SOUL CALIBUR 2 LINK!
© Copyright 2003 Video Gamer X Publications

Fans of the Zelda video games, and of course their star hero, Link, should cheer what Namco did for Link's image, which Nintendo has consistently been tarnishing by manifesting him in their latest Zelda games in his child form drawn as a cartoon. Link appears in Soul Calibur II as his now famous, from Ocarina of Time, adult form. He has the Master Sword and the standard issue Hylian Shield with the red phoenix and the three golden triangles of the triforce. He wears his standard Green Tunic, but you can change it to Red and Blue. The graphics for link are just awesome.

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When I started playing as Link in Soul Calibur, I first checked out all his moves. What's cool about Link is that whoever programmed him into the game took all the little attributes from the Zelda games, EVEN THE NES ONES, and formed them into fighting tactics. Missing from Ocarina of Time, was Link's upslash and downslash like in Zelda II: The Adventures of Link for the NES, but Soul Calibur Link does have these abilities, and only a video game veteran of my age would remember it. Some of Link's other moves include jumping on other fighters and smacking them with the sword like he's riding Epona, or dropping a bomb on them, and firing and arrow with the bow. If you play the Weapon Master part of the game, you can buy the Biggoron's Sword and the Cane of Byrna (Zelda: ALink to the Past, SNES) and Link can equip it. (There appear to be numerous other weapons he can get, but I haven't unlocked all those yet) I can't tell you how cool the fighting engine controls are for Link in this game.

Unfortunately Link didn't have his own official stage or arena however a wonderfully orchesrated version of the Hyrule Overworld Theme and the Hyrule Castle Music plays on levels where you fight Link or when you are playing as him on certain arenas. Link doesn't talk much, rather just saying things like "Hyaaah, and hhuuuyaaah, and yaaaa!"

This really really got me thinking. When playing as Link Ifelt that same feeling I got when I saw the Nintendo Japan Spaceworld 2000 Demonstration of a possible Zelda game for the GameCube, and I'm still at a total loss as to why Nintendo has chosen to buck the trend of modern games and finds favor in choosing an image for Link that really only appeals to small kids who watch cartoons with that kind of drawing style. The vision of Zelda that I once had when I was very young and playing the NES games and the Link to the Past on the SNES, was of a great heroic character, not a cartoon. The designers of Soul Calibur also know this. You know, if I had any say at all in the direction game developers produce games, or could personally speak with Miyamoto about Zelda, I would strongly advise that he collaborate with other developers and create a manifestation of the best image of Link rather than an inferior one. I was thinking while playing Soul Calibur II that if they just took the fighting engine of Link from here, and combined it with the Miyamoto gameplay engine from Ocarina of Time, that would make for one awesome level of gameplay. For instance, everything as far as riding horses, pulling up weeds, walking around, jumping from platform to platform, etc, those could all easily be ported over from Ocarina of Time, but during enemy battles, using a combination of the Lock-on approach in Ocarina of Time and the Soul Calibur II fighting engine the battles would take on an entirely new form altogether. I would love to be able to execute various combos and attacks on an Iron Knuckle, or Moblin and have the enemies fight back with their weapons in similar fashion to the fighters in Soul Calibur, that would just be awesome in terms of gameplay.

That being said, gameplay does not make an entire EPIC Zelda game, rather it's just a part of the whole package of Graphics, STORYLINE, Characters, Dialogue, Musical Score, Vast Overwold Layout, and Dungeon Design. Miyamoto has no troubles with Gameplay and Dungeon Design, however he seems to be somewhat minimalist when it comes to creating an epic mythological quest. The most recent Zelda games since 1998, including Ocarina of Time, I would classify as Fairytales, not essentially Quests. Mind you, Link must complete various tasks, however much of the game is task and puzzle solving oriented, and you spend most of your time playing "go fetch" rather than learning more lore and legend of Hyrule. I'll give Wind Waker credit for trying better to add storyline into the series, however, the premise of the "Seas of Hyrule" although unique probably isn't what gamers my age want to see from Zelda.

If Nintendo is reading this, then my best suggestion to you is this one. Look at the early days of the series, Hyrule in Zelda II: The Adventures of Link was this great vast world with several towns and cities, and had all these different distinct places and what would appear to be a culture. The Zelda games even had a congruent storyline, stretching from A Link to the Past until Zelda II: The Adventures of Link which is in actuality the "futuremost" Zelda game. To reestablish the great esteem of Zelda in the hearts and minds of ADULT gamers, you need to really rethink the current direction of the series, and create a kind of continuity in the storyline, build a VAST and OPEN Hyrule with a city, towns, castles, forts, outposts, many characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the Hyrule Castle from Wind Waker, let's see more of that, only on the scale of an entire game, a world, similar to something seen in Morrowind or the soon to appear Fable. Inhabit this world with many many different peoples and Hyrulians, and Shiekah, and Gerudos, etc. For sure, you can still include the bizarre races like the Kokiri, Zora, Gorons, etc, but set it up so that these races live in distant lands or if they do interact, they need a kind of social stratum of how they trade with each other or if they are reclusive and repressed by the more Humanoid races. I've really only described the Setting, but of course there should be Zelda, she should play a more active role in the storyline and be depicted in such beauty as to instill a kind of emotional attachment from the player who is essentially the eyes of ears of the hero Link. Perhaps their could be a kind of relationship that develops between them, maybe even love, that makes the person playing as Link feel more obligated to save her from Ganon or any other plight that might befall her. If Zelda is in some way his sister, that love would be familial, but still a kind of strong bond and attachment nonetheless.

I'm really a big fan of the Zelda series of games, but unfortunately I'm not a small kid anymore and my level of expectation as far as the previously outlined attributes of an epic quest of a video game especially one as endearing and long lived as Zelda, have long since changed, perhaps it was Final Fantasy VII that was the one of the first true amazing gaming experiences for me, and Ocarina of Time was noteworthy as well. Let's go back to that kind of Zelda, and bring back all the good things in the series, and start another golden era for that series.

Right now Nintendo GameCube sales are slumping, and just about dying completely here in the United States, with stiff competion for older gamers by Microsoft and Sony. They, unfortunately Nintendo, have the most cool games, for people our age, you however have very few, or just port over something from the other two systems. Just do it, make the most amazing Zelda games ever, and you'll destroy Microsoft and Sony, and get the kind of profits that your shareholders and boards of directors are wanting. I really absolutely don't want the name of Nintendo, whose hardware I grew up on as a child, to be relegated to the same fall from grace that SEGA experienced. Miyamoto, Yamauchi, Iwato, Kondo, just listen to us, the gamers, hear our voice and you'll find great success and inspiration in your artform.

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