Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Won!

Link journal entry 4 : The beast is down! I finally secured the eighth piece of the Triforce, gaining access to Ganon's Lair, which was by far the biggest and most dangerous place around. After a long trip in the labyrinthine corridors of Death Mountain, I was finally able to meet the demon. Thanks to the shiny silver arrows I found earlier in the depth of the place, Ganon only took a few hits to get and stay down. I saved the princess and the world, but I somehow have the feeling everything around here won't stay quiet very long...

Endings in NES games didn't lose time with unnecessary chatter, to say the least...

Yeepee, second game down! The 9th dungeon was a hell of a ride, rooms packed with monsters, mini-bosses everywhere, and a layout quite confusing. Getting to Ganon was an achievement in itself! That's a good thing by the way because the fight with Ganon in itself is a bit anticlimactic... I'm not even sure I used the bow and arrows to be honest, which I thought was mandatory to beat him. I just flung my sword around in the air (yeah, the cheap pig is invisible) a few times, and switched to the bow every three hits or so, so it was a bit of a mess...

Anyway, I'm done with this one. I've got all of the items, but I seem to be missing two heart containers, even after having combed a lot of screens in the Otherworld... Maybe I'll get to it again sometimes and try to figure out what I missed.

Considering a lot of the secret places are well-hidden, with no clues leading to them, it's hard to bomb every wall or burn every generic tree just to find the hidden staircases. A few places stand out by themselves and kinda scream "secret place!" when you see them but a lot of them are quite discreet. After having secured the Red Candle in the seventh dungeon, you're basically encouraged to trek through the whole game again trying to torch every tree you see to find hidden staircases. If Zelda is really reminiscent of Miyamoto's childhood adventures, I think Little Shigeru had a great time burning the forest next door to the ground...

Back to the ninth dungeon, this place is huge! You can get clobbered by the packs of monsters every few screens and it's really easy to get lost if you're not paying attention. The most annoying monsters around are definitely the Like-Likes (funny how someone at Nintendo had the idea of naming such a hateful thing a Like-Like). At worst, all the monsters kill you (which is pretty bad according to the character), but not the Like-Likes, nooo. The things eat your large shield in a few seconds if they can catch you. Granted, you have a few sword hits to take before it happens in order to try to free yourself, but when it does, it's back to money-grinding for you! A new shield cost a minimum of 90 rupees (and 130 or 160 if you haven't found the good shop) and it can really be a pain to kill enough monsters to buy one again.

And they're ugly. And smell bad.

Putting these things all around the place was bad enough, but they had the brilliant idea to put them in a lot of rooms alongside Sprites that makes using your sword impossible for three seconds or so. So if you bump into a Sprite, then are caught by a Like-Like, your shield is toast (and so is your controller if it's the second time it happens...) So from now on, I'll discern a "Most annoying monster award" (or MAMA) for every game I play. The Resident Evil one goes to the crows, which are totally impossible to shoot with a gun, and the Like-Likes grab the MAMAward for The Legend of Zelda hands down.

As I've said, the 9th dungeon in itself is a real challenge, forcing you to use every resource you've gathered from the game, and finally freeing Zelda is a real satisfaction. The difficulty in the game is strangely going up and down during its course : the 3rd, 6th and 9th dungeons are really hard, while the other ones can be a breeze. Maybe it's paving the way for the fearsome "Water Dungeons" coming later in the franchise...

Ganon's architect really nailed the atmosphere of the place.

It was really great to experience the original Zelda again. A lot of the franchise formula is already here, but it's a really different experience than the rest of the games, mainly because the focus on combat will be tempered down in favor of riddles and puzzles. I've lost 33 times during the course of the game! I know, I'm getting old. I've got a theory I'll try to prove if I ever go through my whole list of Zelda games : I think I'll get more "Game over" screens in the first three games than in all the other games together. We'll try to verify that, but one thing is certain once again : they don't make them like they used to!

