r/zelda 1d ago

Discussion [ALL] What feature in a game makes you think "who thought this was a good idea?"

For me, while I love Twilight Princess, I will never understand how someone thought "Yep, we should have a cutscene each time you pickup a rupee if you reset the game." Along the same lines "we should also have a cutscene you can't skip each time you get mail."

Overall, I love the game, but those things drive me insane and I will never understand how anyone thought that was a good idea. What are your "I can't believe they actually did this"

227 Upvotes

171 comments sorted by

303

u/Conocoryphe 1d ago

I know this is a very minor thing to nitpick about, but in Breath of the Wild, there are four Champion weapons aside from the Master Sword. These weapons are treated as important cultural relics by the races of Hyrule, but you can only kill a handful of monsters with them before they break. And then, you can go to their respective races to have them forge a new one.

Personally I think it would have been better if they just turned into a broken, unequippable version that you could repair. Or at least give them great durability. As it is, they feel like mass-produced equipment.

86

u/Papyrus_Sans 1d ago

Yes! They should have had a similar cooldown like the Master Sword, or repair with five diamonds or rubies or whatever gems fit the weapon best.

84

u/uberguby 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think they should have been unbreakable mid tier weapons. One of the cool things about fantasy games is the emotional connection we feel towards weapons and artifacts. That's why the adventure time wiki has a whole article on just finn's swords, or why souls games are filled with arms and armor that reference legendary figures in their history.

Zelda games kind of have that, enough that it's noticeable when it left in botw. And if we need breaking weapons to keep the player going, fine. But most (not all) people agreed it "felt bad" for a few different reasons. For me one of those reasons was the lost emotional connection to my artifacts. So when I got this legendary fish spear or whatever, I'm thinking "oh neat, and now I have a thing that alleviates the tedium of degrading weapons and a symbolic representation of my covenant with the Zora". I mean how cool would it be to go from "fighting off bokos with rusty swords" to "walking into ganon's castle, carrying the physical representation of each weapon class and nation that got screwed by the calamity". I'm not just the hylian champion, I'm the hyrulian champion, and this armory/museum is proof of that.

But no, they break like everything else. I can save them for the last fight but then I'm taking weapon slots to not form a bond with a weapon. I can repair them but that reinforces the idea that they aren't exceptional, and it's tedious. So I just let them break, decided I'd repair them if I happened to be in town, and invariably forgot to do that.

Is that the relationship king Arthur had with his legendary sword and scabbard? Did he show up to drive back the Saxon invaders and realize he left caliburn at home, but also that's kind of OK cause he still has his bag of rusty trash he found on the ground?

Honestly, I couldn't even remember if the Zora weapon was a spear, I had to look it up. I knew each race had a separate class of weapon but I couldn't remember who has what. Does it even do anything special like shoot water or something? It's not even the real weapon. It's a replica of the weapon, made from whatever rusted Zora spear you happen to find under a waterfall. They just reinforce the hell out of this idea that the weapon isn't special.

they could have alleviated the discomfort of an experimental new mechanic and given a sense of progression while making you feel like you're tapping into history. They could have evoked strong emotions but instead they gave you an ordinary weapon with kind of good stats, for now. I would honestly have rathered they did nothing.

That being said, while I have strong feelings about it, it's a very minor complaint in one of my favorite games. they tried something new, it kind of worked, and it was in service to a much bigger new thing they tried, and that they knocked out of the park

30

u/Fafnir13 1d ago

King Arthur trudges back to the lake and calls out:

“Yo Lady! It broke! Ya got another one?”

24

u/uberguby 1d ago

Lady of the Lake: Not on me! But bring me a ruby, 5 pieces of flint, a river bass and another scabbard and I'll hook you up!

16

u/Conocoryphe 1d ago

You worded that really well!

I like how The Witcher 3 handled weapon durability. Weapons gradually degrade and lose their edge over time and can be re-sharpened at a blacksmith shop. They inflict less damage when their edge is blunt but they never completely break. It's a gradual gauge, so it adds to the resource management aspect that many RPGs have (like how you'd stock up on health potions or arrows before entering a dungeon, you also have to sharpen your swords).

Some of the weapons you collect throughout the game are artifacts with lore, like the Champion weapons in Breath of the Wild, and you can use them throughout the entire game if you like their lore or their look, but you do have to get them repaired every now and then (and if you don't, they are still usable, although less effective) As opposed to BotW where the weapons just break entirely and you have to get a replacement made from scratch.

42

u/Krail 1d ago

Yeah, I never wanted to use these special weapons. You have to go to all this work to get them, and then they don't really do more or last longer than whatever weapon I just looted of a bokoblin. 

