Difficulty level

Okay, let's say its Q4 2008 and Zelda Wii has been announced for a few months now.

Suddenly you win a contest from Nintendo to visit the developers of the game in Japan blah blah and so you go there, and everything goes good, you see the game running and get to ask Aonuma some questions...and then you're asked a question, without having actually gotten to play the game.

"Should we make the game very easy or very hard?"

Which would you pick?

Personally, I'd say very easy. An easy game can still be amazing. As long as it's well made, fun to play, long, and overall good, an easy game (even if it's very easy) is just as good as a normal difficulty game. Heck, Wind Waker is my second favorite Zelda and it's by far the easiest. On my second playthrough I only died one time and that was on the last floor of the Savage Labyrinth.

The game is still excellent though, best music in a Zelda, great dungeons, best story in a Zelda, best ending in a Zelda, excellent controls, best graphics in a Zelda and overall totally amazing.

On the other hand, ALttP. It is a good game from what I've played so far, good music, interesting story, good graphics for a SNES game, but it's just way too hard for me to enjoy. Instead of letting me play more and enjoy the game, I cannot beat it and so have not played it for weeks. It's my least favorite of the six Zeldas I own, PURELY because of it's frustrating hair pulling difficulty.

I would definitely pick very easy, although I prefer a "normal" difficulty.

But what about you? Please tell me.

P.S. Very easy would be around Wind Waker difficulty, and Very hard would be around AoL/ALttP difficulty.

I have to say, i like things pretty much the way they are. So my vote reflects that.

I do find the 3D games to be more difficult but i've played the older games to death. I was the first out of my mates when we were kids to finish ALttP with 100% completion. Still proud of that today. ;o

Originally Posted by Hylian #1

I do find the 3D games to be more difficult but i've played the older games to death.

Really? I find the GBA games to be harder. It may just be me, though.

Anyway, I'd prefer the game to be hard. There's been enough "easy" and "normal" games to last me a lifetime, for the GC/Wii. OoT was pretty hard for me the first time around, but only because I was so new to games at that time. TWW was a let-down, and was considerably easy. TP was okay, but it could've been harder.
All I'm saying is that I prefer harder games over easier ones. It's not so much the dungeons, as it is the bosses. They're all just too easy. You figure out their tactics, and it's an almost guaranteed win. They're harder the first time, only because you have to discover the solution to their defeat. Then, the second time playing through, I almost always wish the bosses were harder. If they would just do that, I'd be satisfied.

I would pick VERY HARD, just because Zelda is a challenging game. If there was no challenge in Zelda, like running through the temples and such...it just wouldn't be Zelda anymore.

I think that even casual gamers and young people can handle tougher games than what the Zelda series has been offering lately. I would advise that they up the difficulty a little. Of course, who knows how tough it'll have to be to please the hardcore Zelda community?

Nintendo should make a difficulty setting with at least three options: Beginner, Veteran, and Master. The harder the difficulty, the more intelligent the enemies are, the more damage enemies deal, the less hearts you get, and the less linear the game becomes. Why Nintendo continues to avoid difficulty settings with all their franchises besides Metroid baffles me. One difficulty does not fit all gamers.

Making a game less linear to go with changing difficulty settings might be too tough for the people working on the game, but I think lessening the appearance rate of hearts and having the enemies deal more damage according to difficulty level would be the best way to go about it. I think the reasons they put the difficulty levels in Metroid because they perceived it to be a more "hardcore" game. (Doesn't explain the "Wii Would Like to Play" commercials. I didn't mind them, but...wrong audience, Nintendo. -_-; )

Kee- Fire Emblem also has multiple difficulty settings.

Like I've said elsewhere, if they're going to do such, they'll probably only add it to enemies. If they were to try and redesign the entire game (puzzles, exploration, platforming etc.), it'd basically be like making two games, which would require quite a bit of development time. I find it very unlikely that anyone would do that for a game as large as Zelda, but simply making enemies more agressive, more durable, and more dangerous is certainly not that much of a hassle. Of course they'd have to be careful with bosses, since they can't make it where the fight would be too drawn out.