But the worse is ahead of me now. I'm supposed to put a rating on one of the most revered and beloved pieces of video game history. I'll have to really think this one over if I don't want to find a horde of die-hard fans dressed in green in my street with sticks and bows, trying to get my head on a pike for having the guts to say this game is not perfect... Wish me luck!

Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Not exempt of Video Game Logic

Link journal entry 3 : Boy, was this sixth dungeon hard! The wizzrobes and Like-Likes were everywhere. I battled my way through this room by room, only stopping to go buy (again) another shield when these burger-like monsters had eaten mine. The boss of the dungeon went down with one nicely-aimed arrow through its eye, though. I think it was some kind of reward from Zelda to put such a wuss at the end of this nightmarish place. After that, I found another sword given by a old guy hiding in a grave (I think he liked the place) and went on my way to the seventh dungeon, which looks like a piece of cake after what I've been through.


Granted, I haven't made a lot of progress since my last post, but I wanted to talk about two nice examples of Video Game Logic. First of all, there are two hidden "sages" in Hyrule waiting patiently in their caves, with a sword for the hero. And when the hero shows up, he needs to have a minimum of Triforce pieces with him. If not, they don't give the sword. Nice, fellas! Sorry to try to save the world! It's particularly excruciating when you're battling through dungeon 6, which is a horribly difficult place. The guy with the next sword is two screens away, but nooooo, he won't give you the sword. Zenic suggested that I could go around the problem and finish dungeon 7 before grabbing the sword and getting back to 6, but I stuck to it. Cost me a lot of lives in my "shame counter", but I did it. On to level 7 I go, with my brand new Master Sword!

Well I've got this nice shiny sword and... it's not for you, go away, you look like a wimp.

The other example is, in my opinion, the silliest thing in the game. In the middle of dungeon 7, you encounter a Moblin blocking the way. The Moblin goes "grumble, grumble". When I was a kid, I thought that it was Moblin talk, but now I realize it must be because his stomach is grumbling. So, instead of putting your sword through his head, like you've done with countless moblins before that, you have to exit the place, go to the special secret shop that ripped you off with the Blue Ring, and buy a piece of meat for 60 rupees. Then you go back to the dungeon, offer the guy the meat, give him a nice pat on the back, then let him go. What? You've basically gone genocidal on the Moblin race from the beginning of the game, but this one doesn't deserve to die. I'll do a fetch quest for you, instead of ripping through your guts like I've done with your entire family...

Oh, and by the way, sorry about your father... and mother, sister and all your little cousins. Your brother was a jerk, though, he had it coming.

Another difficult aspect of this game is the economy system. It takes place of grinding for experience points. Money is very sparse, and a lot of mandatory items have to be bought. Granted, there is a few places where guys give you money (and a few where they take it away from you from breaking their doors) but it can really take a while to get what you need to buy an item. Gathering the whooping 250 rupees to get the Blue Ring (the counter is maxed at 255, as usual) made me feel a little like a 6-year old trying to buy an Ipad by saving his lunch money.

I'm playing a bit the devil's advocate here. Of course, Zelda is a great game, probably one of the best among NES games, or all video games for that matter, and these three examples are highly justifiable in a Game Design point of view, but Video Game Logic really kinda feel silly sometimes...

Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Game Design 101

Link journal entry 2 : The strange land of Hyrule is slowly starting to unravel its mysteries to me. The treasures I find in the dungeons give me access to other parts of the country, and its inhabitants, however rare and cryptic they are, gave me a lot of helpful clues. I'm working my way to the sixth dungeon right now, in the middle of the cemetery, and my quest is becoming harder and harder. Ghosts, Wizards, Centaurs... all of Ganon's minions are on my track now. I'm becoming more powerful by the minute, and the Triforce will soon be mine. The demon will fall. It's only a matter of time.