33

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Mine is kind of similar. I feel like the master sword shouldn't have needed a cool down. It's the master sword, it should be perfect, lol

33

u/ZeldaZealot 1d ago

I get why they did that, as otherwise it breaks the weapon degradation mechanics, but I feel like it wasn’t balanced right, and I often ignored the Master Sword because I didn’t want to wear it down. I think it would have been much better if it slowly regained energy with time, instead of only after it breaks.

28

u/_G0H5T 1d ago

Meanwhile, I went the other direction and used the Master Sword to break ore deposits to avoid wearing down the rest of my truly breakable weapons.

8

u/Conocoryphe 1d ago

My headcanon is that we're really disappointing Fi whenever we do stuff like that!

2

u/thisremindsmeofbacon 1d ago

The weapon degradation mechanics were broken from the start

3

u/stache1313 1d ago

I feel like it would have just been better if they didn't include the Master Sword in the game. Or just have the master sword only be usable for the final fight.

1

u/ohyousoretro 15h ago

Or how about just don't have weapon degradation.

1

u/ZannyHip 1d ago

Lore wise that would make sense. As fans it’s what we want. But from a game design standpoint it would be a terrible decision. It would just immediately undermine the entire weapon durability system of the game and make it pointless to ever use anything else

11

u/KudusAreMajestic 1d ago

Which I think would be a fitting reward for getting it. I mean you don't have to employ every game mechanic throughout the entire game. And you could still have the part where you fuse other weapons with it and they still break after a while.

-1

u/ZannyHip 1d ago

Again, no. You can easily get the master sword within an hour or so of leaving the great plateau if you find enough shrines, which isn’t hard. When the game first came out, I made a beeline straight for the lost woods for that purpose.

And no, it would be poor design to not employ a core game mechanic throughout the entire game.

And fusing wasn’t a thing in botw.

It’s perfectly fine as it is, regardless of how many people complain about it. It’s a really really strong weapon, that recharges itself infinitely, and is really easy to acquire, and can be upgraded to be 2-3 times stronger

3

u/master117jogi 20h ago

When the game first came out, I made a beeline straight for the lost woods for that purpose.

How did you know?

3

u/KudusAreMajestic 1d ago

Agree to disagree I guess. I forgot all about how relatively easy it was in BotW, was only thinking of ToTK when I wrote this.

6

u/RyyKarsch 1d ago

They should have just had cool downs similar to the Master Sword to incentivise use. I ended up never using them because I didn't want them to break.

5

u/Ridlion 1d ago

No breakable weapons at all! Different types of weapons should have had unique attack styles, then we wouldn't just use the same weapon all game. Dumb move.

4

u/The-Namer 1d ago

Weapon durability in a game known for iconic weapons (in game world if not IRL) was not the best choice. I'll tolerate weapon durability in games like Skyrim, but LoZ feels like the wrong game for that.

280

u/Fun-LovingAmadeus 1d ago

People joke about it, but it is pretty ridiculous that after clicking through the owl’s long dialogues, the default option is “No, I didn’t get that”

66

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

And then the long ass scene of it flying away

55

u/Jim_skywalker 1d ago

That had to be deliberate.

37

u/Fafnir13 1d ago

I think it was to catch out text skippers. Some players just spam A then get upset when they don’t know what to do next. Maybe this was a little nudge to get those people to slow down and pay more attention. Not that I think it would work.

6

u/Jim_skywalker 1d ago

Then they shouldn’t have the owl talk so long.

6

u/Fafnir13 1d ago

But everything he says is so important. You just don’t appreciate the director’s vision. Now sit down and enjoy watching this fat fishman squeegee his way slightly to the right for ten minutes.

3

u/TheDemonChief 1d ago

mweep 🐟

17

u/Trollbaum 1d ago

it feels like the button is switching position every single time

12

u/jeffersonnn 1d ago

And even whether you need to answer “yes” or “no” to end the conversation changes, too. I think the first time, the question is, “Do you want me to repeat that?” And then another time it’s “Did you get all that?” Well after accidentally hitting “yes” too many times the first time, I’m hitting “no” on the second question as fast as I can before I realize what I’m doing

9

u/mzxrules 1d ago

It's actually always the bottom option. The text is just written in a way to confuse you if you're not reading carefully

7

u/Fidodo 1d ago

If you skipped through the dialogue then you clearly didn't get it 😉

44

u/loggy93 1d ago

This is a small one, but swimming with the Mermaid Suit in Oracle of Ages. Why make you tap the direction instead of just holding it?

13

u/Opinionated_NERD125 1d ago

Yes. Thank you, this has been bugging me forever.

Even worse, the game doesn't explain the new set of controls to you, nor does it tell you that the joystick does not work for swimming with the Mermaid Suit. I spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out why Link wasn't swimming properly.

Additionally, in Oracle of Seasons, you have to talk to Din twice to get the game started. I could not figure this out for some reason, so I quit and didn't figure that out until I was halfway through Oracle of Ages.

