New Zelda to feature DVD-style chapter skip and video hint system?
Short answer: quite probably.
Clever internetters with too much time on their hands have uncovered a patent filed by Nintendo, which suggests the next Zelda game will feature an elaborate hint system involving players being able to view videos uploaded by other gamers, offering solutions to puzzles they’re stuck on.
Equally interesting is a new DVD-style chapter system, which will apparently allow players to replay certain sections of the game, and also offer the possibility for players to skip a section they’re stuck on, but only after a certain amount of time has passed. Thus, in theory, encouraging less able gamers to complete the game, while still giving them a chance to figure out the solution for themselves.
One of the pictures accompanying the patent strongly suggests that the game will be played in the third-person, and not - as some (ahem) have suggested - a radical change to a first-person perspective.
Strong rumours were afoot that the next Zelda would offer something very different to previous titles, and for this intriguing new structure to work, it looks like it could be a little more linear than before. It also suggests that the game’s puzzles will remain as brain-ticklingly tricky as ever, but that those without the time or the smarts to figure out the more taxing riddles will be more likely to finish the damn thing.
Potentially, this could be an intelligent, elegant solution to what Miyamoto perceived as a problem with Twilight Princess - he was disappointed in that game’s sales, and hinted that its epic length and difficult puzzles may have been off-putting for Wii’s expanded audience. With the option to turn hints and skips off for hardcore players, the next Zelda looks like the best of both worlds - a game which offers plenty to both casual and hardcore players.
So will we be seeing a new Zelda at E3 2009? The hype meter just got turned up another notch.
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January 9th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I’ve thought about this idea for years - imagine if you bought a book and got stuck so many pages in unable to finish the rest of it or bought a dvd and could only watch the first so many chapters - you wouldn’t be v. happy would you ! Theoretically this could make videogames much more accessible to people. It does worry me though that people are suggesting the puzzles in zelda, for example, are somehow hard - if any thing the last two iterations have just been way too easy - spoilt a lot of the fun for me. Now the old 2d versions - much harder. Please implement this and ramp up the difficulty too !