I've had a hard time making progress in Zelda these last days, mainly because I didn't have a lot of free time to play. This game is hard! I'm starting to wonder if I'm not growing old. I beat this game when I was seven, dammit! Here, I'm only half the game and I already died 15 times! This game has a "shame meter" on the save screen, telling you (and your friends) how many times you've died in the course of your adventure, which is great for replay value, by the way...

3 hearts, 9 deaths : shaaaaaaaame!

I spent the whole beginning of the game wondering how I could pass the dreaded forest maze. To gain access to the cemetery and the sixth dungeon, you're supposed to cross a maze in the southwestern forest of Hyrule. In my memory, I was never able to pass it without resorting to some walkthrough, or in my old days, a friend advice. I was prepared to trash the game design of this part, and going through my synonym dictionary for "cheap way of upping the game's length". From my memory, this maze was the equivalent of Miyamoto coming to your home, politely introducing himself, and then kicking you in the nuts.

It's not like the NES games were totally innocents of these kind of mazes. I can't remember how many games had at least one of them in their course. It was something contemporary game design thankfully made disappear during the nineties (with a few exceptions). But there is no way a 1986 game could have worked around, right?

Wrong! There is an old lady, near the maze, ready to give you the directions for a fee of 30 rupees (if you give her more, she just tells you "Boy, you are rich!", which is quite infuriating and makes you regret you can't slay NPCs in this game). But, wait, there is more : if you wander a bit, you'll get the power bracelet in Doom Mountain, which allows you to find the "teleport stones" dispatched through the realm, which then gives you another way around the maze.

Two solutions for one problem in a 1986 console adventure game? Ok, guys, The Legend of Zelda is definitely a Game Design lesson every game designer should have followed. In my memory, the game was really sparse on hints, but if you wander a bit, there is often an old bearded guy or an old woman (Hyrule in this game is the equivalent of a nursing home) ready to tell you a lot. I mean, you can get stuck, but there is a lot of times where you can get around your problem, or find some hint about it.

So sorry to have doubted you, Sir, it won't happen again (well, maybe in Zelda II...)

Overall, it's a game that really rewards exploration. There is a lot of things to find for yourself. A few places in Hyrule even hide full hearts to up your health meter, or really important items. There is a few hiding places for rupees-giving Moblins, and every mandatory item's location is hinted somewhere. We are reaaaaaally far from more infuriating adventure games, like Castlevania 2 (white crystal, anyone?) or Shadowgate (yeah, Trickster, you know it's coming)...

Another thing that's kind of crazy for a 1986 game is the "stability" of graphics. The NES has an infamous history of slowing down or turning into a stroke-inducing flickering fest as soon as it has to show more than five sprites in the same screen, and Zelda is really stable in this area. It starts to slow down when Link is in the same room than twelve sword-throwing centaurs, but flickering is kept to a minimal. As usual, Nintendo is more at ease to make magic on their consoles than the majority of third-party developers. It's a pattern we even see today, notably in the 3D effect in a lot of 3DS games.

Back to the game, I'm now in the sixth dungeon. I've got a lot of hearts, a healing potion, the power bracelet, the second sword, but I'm having a hard time with enemies here. I think I'm gonna have to grind for money in order to buy the blue ring, which halves the damage dealt by enemies. It's really expensive, but considering any foe encountered can kill me in a few hits, I think it's mandatory.

Sometimes I wonder if this "princess" is really worth the trouble...

Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Third dungeon and controversy

Just a little post to share some thoughts about the game. I know the topic has been addressed before, but I wanted to come back on the famous shape of the third dungeon...

Ring any bell?

I mean, I know the thing is a "Manji", a reversed swastika, symbol of good luck in buddhist mythology. But, hey, it's 1986, not 1923. Could they simply have forgotten what this could mean? I've read a few things about this controversy (which occurred, but didn't make a lot of noise, good thing this game didn't come out nowadays, or Miyamoto's head would be on a stick somewhere) and I find this just crazy that, at some point of the development, no one came with the simple idea that the symbol could be offensive to a few people...