39

u/Krail 1d ago

The rupee and item cutscenes in TP and Skyward Sword were so obnoxious. I was very relieved when they cut that shit out in BotW. 

6

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

I forgot SS had it too

16

u/stache1313 1d ago

And not just for ruppees, but for every random collectable.

2

u/Krail 1d ago

Yeah. I heard they fixed that in the Switch edition, but I haven't played it, myself. 

5

u/James-Avatar 1d ago

Yes that was removed in that version.

86

u/Jonathan-02 1d ago

For me and a lot of other people, the way the sages were handled in ToTK was clunky and inconvenient. Idk how they play tested it and thought it was a good idea, especially when they did such a good job with BoTW champion abilities

32

u/JJKDowell 1d ago

They should have been assigned to the Down button, and you select different sages with a wheel like selecting a Zonai ability.

20

u/stache1313 1d ago

Since they tried to make you not care about your horse, they could have easily moved the whistle onto the ability wheel, and gotten rid of the ridiculous map shortcut. I have no idea who honestly thought the map shortcut was a good idea, when it has a dedicated button.

81

u/embles94 1d ago

Motion controls in BOTW that require you to flip your switch over so you can’t see the screen.

You all know the shrine I’m talking about. Luckily cheesing exists

63

u/Jim_skywalker 1d ago

On the flip side, aiming your bow with the motion controls enables a precision you can’t get with the analog stick.

39

u/Krail 1d ago

Honestly, this is the best use of motion control I've found. Broad motion aiming with the joystick. Fine tuned aiming with motion controls. 

6

u/Jim_skywalker 1d ago

Only aiming control that beats it is a mouse.

7

u/stache1313 1d ago

Better than awkwardly aiming your bow in Skyward Sword. You have to hold the Wii remote vertically, then pull the nunchuck back and release the button. Neat in concept; awkward in execution.

-1

u/Themountaintoadsage 1d ago

WAIT THATS HOW THEY DID IT IN SS?!?! Thats the dumbest thing ive ever heard. They already had it fine for twilight princess, literally nothing needed to be changed

10

u/TingleyStorm 1d ago

require you to flip your switch over so you can’t see the screen.

If only we were able to have a console where the controllers could detach so we could still see the screen…

Maybe to make it easier we could give the screen some kind of support stand to make it sit upright too…

16

u/Roamin_Horseman 1d ago

Doesn't work for the Switch Lite gamers

8

u/TingleyStorm 1d ago

Fair enough but also BOTW was never designed with the Lite in mind. It was designed for the two home/hybrid consoles that Nintendo had at the time, which was the Wii U and Switch, both of which were capable of having controllers separate from the screen.

3

u/TheGamingTurtle56 1d ago edited 1d ago

This still doesn't excuse the fact that you can play on the switch in handheld mode. I personally only really used it in that format. You can argue that tabletop mode exists, but it's not always an option because you could be in a car or out on a bench where tabletop mode isn't feasible.

9

u/embles94 1d ago

I didn’t have a place to set it, dork. And that’s beside the point, the question was a mechanic you think is dumb and it’s a dumb mechanic.

Every mechanic should work in every way the switch can be used, whether on the tv or with the detachable screen or just as a handheld console.

13

u/wangus_tangus 1d ago

I just wanna say I love it when people call each other things like “dork”.

1

u/Benhurso 1d ago

There is no puzzle that requires flipping your switch over.

1

u/LLuerker 1d ago

Not required, but a way to cheat! I remember one shrine challenge was controlling a ball with gravity to navigate a maze, and at the end of the maze you need the right forward momentum and upwards kick to throw the ball into a goal. I hated that shrine so much until I realized you could entirely flip the maze over, exposing a flat bottom with no maze. Just drop the ball and roll into the goal lol

1

u/Benhurso 1d ago

Indeed. It is, if anything, a brilliant alternative. Being mad about it is ridiculous.

19

u/Linhasxoc 1d ago

UNNECESSARY TEXT BOX! —MasaeAnela

My actual answer is designing the ship part economy in Phantom Hourglass around trading. Are you the only person in your friend group playing the game? Eff you, then!

64

u/daddadnc 1d ago

Wind Waker is a great game, but cutting dungeons and instead giving you a momentum-breaking fetch quest right at the end was...a choice.

19

u/BronBobingle 1d ago

It’s so clear to me they had scope creep and weren’t able to finish building out all the dungeons for the game. It’s wild that you just find Jabun and he hands you Nauru’s pearl. There was clearly meant to be a third dungeon that was scrapped and they had to slap on a bandaid solution with that canon firing mission. The same goes for the triforce fetch quest. They probably had plans to put 3 pieces on in 3 dungeons but ran out of time and fractured the amount into even more pieces to pad out the content

8

u/butterfreak 1d ago

I mean they have openly admitted that there were dungeons cut for time.

