The Legend of Zelda is a game franchise that has stood the test of time and established some pillars that make a Zelda Game a Zelda Game. While most of these were established very early on, change is the one constant in this universe. Modern Zelda games are fantastic—let me get that out there—they are beautiful games that feel alive and still feel like a Zelda game should. However, I feel some elements should have been kept from the originals or expanded upon. I have found 3 major elements that have bothered me the most about modern Zelda games, so let’s check them out.
3. Modern Zelda’s Insistence on Companions
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This particular one started from Ocarina of Time with Navi and has since been featured in most future titles. Now I get why they added companions to Modern Zelda, and honestly, some are quite good, like Midna. Most of them are memorable for a different reason: They mostly annoy the player with constant advice or notifications.
Fi is an example of a particularly annoying companion. She chimes in constantly with information you already know, and the notification chime won’t stop until you get out of range of whatever she is trying to tell you about. While this isn’t bad, I feel it wasn’t implemented well. Modern Zelda games can get massive to the point where some guidance is needed, and Nintendo wanted to try to implement an organic way of doing so. They should have made it customizable so more experienced gamers could play the game without distraction.
They fixed this with Breath of the Wild and its sequel by having a menu you can access with quest details. This is how it should have been done, in all honesty. It’s there when you need it, and if you take a break from the game, you can easily find out what you need to do. You don’t have to walk around for 5 minutes and wait for a chime so some companion can come out and give you a somewhat vague idea of what you need to do next.
2. Motion Controls
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A significant drawback in modern Zelda games is Nintendo’s insistence on integrating motion controls. This trend began with Skyward Sword and has unfortunately persisted in future games like Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time 3D, and Majora’s Mask 3D. While Skyward Sword‘s use of motion controls can be, the same leniency cannot be extended to the others justified as it was a Wii title.
Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D implement motion controls for the 3DS for things like aiming, which is jarring at first. This feature can be turned off, but it’s on by default. There’s nothing like loading one of these games for the first time on a road trip only to find you need to swing your handheld behind you to shoot an eye. The Switch does this, too with its own Zelda games, but it’s off by default.
The Switch gets this right in that aspect; however, the gyroscope seems a bit sensitive. You would have noticed that when it comes to things that I find hard to cope with in modern Zelda games, I mention Breath of the Wild does right. There is one thing all these modern Zelda games get wrong, and it bothers me.
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1. Link is No Longer Left Handed
This is the biggest gripe I have with modern Zelda titles, and it started with Twilight Princess for the Wii. While they mirrored the game so players could swing the sword with the right hand, they stripped Link of one of his biggest identities. Most characters you come across in video games are right-handed because that is the most dominant dexterity in the world.
They stripped Link of an aspect that made him truly unique. Link has been left-handed in every single game up until Twilight Princess on the Wii. Skyward Sword came out after that for the Wii; Link has been right-handed since then. Even Breath of the Wild isn’t immune to this, a game that uses traditional controls for the most part.
It’s also an issue of inclusivity. Link was a left-handed hero who saved the world. By removing that, you remove a potential role model for all left-handed people like myself in modern Zelda. At the very least, Nintendo could have added a customizable option for handedness, which most games should also consider. A lot of work goes into the motion capture of animations, and I am willing to concede that having such an option would only increase an already intimidating amount of work for the devs.
However, since games like Breath of the Wild already have a crazy amount of detail in their worlds, finding an actor or actress who could do both shouldn’t be hard. Maisie Williams is right-handed but learned how to fight left-handed to bring a detail of Arya Stark from the books into the show. She later would express regret over it, but her dedication to the character is admirable.
While most Links are a different reincarnation, for the most part, most of them have been left-handed. I am a fan of continuity, so I’m not about to suggest that a potential Tears of the Kingdom sequel make this change. However, a future Link should return to his left-handedness or make it an option in modern Zelda. I was so disappointed when I set my Wii controller to left-handed mode, and the game didn’t change.
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