Hardcore game player Ed Norton had had a hard time with this dungeon so he had the map tattooed not to forget it.

Well it was just a quick thought I wanted to share with you. I read another fun fact about it. When Nintendo released Pokemon, one of them had some kind of physical relationship with a Manji, but they had to change it to be able to export the game and avoid another controversy. That's a shame, really, I would have loved to capture the Nazi Pokemon...

Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Remembrances Versus Discovery

Link journal entry 1 : When I heard the screams in the forest, I didn't know what I was getting into. I can't stand those monsters, taking on a helpless woman! She told me that Ganon freak was holding the princess hostage and that the only way to fight him was to get hold of a powerful artifact called the Triforce of Wisdom. I was helped by an old man in a cave who gave me a sword and went on to find the pieces of the thing. Princess Zelda hasn't done things the easy way, because the Triforce is really well hidden. As for now, I've secured two pieces in the first two dungeons I found easily. I know where the third one is, but these knights are really formidable foes. I feel I'm starting to acquire power and I'm making good progress on my quest, but the day I best that fiend is not close to me yet...

Yeah, the Triforce! "Zelda" won! What do you mean "it's only the first one"?

First of all, I wanted to make clear that I'm currently playing Zelda on my faithful NES console. All it took was a lot of alcohol, a lot of cotton buds and a bit of patience (and, ok, I admit, a brand new Pin connector). But it's astonishing how well these old consoles fare. I'm waiting to see someone boot up a Playstation 3 in 25 years. So, I'm obviously taking the risk to lose all my saves at some point (I still have the old save battery, but it's holding up), but I prefer this experience. I own the game in about four or five versions so starting up again on the 3DS or Wii won't take long if needed. Fingers crossed anyway.

As Zenic has said in one of his recent posts, there is a real difference between player knowledge and character knowledge. It's not the first time I'm experiencing Zelda. In fact, I've played it at least twenty times and completed it five or six times already in the last 25 years (yup, we ain't getting any younger...) It means I remember the basic layout of the otherworld and could cross the first three dungeons with my eyes closed. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a new player, and waiting to discover clues, instead of rushing through the game, but considering the clues are quite rare and cryptic (Miyamoto obviously wanted to encourage the player to experiment and explore by himself), I don't know which places you're guided to and which you're supposed to discover by yourself.

That doesn't mean the game will be a breeze, though. First of all, the difficulty is quite high, especially when you compare it to later Zelda games (except Zelda II. This one is a bitch). You have a room as soon as the third dungeon where you have to fight one dozen knights at the same time. And secondly, there is a few places I can't remember. For example, I knew the second dungeon was east of the beginning, but I had to search a bit to remember exactly where. So I went wandering around the otherworld for a while (and, as Zelda is a really open game, you can stumble upon ferocious foes) before I found my way. It was a short, but nice moment, and I really cherish first experiences on a game for the pleasure of discovery.

It's amazing to see how many landmarks of the series are already there : The health is shown in hearts, you find items in dungeons that help you tackle the next one, and so forth. The items themselves are well-known : bombs, boomerang, bow, rupees, small keys, etc... The monsters are basic versions of monsters we'll see again a lot, like octoroks or moblins. That's what really great in the Nintendo franchises. Mario still uses mushrooms and Link still has a boomerang, even dozens or hundreds of games later...

And it was before the fairies become drag-queens.

Anyway, as for now, I've got two pieces of the Triforce, the bow (no arrows yet, but it's only a matter of having enough rupees to buy them), the magic boomerang, the big shield and some bombs. The third dungeon ramps up the difficulty with the knights all over the place, but it's only a matter of time before I secure the next piece. Now where the heck is the fourth dungeon in this huge overworld?