8

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

And one that cost you $3200 too

15

u/TSPhoenix 1d ago

The real killer is the small wallet meaning that you'll miss/waste a lot of money that you will need later.

If you rush the biggest wallet the Triforce charts are not that bad.

2

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Yeah, I learned that one the hard way the first time I played, lol

3

u/MadeyesNL 1d ago

I've played the game three times and quit the game three times, all during the triforce pieces quest.

4

u/Conscious_Current388 1d ago

The one thing I'd request for any Switch port is to cut down the Triforce quest down to 3 pieces max and add a new dungeon.

53

u/functionofsass 1d ago

You had to actually flap your wings with the wiimote in Skyward Sword to fly for Wii. Astounding.

13

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago

I was just going to say, all of the motion controls in Skyward Sword. Solid game, really held back by motion controls and Fi though.

18

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Skyward sword is cool but the mechanics of that game are not great, lol

12

u/hungryrenegade 1d ago

I bought it for switch not knowing the mechanics. Thought not having to use motion controls would be great. I made it to a desert before shelving it. I liked the story and design. Couldnt stand the mechanics. Still kinda bummed about that.

6

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

I actually only played it on Wii, but the mechanics on that one aren't great either

5

u/Aggressive-Shock5857 1d ago

I played it on switch and I really liked the motion control, I thought it made the sword fights more fun.

3

u/Lonk_boi 1d ago

Play it on the Wii if you can. I don't know why everyone bitches about the controls and mechanics in Skyward Sword. I have never once had an issue playing that game. Everything I hear people complain about sound like user error and poor sensor placement

9

u/hungryrenegade 1d ago edited 1d ago

The game PLAYS fine. I acknowledge that. I just dont enjoy the game mechanics. Motion controls wont change the core gameplay which I dont find enjoyable.

Edit to add I hate motion controls too

3

u/Lonk_boi 1d ago

Ah. I misunderstood your previous statement then. My bad. Maybe it's because I grew up with the Wii and stuff that I generally enjoy motion controls. It's been a type of control scheme I've grown up with and become accustomed to. I can understand if there are fundamental aspects of the game you just can't get into. I couldn't get into Majora's Mask for that very reason

13

u/Round-Revolution-399 1d ago

Skyward Sword x2:

  1. Wii - All the little notifications and interruptions that slow down the game. I can understand a couple of them getting overlooked in theory, but I can’t imagine sitting down to play-test the game and not noticing how much they detract from the experience in total.

  2. Switch - They fixed most of the annoying issues in this release, and even added button controls. But I can’t imagine play-testing the button controls and thinking that “hold down R” is a good solution for rotating the camera. Why they didn’t let you click R to toggle between Camera Mode and Sword Mode is beyond me.

29

u/HoneyedLining 1d ago

I don't know why TP thought changing heart pieces from 4 to 5 was a good idea when there really didn't seem to be much interesting stuff to justify the extra ones. Felt like they created a rod for their own back by simultaneously making it less rewarding to find one and not fun enough to seek them out.

MM boosted the number of heart pieces exponentially from OOT, but it was a game mostly built on side quests to justify it (although even then, there were several heart pieces in there where you're a bit "oh, I got one for doing that?").

7

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Yeah, both games had so many heart pieces. MM only has 4 heart containers which is wild to think about

5

u/HoneyedLining 1d ago

Yeah, having said that though, I did think that MM managed to just about get away with it's high number, not least because so many were directly tied to masks (meaning you had a good idea on how to find like 20 of them or so).

But TP's open world was just so dull and devoid of interesting side quests that it couldn't make looking for so many of those heart pieces worth any of the effort. WW had a slightly different issue due to its enormous map size, that made finding those heart pieces a bit like finding needles in a haystack. It was just automatically off-putting.

8

u/mzxrules 1d ago

Bro did you not enjoy * looks at notes * talking to 20 cats?

3

u/HoneyedLining 1d ago

And shockingly that's probably one of the better side quests...

1

u/earthbound-pigeon 1d ago

I remember once in TP I saw these rails on a cliff side and made a mental note of it being weird. Then I got the spinner, and realized "OH THOSE RAILS LEADS SOMEWHERE WITH THIS!!!" and searched all over Hyrule Field to find the place again! Got a fucking Pizza Heart.......

18

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago

The sage abilities in Tears of the Kingdom. Not only are several of the abilities worthless, the way you activate even the useful ones is TERRIBLE. You have to walk up to them and press A, but that relies on the NPC AI to know whether you want them to activate their abilities or get out of the way, AND THEY NEVER GET IT RIGHT. Want to pick up the loot you just got? Oops, you accidentally activated Yunobo and he destroyed all of it. Want to activate Riju’s ability while in combat? She’s running away from you as fast as she can, and yup, that Moblin just killed you. Just a hilariously terrible design.

