Darksiders: Could Legend of Zelda take some notes?

[BloodSquirrel]

So, I finished Darksiders last night. The game was a blast.

Now, anybody who has played one of the 3D LoZ games will notice that Darksiders has taken a substantial amount of inspiration from the series. My question, though, is if anyone else thinks that LoZ could stand to take some inspiration in turn.

The most striking thing is probably the way the character controls. Even in Twilight Princess, moving around the dungeons and fighting bosses can be a pain in the ass. Link is, compared to war, slow and clumsy. Link, for example must stop for you to aim weapons like his bow or hook shot manually. This can be aggravating when you have to stop to use one of these items while the boss can hit you any time. War, on the other hand, can aim while moving. The PoV also doesn't change like it does for Link, making the whole process much smoother and faster.

Or how about Link and his vines versus War and his demonic growths? Climbing on vines is a painfully slow, tedious process. War can move across demonic growths quickly by jumping. Oh, yeah, and War can jump. In fact, Darksiders verges on being a platformer in some places, and a fun platformer to boot. War is fluid enough to make it work. Link? Not so much.

Darksiders also shows that you can implement a much more complex combat system and not sacrifice the ability to use all of the items/abilities that are required for LoZ (although this probably isn't possible with the Wiimote).

LoZ is still by far my favorite of the two, but Darksiders definitely showed me where LoZ could use some improvement.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Oh, I feel trouble brewing.

And frankly, since Link doesn't look like he swallowed a muscle beach fitness club, I'd say his slow average movement is fairly justified.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

I want to play darksiders so bad, but I usually rent games over the weekend and this past weekend the rental place was out of copies and next week I'm going home so I won't have time.

ARGHH cruel fate thy name is Ma55ter_fett!

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Oh, I feel trouble brewing.

And frankly, since Link doesn't look like he swallowed a muscle beach fitness club, I'd say his slow average movement is fairly justified.

So... Link being thin means that Nintendo can't make him more agile? Even if it makes the game more fun?

 

[Siorai]

I have never been a huge fan of Legend of Zelda games and Darksiders gave me an experience similar to that of the Zelda series but also added a much more fluid combat system along with more weapon variety. The puzzles in Darksiders left a bit to be desired, which wasn't a huge issue for me I just think Legend of Zelda games do it a bit better. Each of them have things that the other could take some notes on but I wouldn't go so far as to say that Darksiders completely outdid Zelda or anything but maybe after Nintendo sees what Darksiders did they will step up their game a bit and give us some new material for future Legend of Zelda titles.

 

[Julianking93]

I thought it was great, but it was more like Soul Reaver and Maximo in my opinion.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I'd agree, there are a few mechanics in Zelda that are crusty old remnants from three generations ago.

 

[e2density]

Darksiders should kill Legend of Zelda, roast its carcass, sell a few peices as food, and put the remains on a pike.

I f**king hate Nintendo.

Are you too young to have played Ocarina of Time?

 

[Amnestic]

Darksiders should kill Legend of Zelda, roast its carcass, sell a few peices as food, and put the remains on a pike.

I f**king hate Nintendo.

Are you too young to have played Ocarina of Time?

Ocarina of Time was decidedly average and I didn't enjoy it.

Yeah, I said it.

Frankly, while Darksiders has better combat, Legend of Zelda has way better puzzles and level design. Some of the puzzles in darksiders just bored the crap out of me, which has never happened in a Zelda game.

Puzzles and level design have little to do with the mechanics. While there's no real reason beyond shoddy design for Darksiders not to have good puzzles (not played it, don't know if they are 'shoddy'), but equally there doesn't seem to be a reason for LoZ not to have a better combat systems. Taking inspiration from another game in a similar genre isn't a bad thing. Generally it's viewed as a good thing if it improves your product.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

So... Link being thin means that Nintendo can't make him more agile? Even if it makes the game more fun?

It's not like it really took away from the experience to begin with. While climbing may be slow, the series never came off as a fast-paced action game. Sure there were the horseback sequences in Twilight Princess, but the dungeon crawling sections have more of an emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving.

The only time I recall the series being excruciatingly tedious during the dungeons was Ocarina of Time's water temple, but that was really due more the chosen game design and limitations of the console.

 

[Dark Knifer]

I thought of darksiders as legend of zelda with god of war's combat system. Plus a gun and a horse that is on fire and a portal gun and you have a pretty sweet game.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

So... Link being thin means that Nintendo can't make him more agile? Even if it makes the game more fun?

It's not like it really took away from the experience to begin with. While climbing may be slow, the series never came off as a fast-paced action game. Sure there were the horseback sequences in Twilight Princess, but the dungeon crawling sections have more of an emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving.

The problem is that the tedious navigation through the dungeons made the exploration and puzzle-solving less fun than they could have been.

And- when it really comes down to it- there's no reason why it has to be so. There's no reason that Link has to move across the vines at a snail's pace. Just take a few ideas from Darksiders. They took plenty from you, so it's only fair.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Darksiders should kill Legend of Zelda, roast its carcass, sell a few peices as food, and put the remains on a pike.

I f**king hate Nintendo.

Are you too young to have played Ocarina of Time?

Ocarina of time is one of the main reasons I hate Legend of Zelda.

Everybody is entitled to their opinions, but you need to be careful when saying stuff like that on a public forum.

You might start a flame war.

OT: I believe that both games could learn from each other, rather than it just be completely black and white about it.

 

[Twilight_guy]

So darksiders has a better momentum system?. Okay. LOZ likes to implement the first person perspective for precision and has a more free and movable system with its lock-on system. It might be a bit slower but I don't think its going to change any time soon since every game has a similar moment system to the last. As for the vines, I think that climbing them should be a bit faster but not that much. Link isn't a biblical horseman, he's just a dude and climbing vines while hovering over a thousand foot drop is not something you want to rush through. I don't see these as big problems, more like nitpicks but I suppose the LOZ team could use of Darksiders' polish.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

*snip*

I'll accept that we'll always be opposed on the issue.

For me, it has all built into how I characterize Link. The way he moves and acts in his incarnations lends believability to him, and since the games do have an emphasis on story as well it really helps to pull it together all for me. He's not some steroidal deity or sociopathic Spartan, he's just an fairly average boy chosen by an odd fate.