Game B1 : The Legend of Zelda - Introduction

Do The Legend of Zelda really need an introduction? If you've never heard of it, there is a pretty good chance you're waking up from a 25-years long coma or have been cryogenized in the North Pole since the fifties. In that case, what are you doing here, reading a blog? Get out! Discover the world! Girls wear miniskirts now!

Better than blogging.

Every one else has heard of Zelda a few times, and if you're reading it, chances are that you have played at least one or twenty of them. The Legend of Zelda was created by Shigeru Miyamoto (also called "God" in some circles) and is supposed to be reminiscent of his childhood adventure reveries in the forest next to his home. In a then struggling industry, it proved that video games were able to produce grand scales adventures that were more than quick arcade pleasures fixes. It was the first game for the NES system to include a battery save system (opposed to the overly complicated passwords that were the usual back then.

The game shifted a few millions copies and was reissued a few times in various compilations. It is, with Super Mario Bros one of the more iconic game of the NES, Nintendo, and video games in general.

As for the story, Every one knows it too. The prince of Darkness, Ganon (who appears here as a huge pig-like being), has obtained the Trifoce of Power, one of the three parts of an extremely powerful magical artefact. To hide it from him, the Princess Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom in eight pieces and scatters it in eight dungeons all over the land of Hyrule. Ganon then proceeds to kidnap princess Zelda and retain her in his own dungeon. Prior to her capture, Zelda sends her maid, Impa, to get help. Impa is then attacked by Ganon's minions, but is saved by a warrior, Link, who is the hero of this quest. At the start of the game, Link sets on his quest to obtain the Triforce of Wisdom, in order to confront Ganon and free the princess Zelda.

Yeah, you know the music that goes with it. Look! It's already playing in your head!

The Legend of Zelda is a free-form action-adventure game. You battle bad guys, explore dungeons and progressively gain power. Even without experience points, Link gains more health and more weapons over the course of the adventure, starting as a weakling and getting more and more powerful. It's considered one of the precursors of Console RPGs.

So let's see what it's got, 25 years after its release. To Hyrule we go!

Game A1 : Resident Evil - Final Rating

It’s finally time to apply the COWARD system for the first time and see if it Works… All in all, I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil, even if I acknowledge there are a lot of flaws who will be adressed in the sequels or the remake…(and assets we'll never find again in this series)  Let’s try it… here goes nothing !

Cleverness

First category, first difficulties : Resident Evil is a bit of a mixed bag here. In one way, your approach to this game gives you the illusion of liberty. You feel free to wander the mansion how you see fit, cleaning zombies in one place or just running in the corridors avoiding them to keep your ammo. At first, there is a real feeling of exploration. Of course, pretty soon, you realize you’re on a predetermined path. Each key leads you to one part of the mansion where you find a few items, a lot of foes, and another key, and so forth. The puzzles themselves are not particularly clever : with a few exceptions, they consist mainly on pushing items sokoban-style or following instructions. The scarcity of ammo force you to do resource management during the course of the adventure. Shoot everywhere or save a little too often (like I did) and you're probably getting in trouble for the rest of the game. I'll go for a 5 there, mainly because it makes you feel more free than, for example, RE3.

Rating : 5

Originality

I agree that Resident Evil created a subgenre of video games. However, it was preceded by two major influences. Shinji Mikami, creator of the game, recognizes the influence Sweet Home (NES - 1989) has on his work. The way the doors open, for example, is directly taken from it. It even seems Resident Evil was, at first, supposed to be a remake of this game, before going to a different direction. Even if Mikami never acknowledged it, I find too many similarities between this game and Alone in the Dark (DOS - 1992) to not think the two are unrelated. You have a choice between two leading characters, the action takes place in a dark mansion crawling with zombies and other beings, with only a few ammo to take them out. Even if the explanation for the events in Alone in the Dark lurks within the Chtulhu mythos instead of the bio-technology approach of Resident Evil, the two games are really close. Anyway, you can't ignore the gigantic influence Resident Evil had on the rest of the industry, spawning a huge series and hundreds of followers like Silent Hill or Dino Crisis.