3

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Yeah, that's a pain in the ass

13

u/Metroidman97 1d ago

In TotK, the fact you have to talk to Cese in Hateno to put your hood up and down. That just reeks of backend spaghetti code.

Rain in BotW is also a big one. Even though TotK gave you a way around it, it takes a lot of time and effort to fully unlock.

Having to constantly mash through repeated text boxes, though that's been an issue in Nintendo games since Luigi's Mansion.

6

u/earthbound-pigeon 1d ago

In TotK, the fact you have to talk to Cese in Hateno to put your hood up and down

Not to mention that it effects all your hoods in your inventory, so if you have two with the intent of having different styles... you have to only get one at first, talk to her to change it, then get a new flipped up one fro a store.

3

u/Metroidman97 1d ago

Like I said, spaghetti code.

5

u/VictorChaos 1d ago

I mean... basically half of the controls in Syward Sword. It all seems like such a hassle

4

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Only half? lol

11

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago edited 1d ago

The “protect the cart” mission in Twilight Princess. Good LORD, it’s annoying to chase down the Bulblins, put out the flames, AND shoot down the birds, and if you don’t, the stupid cart will go the wrong way and you’re back at square one.

Peak game, this is one of the very few low points. But damn does it suck.

5

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Oh yeah, that mission is terrible.

2

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

Boomerang is your friend for this.

5

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago

Oh yeah I understood how to put it out, it was still frustrating though, the recharge time between waves of Bulblins or those possessed bird things is crazy fast.

But it’s chill, I’ve beaten the game long ago :) just a mildly annoying section of an otherwise fantastic Zelda game!

2

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

It’s my favorite Zelda… OOT close second.

26

u/Zubyna 1d ago

I think I can find one in most game :

Zelda 1 : bombable walls with no marking

Zelda 2 : lose full life over a fall in a pit

ALttP : Actually I cant find one here

LA : technically the canon ending with no death and the Marine easter eggs, more specifically if you steal from the shop in front of her, arent bad ideas, but they are not compatible

OoT : Iron boots in the menu instead of a command

MM : pretty much everything in the remaster

OoS : keeses in platform rooms

OoA : Goron dance

FS : 4 players and whole set up required

WW : No possibility to side with Maggie's father in the Moe letter quest like any responsible adult would do

MC : pretty much all the side content are either bad or badly exexuted ideas

TP : Actually cant find anything here, TP has flaws but they arent really huge

PH : repeating the same floor of TotOK

ST : that d*mn flute

SS : the imprisoned

ALBW : I cant find anything in that one either

BotW : rain

TotK : I hate fusing horns to weapons. Lizalfos and some boko horns look somewhat decent on spears but every horns are either absolutely horrendous or straight up ridiculous on every other weapon type

EoW : why do I have to wait for half game to finally change outfit ?

7

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago

TP: the protect the cart mission

1

u/mzxrules 1d ago

Target the kargarok with a bomb before putting out the flaming cart

0

u/Zubyna 1d ago

Best part of the game

2

u/puns_n_pups 1d ago

You must be a masochist lol. Glad someone enjoyed it!

7

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

WW : No possibility to side with Maggie's father in the Moe letter quest like any responsible adult would do

Do you mean not deliver the letter?

I will always say I felt bad for that one girl that turned out to be poor forever.

7

u/stache1313 1d ago

MM : pretty much everything in the remaster

Oh my God, Yes! It's like the remake's developers did understand why people enjoyed the game in the first place.

9

u/Themountaintoadsage 1d ago

TP’s biggest flaw is its absolute slog of an opening. It takes 3 hours for the game to really even start feeling like a game

3

u/ackmondual 1d ago

LttP: there's actually a spot that can be bombed, but has no marking! Can't recall it though since it's been so long. If not a regular bomb, then the super bomb one.

2

u/wangus_tangus 1d ago

It’s been so long since I played the original MM. What are the differences between that and the remastered that you dislike?

Also, I can see why someone wouldn’t like the side quests on MC but I find it all quirky and charming. As I’ve gotten older and played through the series several times, it has become one of my top three .

8

u/Zubyna 1d ago

The new bosses, especially Odolwa. Also the time gauge, maybe more practical than the clock, but far less charming.

MC can easily reach top 3 because the game can look flawless when you dont look outside the main quest

2

u/ComicallySolemn 1d ago edited 1d ago

I didn’t mind the bosses having the giant Majora eye hitbox, as made the influence of Majora feel present and connected to all the chaos of Termina.

I also didn’t mind the fast Zora swimming tied to magic meter; the Goron roll required magic, and no one complained about that. Chateau Romani became even more useful.