Personally, I'd like to see them create the entire game around a difficulty for the hardcore Zelda fan, and then simply make an option available at the beginning that is an easier form for it, for casual gamers; more hints, weaker enemies etc. Seriously, what could be more simple to design than that?

I say hard. The harder a game is, the more satisfaction you get out of beating it.

Originally Posted by Twilightwolf64

I say hard. The harder a game is, the more satisfaction you get out of beating it.

Not if you can't advance, like ALttP.

There is no way I will ever beat ALttP, ever. Even if I get past the second boss, I'll surely get stuck in another hard part.

As long as I'm having a ball, I wouldn't care what the difficulty level is.

I chose either, as long its good. It really doesnt matter to me, but people blame the difficulty lvl for why TP sucked, and IMO it has nothing to do with it. and btw, TWW isnt the easiest zelda, it must be TMC, also very short

If it had to be EITHER very easy or very hard I would lean to having it be a harder game. I blazed through TP with almost no snags at all. I want a game to get progressively harder. A great example of this is Super Metroid (which if you haven't played it, I highly recommend getting it off the VC.) in which the farther I've gotten into the game it has taken me more and more tries to kill each boss with the exception of Ridley. But that's only because I've killed him in both Metroid Fusion and in Metroid Zero mission so I know him well. A harder game will take you longer to finish so you get more for your money's worth.

I want the game so hard that it makes me cry.

Wait... that sounds really wrong...

Originally Posted by NintendoTogepi

Not if you can't advance, like ALttP.

There is no way I will ever beat ALttP, ever. Even if I get past the second boss, I'll surely get stuck in another hard part.

Well, if you can't beat the second boss in ALttP, you just plain suck at playing Zelda games.

Personally, I think the Beginner mode should be Twilight Princess level difficulty, Veteran should be ALttP/LA difficulty, and Master should be almost unfair like Zelda I and II. I'd most likely enjoy the Veteran difficulty since I do not enjoy Zelda II due to its insane difficulty.

Yes, very good discusion here. I would have to say, what I would want is...

Begginer: TP's difficulty, but with more automatic hints.
Veteran: OoT's difficulty mixed with LttP's. Enemys and bosses are smarter, harder, and hints are rare and optional.
Master: This has to be unlocked by beating Veteran. Imagine AoL, but harder. No hints at all, changed/harder puzzles, and bosses and enemys are insain.

That, is what I want. And emphisis on the changed puzzles. I want another second-quest.

Perhaps an option which lets you change the difficulty level? Maybe like Halo with Heroic and Legendary modes.

It kind of has to be ''hard'' because if it was too easy people could beat it in less then a day ect and then the game would be done and then the player would be bored.

Originally Posted by Mirren

Kee- Fire Emblem also has multiple difficulty settings.

Like I've said elsewhere, if they're going to do such, they'll probably only add it to enemies. If they were to try and redesign the entire game (puzzles, exploration, platforming etc.), it'd basically be like making two games, which would require quite a bit of development time. I find it very unlikely that anyone would do that for a game as large as Zelda, but simply making enemies more agressive, more durable, and more dangerous is certainly not that much of a hassle. Of course they'd have to be careful with bosses, since they can't make it where the fight would be too drawn out.

Oops, didn't see this post. Sorry, Mirren.

You are right about making the game less linear. It would be like making two seperate games, so I guess it would be best not show those hand-holding cutscenes that tell you exaclty what to do in the harder modes. It will make the game feel less linear.

Personally, I'd like to see them create the entire game around a difficulty for the hardcore Zelda fan, and then simply make an option available at the beginning that is an easier form for it, for casual gamers; more hints, weaker enemies etc. Seriously, what could be more simple to design than that?

I like this idea!

Eaither way a game is a game when it has some hard dufficulty.