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The Legend of Zelda Needs to Bring the Feels

The Legend of Zelda Needs to Bring the Feels

Games can imprint on people. When you’ve loved something, you can have it touch you in a way that makes you remember the exact moments you experienced it for the first time. It can influence the way you look at life. The Legend of Zelda games do this for many, and a recent fan creation makes one wonder if only past entries in the series had what it takes to leave major impressions on people.

The fan creation I’m talking about is ArtistArtorias’ rendition of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ‘s Kakariko Village in Unreal Engine 4. If you haven’t seen it, well, here.

You know that warm sensation in your chest that started once the music crescendoed? Those are feelings.

Games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were amazing at making people feel things. Nintendo was able to tap into something with idyllic settings, charming characters, and the amazing bonds that were able to form between a mute protagonist and the people of the world. Unfortunately, it seems like a concept that may be lost to time.

The only recent entry to offer players some sort of connection was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess . A bond forms between Link and Midna, despite their initial rough patches. We see a relationship grow between them and begin to care about the characters as they grow. When the final act draws to a close, we’re left mourning what once was. Our hearts ache for the characters.

More recent entries haven’t been capable of drawing out such emotion. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a fantastic game, but it doesn’t do a good job of making people feel things. The same can be said for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . It definitely can stand among its contemporaries, but there isn’t the same evocation of emotions as there was in previous installments.

The Legend of Zelda Needs to Bring the Feels

Perhaps that’s why people were so excited about the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask remakes for the 3DS. Like Twilight Princess , they offer the sorts of connections people missed in other entries. Link having to abandon his childhood and his “family” with the Kokiri may be why that recreation of Kakariko Village is so touching. The search for a lost friend and sometimes sad stories of townfolk in Majora’s Mask remind us of our own grief and personal endeavors.

The Legend of Zelda games are at their best when they touch on feelings and emotions that relate to events we may have experienced in our own lives. Everyone has nostalgic memories about hometowns and precious people, and games that touch upon such things and show how their hero deals with his own feelings of love resonate with us. One can only hope the forthcoming Wii U game offers such connections, because it would be a tragedy if it didn’t.

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