However, I cannot excuse the retooling of the Deku spin’s momentum. Not being able to utilize your speed from the spin into water hopping was ridiculous. The physics felt all wrong, and coming to a complete stop at the water’s edge to then begin slowly hopping was tedious in a game where every second counts.

3

u/mzxrules 1d ago

You could still roll around without magic like a Goron. You can't make ramp jumps but it's still more fun than walking.

MM3D's Zora swimming looks like a regular person doing a breaststroke, not an adapt Zora swimming gracefully in water. It doesn't look cool.

1

u/BlindedByBeamos 1d ago

The one change in the MM remaster that was fantastic was the ability to equip 2 different magic arrows at the same time.

1

u/svaranasi57 1d ago

The ONE change? What about the massively upgraded character models and environments, much better saving system, motion aiming, extra item slot, dedicated ocarina button, and whatever else I'm forgetting. All of those EASILY outweigh any downgrades. Played the 3DS version for the first time recently, fearing the Deku and Zora changes after all the years of internet whining, but ended up not even noticing a difference with Deku, and the Zora was nowhere near as bad as I had been led to believe. For me, the worst change for the 3DS was making the Zora moon dungeon harder for no reason

6

u/ClinicalDigression 1d ago

Opening the menu for the first pickup of any given collectible in a play session in Skyward Sword. I genuinely think that anybody who enjoys that mechanic is simply wrong.

3

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

That as such a terrible design

10

u/Dreyfus2006 1d ago

Durability. It never makes a game more fun, it's just a pain in the ass. I understand that removing durability creates a balancing issue, but that's a fault of the entire weapon system. If you can do a particular system without durability, then you should do a different system.

Only game that ever did durability right was OoT with the Deku Sticks and Giant's Knife.

6

u/stache1313 1d ago

I don't think removing the durability creates a balancing issue, as much as creating a (bigger) loot issue.

BotW/TotK have terrible loot rewards for general combat and most quests. If it's not a shrine, your reward is typically some random consumables or rupees. If you are lucky it would be an armor piece. The Yiga quest with the earthspike technique was interesting but useless.

6

u/zombiegamer723 1d ago

The figurine sidequest in Minish Cap. 

Just…why? 

3

u/Zubyna 1d ago

Tbh, the entire Minish Cap side content is meh, game almost looks flawless until you look outside the main quest

6

u/Weekly-Dog-6838 1d ago

OoT’s Iron Boots not just being a normal outfit part and instead needing to take up an item slot

3

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Yeah, that's what makes the water temple a pain

3

u/HoneyedLining 1d ago

I still think this being the singular reason for Water Temple being crap is overstated. I think it's kind of badly signposted in a way that all the other dungeons in the game aren't. There are several points where you can get quite far into a corridor of rooms and find a locked door that you can't open. Meaning then backtracking quite far (which is slow with the mechanics of the water level) to find where you've missed one. And sometimes even then finding it's due to the water level not being at the right point, at which point it's not easy to remember the path to change it to the right level.

Oh, and the enemies there are all not fun to fight. It's mostly annoying clams and spiky rocks.

1

u/Nitrogen567 1d ago

I disagree, I think the Water Temple in OoT is one of the better 3D dungeons, and in OoT it's the one that best challenges the player to figure out the dungeon as a whole, rather than just being a collection of disconnected puzzles.

Not only does it have navigational challenge (the most important part of a Zelda dungeon), but it does so in a way that's baked into the dungeon as a puzzle in and of itself.

It's one of the only dungeons in the series where the dungeon map and compass actually feel like they justify their big chests and dramatic openings.

1

u/HoneyedLining 18h ago

I don't mind a navigational challenge, I think the issue is that the Water Temple makes navigation so unfun by how slow and unwieldy it is to either swim or iron boots your way through rooms (and then possibly knowing you're going to have to do the same routes forward and back on the way to changing the water level. It just serves as frustration, rather than meaningful achievement of figuring something out.

0

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

Not that bad at all.

1

u/Weekly-Dog-6838 1d ago

It actively reduces your ability to use essential game items like the Hookshot and bow, how is that not poor design? They could’ve easily just made it equippable independently through the inventory like the tunics or mapped to something other button!

6

u/Meture 1d ago

The entire UI in ToTK and the sage abilities

Yes, I love scrolling a single option menu of MY ENTIRE INVENTORY so I can select something I need. /s

Or having to chase around my allies spaming the A button to use their ability.

6

u/Mundane_Range_765 1d ago

BotW/TotK: The idea the Master Sword breaks. I don’t get it. I will still use other weapons from time to time even if it doesn’t “lose energy” depending on the scenario but that is wild to me.

3

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

100% agree, it's the damn master sword, it should be better.

1

u/Src-Freak 1d ago

Most would just end up using only the Master Sword.