Rating : 5

Writing

Most of the backstory in the game is learned through different reports and journals found scattered around the place. They're pretty well written, and it makes up for the horribly acted cut scenes. Of course, the story itself is as cliché as it gets. The good guys fight against the evil corporation, there is a traitor among them, blah blah blah... As I mentioned before, a pretty nice touch is how you understand that Wesker is the traitor : you find clues in the various documents around the lab, first a picture (he is the only guy in the whole world wearing sunglasses), then a name... until you confront him and he shots Rebecca (too bad he misses her though). Of course, if you don't read the docs, it feels a bit like you missed a cutscene, but, hey, they have been written for a reason, right? This touch, however, isn't really enough to fill the huge gaps in the story : Umbrella is barely mentioned and there is almost nothing concerning the mansion (it will be pretty well addressed in the remake, but not here), so it lacks a bit in this category.

Rating : 3

Wait, what? He missed you? errr... I mean, glad you're alright!

Appeal

Of course, I have to judge this category by putting back the game in its context. It's 1996 and the rendered 3D for the backgrounds, and real-time 3D for the character is the technological pinnacle of the year. This game made Playstations flying from the shelves and almost single-handedly buried the aging SNES and Genesis. A year later, the Director's cut was a bit better-looking, especially showing new camera angles who go a long way to add to the overall experience. My biggest concern is how bland the mansion looks. A lot of rooms feel a bit empty. The sound design is interesting, though, because you can always know when a hostile is in the same room, even if it's not shown visually. If you compare it to other 1996 3D releases (Tomb Raider or Die Hard Trilogy for example), it does pretty well, but I'll be a bit harsh here because I really think the beginning of the Playstation era was one of the darkest periods of video game graphics...

Rating : 4

Reactivity

This is where Resident Evil really drops the ball : the controls are awful. The infamous tank controls are at work here. Missing a "quick turn" button like in the sequels, your character takes forever to turn around, getting hit a few times if you're in a bad position. The aiming is pretty awful too. Between the arbitrary camera angles and the importance turning yourself in the exact direction of the enemy, you're more than likely to waste a few bullets shooting around. The crows or dogs, in particular, are really annoying. I know it's kind of the point that these things are hard to shoot at, but it's sometimes really a hassle. The interface is kinda difficult to bear too. The six-items limit inventory (ok, ok, I've seen now that Jill has a eight-items limit, but that's not the point! ;) is pretty harsh, especially considering your character is just too stupid to be able to switch an item with another one. Combined with the inability to temporarily drop an item somewhere else than in the magic box, there are some situations where you have to spend ten minutes going back and forth places just because you took too many green herbs and are not able to pick a key item.

Rating : 2

Don't know what I'm shooting at, but I'll get them anyway!

Delicacy

Overall, was Resident Evil a nice game to experience again? I guess it was. The construction of the game is quite nice, and it manages to keep you on your toes the whole time. As soon as you're accustomed with zombies, the hunters come into play. As soon as you know your mansion layout, you gain access easily to new areas, etc... The horrible quality of cutscenes and the controlling problems sometimes get you out of it, (granted, it's especially the voices of Chris and Rebecca that are aggravating, maybe the experience is better with Jill and Barry) but all in all, it was nice being able to see again where it all started. I'm glad the remakes exist, though, because it means we'll see the Spencer Mansion again, and in all its glory.

Rating : 6

FINAL COWARD RATING : 42

A bit below the medium mark for this one, so it works for me. I think the Director's cut would have fetched a few more points, but I will skip it, considering it's basically the same game, and that DS and Gamecube versions exist anyway. We'll see with the next games if the rating was justified and if the COWARD system works...

To the green pastures of Hyrule we go!