was fun to find the places, and fun just to hang out there. Not everything needs a prize.

Originally Posted by King KK

Not every secret place needs to have a reward. If you feel no need to explore unless you'll get a heart piece, then you don't have the true nature of an explorer. I loved Twilight Princess's exploration in that, while the prizes were more often then not useless, it was fun to find the places, and fun just to hang out there. Not everything needs a prize.

it might be cool to hang out there if it was like a multiplayer game, and chill with your friends or meet new people. but if its not multiplayer, then why would you even want to hang out there? you would just stand there and look at the graphics basically. boringgggg.

I think that the sidequests in Zelda are fine. They just need to give better rewards, so that the player has more incentive to persist with them.

I'd like a Poe Soul-esque sidequest in the next Zelda where the reward is a secret dungeon.

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Originally Posted by King KK

Not every secret place needs to have a reward. If you feel no need to explore unless you'll get a heart piece, then you don't have the true nature of an explorer. I loved Twilight Princess's exploration in that, while the prizes were more often then not useless, it was fun to find the places, and fun just to hang out there. Not everything needs a prize.

Then they need to make the secret places look better. They were pretty damn dull in TP IMO

@Double A: Exactly. Most of the mildly secret places were very uninteresting, offering almost nothing to be seen. I remember liking to go around looking for Gossip Stones with my Mask of Truth in order to learn stuff from the universe I was in. I agree entirely with Double-A in that some of those itens could offer you insight on the world's story while still being available for seeling. Maybe keep a "log book" with the records of those items.

@King KK: I agree entirely and share the point of view. However, what can lead to some frustration is that, like it or not, you're probably going that way hoping to FIND something. When you don't, you not only feel like you should've been rewarded, but I, for one, am left wondering if there really is nothing there. What follows is a bomb-fest, trying to break a wall, shoot an arrow at some precise spot or something. What I feel is needed is some minor reward that would make me go "oh, ok, great, that's what was in here."

Rupee usage was somewhat well-conceived in Wind Waker. I mean, it's miles behind other RPGs, but heck, it's the one Zelda game in which it actually matters to some extent. Wind Waker already had something in the cooking, with the Tingle-charting.