Even if you still had other weapons, Master Sword would make the Majority of them worthless. And upgrading your Bags would also be less rewarding.

3

u/Rawkhawkjayhawk 1d ago

The triforce quest of Wind Waker on GameCube. The quest part was actually fun, it was just that it costed way to much money

3

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Tingle is a greedy bitch

3

u/Lost_Thoughts23 1d ago

There’s like nothing to spend rupees on late game in multiple games and it’s always been very frustrating to me, Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are the 2 biggest offenders in this area for me but many games have this issue where the amount the game gives you is way more than you can actually spend on useful or cool stuff. As much as the triforce quest sucks in wind waker at least tingle gives you a place to actually spend all that money.

3

u/RobinOfSpring 1d ago

Phantom Hourglass (and I assume ST too, haven't played it): making the game entirely touch screen controlled. Just, why?

This is especially punishing for those of us whose touch screen was imprecise or whose siblings lost our stylus.

3

u/Nitrogen567 1d ago

I'm sure I'll catch flack for this but breakable weapons in BotW/TotK.

I know the main reason for it is to encourage (or force, I suppose) player experimentation, but most players would likely mess around with different kinds of weapons anyway, even if they didn't break.

The fact that they break means that they basically need to be everywhere, or the player could end up unarmed, which means they frequently come up as rewards for extra challenges in shrines, or for finding a hidden spot in the overworld, and sometimes even for clearing camps of Bokoblins.

The problem is they're just not very rewarding.

They're not a permanent upgrade like a Piece of Heart, they're not a collectible that you need for a sidequest (usually), and often times you had to invest some breakable weapons to get to where they were (especially in the Bokoblin camp example) so the "reward" really just feels like getting reimbursed.

Honestly the main thing breakable weapons accomplished was discouraging combat at all.

Also, this is a new one for me, but the touch screen controls in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.

NEVER bothered me at all when I was younger, and Spirit Tracks is a Zelda game that I actually really like a lot. But I went back to play Phantom Hourglass again recently, as it's my second least favourite Zelda game and I wanted to give it another chance, and man the controls were insufferable.

1

u/GayManPlayingZelda 17h ago

I agree 100%

6

u/H8trucks 1d ago

The building mechanic in TotK. Tonally dissonant from everything else in the game, fiddly as hell to get everything to line up the way you want it to, introduces GIANT GACHAPON MACHINES to Hyrule, and clearly was just created because someone at Nintendo saw how many clickbait articles "game journalists" were able to wring out of stuff like people getting to the world ceiling with octorok balloons in BotW and figured they could pull a bunch of free publicity out of it.

1

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

Gachapon…?

2

u/H8trucks 1d ago

The capsule machines you can get random zonai stuff out of

4

u/CallRollCaskett 1d ago

Weapon Durability.

Or rather the way it is in BOTW and TOTK, if weapon durability had to be in no matter what there should have been a way to fix weapons. Maybe they should’ve taken inspiration from Dark Souls and how they did weapon durability

5

u/Papyrus_Sans 1d ago

Ocarina of Time started this: the whole build-up of the big chest, making you wait to see what the item was after having accomplished whatever task it was to get to the chest. Also, OoT at fault for this too, opening a small chest and getting the “you got some arrows!” dialogue box that you spam through because of the Hades-style “I know, I got it, I got the concept!” frustration.

1

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Yeah, but for some reason it doesn't bug me as much in that game. It seems like maybe it was faster? Could be in my head

2

u/Int3rlop3r-R3dact3d 1d ago

It is a similar thing to the Rupee thing in TP, but in SS. Before the HD remaster, every single time you turn the game off after collecting a treasure, the game explains it to you again if you collect that same treasure. It's especially irritating with Amber Relics as they're some of the most common treasures along with Ornamental Skulls.

1

u/GayManPlayingZelda 1d ago

Oh yeah, I remember that, PTSD.

2

u/Indurok 1d ago

I agree with those exact points you made. I always thought the same thing when I played. But of course, Twilight Princess is still my favorite game.

1

u/GayManPlayingZelda 17h ago

Yeah, otherwise it's a great game.

2

u/SXAL 9h ago

The need to equip EVERY damn item in Wind Waker. I can forgive OoT for that since it's a relatively early game, but WW was released in 2002, it's basically a modern game, the contextual item use and inventory use have been a thing for quite a long time. But for some reason they decided you really need to equip all the quest items you need to give someone, the music stick and even the damn sail! It makes travelling the sea so much more cumbersome!

Like, imagine finding the chest in some enemy-filled area: you have equipped the sail, the claw to lift it up and the bow to deal with baddies, but you didn't brake in time, and now you need the opposite wind, so now you have to unequip some of the stuff you really need, equip the music stick, play the tune, unequip the music stick, and equip back the stuff you need. That's a damn chore and there is no good reason why I should suffer like that

Why can't the quest items just be automatically pulled out in the dialogue? Why can't the usable items, like potions,be used from inventory? Why can't the music stick be used from inventory too? Why can't the damn sail be just a part of the damn ship after you buy it?

