Almighty Video Game Designer

In terms of level design, if Dark Souls told the world what an RPG level design should be, then Legend of Zelda redefined the meaning of "level design."

Of course, Dark Souls was a game where players were abused. It was full of despairing conspiracies that forced players to constantly suffer and find the best solution. Occasionally, they would be moved to tears when they saw a bonfire and a shortcut. However, Legend of Zelda was the exact opposite. A small temple contained many mechanisms and different elements. The only frustration was the frustration of not being able to solve it after trying many methods. Once it was solved, the players would praise themselves madly for their wit.

The whole puzzle was divided into three levels: Yahaha,'temple', the divine beast.

Yahaha's riddles were all relatively simple. For example, if you saw a circle of floating duckweed in the water, you could find one by jumping down from the cliff and landing in the center of the duckweed. There was a circle of small stones on the mountain. If you moved the stones next to them and placed them in the gap, you could find another one. For more complicated cases, one needed to fish out iron pieces from the water and place them on a pile of iron pieces to form a specific shape before finding another one.

The difficulty of the temple puzzle had increased by a level.

There were different types of temples. Some were directly exposed to the ground, and one could challenge them directly once they entered. Some of them were surrounded by thorns, and one had to use special means to enter; Some of them were simply buried underground and could only be opened after completing the side quest.

For example, on a tower, players would meet a Birdman playing the accordion, and after talking to him, they would get the information of a poem. According to the poem, players had to land on the temple buried in the ground. As time passed, when the shadow of the tower overlapped with the location of the temple, they had to shoot a rocket at the tower to activate the temple.

There were also some temples hidden in the labyrinths. The walls of these labyrinths were all taller than mountains. Link couldn't climb up when he was physically exhausted. Now, the players would really experience the pain of walking through the labyrinths. However, when the players 'stamina was full, they could skip classes and directly climb to the top of the maze to find a shortcut.

After entering the temple, players had to use their various abilities to trigger the various traps in the temple. Sometimes, not only did they need some wisdom, but they also needed a certain hand speed. For example, some traps required players to jump at a certain moment to hit the trap in the distance with Link's time. Players with bad skills had to try many times before they could succeed.

As for the Four Divine Beasts and the final boss, the puzzle-solving element had reached the highest difficulty. Players had to go through the various experiences and knowledge they had gained in the temple trial to pass.

Before the divine beast war, link wanted to enter the village where the divine beast heroes were located to complete the main mission and obtain the help of the NPCs.

In the first stage of the divine Beast Battle, link had to cooperate with the NPCs. Once he got close to the divine beast, he had to block the beast's long-range attacks and shoot the red key parts of the beast with his bow to stop it.

In the second stage, link would enter the divine beast's interior and complete a complicated puzzle. In terms of scale, the divine beast trials far exceeded the temple trials, and the difficulty also rose sharply. Every divine beast's level was carefully designed, and it was very in line with the characteristics of the divine beast itself. For example, the divine beast of water was an elephant. After gaining partial control of the divine beast, link could manipulate the elephant's trunk from low to high and climb up to the top of the elephant's head. He could also use the water from the trunk to flush out mechanisms and open areas that he couldn't previously go to.

Moreover, the interior of these divine beasts were completely three-dimensional levels. It was not as simple as layering them. Different parts would affect each other, and players had to have a good three-dimensional thinking to solve the puzzle. In order to adapt to this level design, The Legend of Zelda also used a 3D perspective as a maze map.

The Four Divine Beasts were the elephants in the wetlands to the southeast, the lizards in the volcanoes to the northeast, the camels in the deserts to the southwest, and the Eagles in the mountains to the Northwest. Each type of mythical beast had its own unique area and village. The local customs and side missions were different. For example, the people living in the wetlands were mermaids, the people living in the mountains were Birdmen, and the desert was a village of women. Link also had to dress up as a cross-dresser to enter.

In the third stage, link would fight against one of Cannon's clones. Each clone's abilities, difficulty, and fighting style were different. After defeating Cannon's clone, link would be able to tame the mythical beast and obtain the hero's blessing effect and a hero weapon.

Even more difficult than these were things like the Master Sword trial.

In the Master Sword trial, players were not allowed to bring any weapons or equipment. Everything started from zero. In the beginning, they picked up small branches from the ground to fight the weakest monster, pockblin. Then, they slowly obtained higher-grade weapons. Later, the difficulty of the entire battle skyrocketed. It was truly the ultimate challenge. If they failed halfway, they had to start all over again. Even a confident hardcore player might have to repeat the challenge many times before they could pass.

If Dark Souls was a game where the same level style kept becoming more and more difficult to the extreme, then Legend of Zelda was a game where players showed off their skills in all kinds of ways, from easy to difficult, from simple to complex. The players could always get a completely different experience in the game.

In terms of combat system, Legend of Zelda was just as outstanding.

If soul-based combat was said to have created a new mode for cold weapon combat games in the parallel world, then 'The Legend of Zelda' was telling everyone what cold weapon combat could be used for other than soul-based combat.

In addition to the classic elements of two-man spin with shield, shield Parry, dodge, stealth, and backstab, Legend of Zelda had many more rich choices. For example, he would be able to shoot arrows more smoothly and with more attributes. He would be able to Dodge the arrows perfectly and draw the bow in the air in time. He could also use his weapon normally or throw it. He could even use his shield like a skateboard ...

The most controversial issue was the durability of the weapon.

In other games, a weapon could be repaired after its durability ran out, and it would be as good as new. However, in "Legend of Zelda," when a weapon's durability ran out, it meant that the weapon was completely destroyed. If he wanted to get it again, he had to continue to farm the exorcism sword (Master Sword) given by the plot.

When they first came into contact with it, most of the players felt very uncomfortable. They had just gotten a good weapon, and it was destroyed after a few hits? 'And I, a hero and a Knight recognized by the sword of exorcism, can only fight monsters with pokeblin's wooden stick?' They were reluctant to use good weapons!

After the players had collected a bunch of cool and impressive weapons, they found that they were reluctant to use any of them. In the end, they didn't feel any heartache using the sword of exorcism, which had no durability. They could use it to cut trees or cut grass!

The dignified Master Sword had actually fallen to such a state, it was really sad ...