THE MINIMALIST ZELDA: WHAT FUMITO UEDA DID THAT NINTENDO CANNOT

One cannot deny the influence of all of Nintendo’s original franchises on gaming. It’s very clear that a game like Fumito Ueda and Team ICO’s Shadow of the Colossus would not exist. The commonalities between Zelda and Shadow of the Colossus are apparent but end very quickly at the basics.

Shadow of the Colossus if described simply to someone would be, “a game in which you fight boss battles, and really do nothing else.” Of course this is insensitive to the games true design, because we aren’t mentioning the negative space. The time between Collosi encounters are spent simply galloping across the barren and grand forbidden land. The light story forces your imagination to run and you become a part of the story. The game gives you room to be a part of it, and has not already been filled up with dribble from a game designer who doesn’t trust you to “get it.”

Nintendo doesn’t trust you to “get it” when you play Zelda so they fill it with tutorials, nagging fairies, and transdimensional intelligent/spirit goddess beings. These things do not exist in Shadow of the Collosus, and the simple truth is that they do not need to exist in Zelda.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been such a disappointment to me. It feels bloated with it’s incomplete motion controls, and constant reminders of how dumb you are as a player. It’s not engrossing when a game consistently tries to be meta with you, and it makes the experience jarring. It’s the fattest, and fullest Zelda ever, but it feels too heavy, and too sloppy to love.

I’m sad to think about how I cannot bring myself to play it, but I can easily pick up Shadow of the Colossus and play it. It is not a burden, and comprised of only the essentials.

I do not wish for Zelda to be Shadow of the Colossus, but I’d like Nintendo to really take a step back and think about what they’ve turned the series into. If anything the game should’ve became a simpler, and more refined experience.

All they’ve done is complicate things for the sake of changing it up. It’s sad. It’s clear to me they really don’t know what to do with Zelda right now, and if they truly do think they’re doing it right - well that’s disturbing to me as a fan of the company and the series.

Fumito Ueda once said that he designs by subtraction. It’s apparent, but it’s also the best way to design anything. If you could have a wonderful Zelda game without the bullshit, why wouldn’t you?

Ueda has left Sony, and Nintendo isn’t thinking about it, but could you imagine if he headed up a Zelda game? I wouldn’t want it to be Shadow of the Colossus, but I would want it to be just Zelda.

Unadulterated Zelda. Just the essentials. It’d be perfect.

- Kyle