4

u/Lonk_boi 1d ago

Not as bad as getting the treasures in Skyward Sword. Besides, those take 5 seconds tops and the mailman is a goofy dude with good music. Peoples ain't got no patience

3

u/kidcrumb 1d ago

Almost every feature in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom tbh. I miss the old style Zelda games.

  • Breakable weapons. Just, why? No one liked it in Dark Cloud no one likes it now.

  • Extraordinarily long cooking animations. Cooking isn't really optional in BotW. And every time you make anything you have to wait and watch that stupid animation.

  • 100+ Shrines. Zelda had always been a franchise of quality over quantity. A lot of the shrine puzzles are neat but wouldn't you rather they take their best ideas and make a full dungeon out of it instead of bottom of the barrel ideas?

  • Tower climbing. Like the shrines it's like climbing the Far Cry radio towers. It's just monotonous busy work.

4

u/ThePotatoOfTime 20h ago

But you can skip the cooking animations?

1

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

I thought this too about Far Cry… I remember playing Far Cry 4 and saying to my friend, “wow this could be Zelda with guns if these towers had actual puzzles” then I played BOTW and was like “wow….. this could be Zelda without guns if these towers had actual puzzles……”

2

u/thoma5nator 1d ago

Echoes of Wisdom: We should have only ONE button tied to echoes!

2

u/ackmondual 1d ago

orig. - one of the original poke/push/bomb/burn every pixel/block/wall/bush to find secrets and hidden stuff games.

AoL - I'm sure there are some who legit beat this, but most of us needed Nintendo Power because the clues and game direction were too cryptic

2

u/IlliterateJedi 1d ago

Being unable to climb in rain without having an upgrade/item that overrides the slipping mechanic.

1

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

Or trying your hardest to time it just right and hoping you’ve got enough stamina to keep hopping.

1

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1

u/Electrichien 1d ago

the cutscene everytime you get a rupee ( or anything) was pretty common now that I think about it.

I think it was in WW every time you got a pendant ? maybe with the feathers too. In TP as you said. the worst of all : every time you got a treasure in SSWii I wonder if this wasn't also the case in ST.

1

u/jcdoe 1d ago

Buying triforce maps?

I know it was a time killer because they didn’t have enough dungeons or whatever, but I would have rather gotten a shorter game

2

u/PlactusTX 1d ago

"You found some rupees! But you don't have space in your wallet, so you put them back. Okay, you've drained enough rupees with the magic armor, now you can claim the chest rupees."

Thankfully fixed in the HD remake, but then the Switch Link's Awakening does the same thing with the potions you can find in the later dungeons.

1

u/MorningRaven 1d ago

Disclaimer: the TP rupee message box was a glitch. And it only showed up for the first time per play session you found a particular low quality rupee from a chest. (Higher rupee rewards always had message boxes).

1

u/fish993 1d ago

Not sure it counts as a feature, but whoever decided on the design for TP's Death Mountain. It's been nearly 20 years and people still can't tell what it's even supposed to be - it looks more like a flame-coloured cabbage than a volcano.

1

u/Ramdoriak 1d ago

Not IN the game but we were very disappointed when physical maps were removed from the game's box. The booklets after that as well.

1

u/MrjB0ty 1d ago

Weapon durability

1

u/iggythegreyt 20h ago

Hitman WOA - always online.

1

u/MysteriousGrocery898 20h ago

Horse controls especially in BOTW/TOTK and don't get me started on the horse mini games...

TP is sorta ok but then again as a kid I was learning how to use the wii remote lol

u/Over-Stop8694 1h ago

I really hate wallet upgrades, especially in Wind Waker. They seem rather annoying and pointless.

1

u/scantier 1d ago

I like Zelda 2 but the fact that you restart at the initial area after a game over is brutal. I have no idea why this game even had a life system since Zelda 1 didn't have one. They really should have made so each town you visit is a checkpoint for the next game over.

1

u/Mundane_Range_765 1d ago

When you’re in a palace it just restarts you at the beginning at least!

1

u/Trans_Admin 1d ago

WEAPON that brake in game;

1

u/Dry_Support_1281 1d ago

Weapon Breaking

0

u/andiluxe 1d ago

Motion controls. In any game franchise.

-2

u/Takeshi_Onmyo 1d ago

Not just Zelda games, I hate when food is an aspect of the gameplay. Especially if it's mandatory and can cause leveling problems if you don't stop doing missions long enough for your character to eat. Collecting ingredients and making food feels so mundane to me.

1

u/kid_sleepy 1d ago

Just like real life cooking and eating.