/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8234530
It's true. I've long regretted every stupid coin I've ever collected. If you don't feel this way you're simply an immature gamer.

>>8220795
After Ocarina of Time a lot of developers took notes. They saw what worked, what didn't, and Nintendo by nature remained very insular. You had developers like Fumito Ueda, From Software, Quintet and so many more that took hints.

Closest thing we got to an imitation was a total reinvention. Team ICO put out their first title, ICO. It wasn't a massive success but it succeeded tremendously at everything it tried to do. Visually, tonally, and thematically it recreated a true sense of adventure. Not bogged down with mediocre and obvious puzzling and inventory management, no winding dialog dispensers - yet it achieved much of the same and more.

The industry wanted more. Nintendo refused to see what was going on and simply redid what was already done in their earlier games but worse somehow. Wind Waker didn't turn out very well and everyone knows it. Nintendo misread and thought the problem was just the art style with Wind Breaker, they basically just made Ocarina again although with even less substance to the game play.

The world reacted again, they saw Twilight Princess, features like horse combat were teased and the style looked like a correction to Wind Wakers half-finished aesthetic. It was just Ocarina again. More of the same, more droning dialog, missed tones and awkwardly handled atmosphere. Zelda games could be more but they aren't landing. Nintendo is too overbearing with direction, too afraid of change. It's starting to fall back on them now.

A shadow was looming that presented a meaningful and non-pretentious alternative. Sony knew they had something big on their hands and even made a reissue of the earlier title ICO. Shadow of the Colossus was unveiled and later hit the scene. The world stopped in awe at a game which truly pushed the genre Zelda claimed for itself. There was no going back. Shadow elevated the sense of adventure and tapped into classical themes of tragedy superbly. The next great adventure was here, and not from Nintendo.