Companions are so redundant. They're either annoying (Navi) or they hog the story for no reason (Minda). They just need to go and/or be optional like the Super Guide. Not to mention the slow walls of text.

Voice acting is something I am strongly for. Looking down to read a text box takes your attention AWAY from the scene and helps disconnect from the experience. I wouldn't make such a big deal if the games were 2D like A Link to the Past, but times have changed. If it can be done with games like Mass Effect and Metal Gear Solid, it can be done with Zelda.

And Predictability is probably my biggest grip with the series. Twilight Princess lacked any "Wow" because of it and was based entirely on nostalgic value in it's design. It was fine with A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and even Wind Waker, but after those games, it should have changed.

Side quests aren't as big as a problem as they're made out to be, but they're a problem never the less. Many of the more recent games don't give you something handy in return and just give you a heart piece that does nothing for you

Linearity is by far the biggest issue. The first 5 games didn't force you into a particular area with no freedom and in some cases allowed you to choose how you wanted to complete things. However, it slowly disappeared until it was no more. It wasn't so bad, but then games like Twilight Princess gave you a strait line and told you to play through the game for 1 hour to explore 1/6 of the total overworld. I can understand why they do make it so linear. Such a design allows much more complex designs in the game, but why does this need to be forced upon it's players? Why not give the players a choice on this? If this was Mario, I wouldn't care since that's not what the games are about, but this is Zelda and the games are based on exploration.

But yeah, good article.

On to the article: I agree with many things that the author has published but in all honesty, disagree with voice acting. It ruins what you think a character should sound like in most peoples heads and for a game that skips generations in it's plot like LoZ, people will start associating the voices from previous games which conflicts highly with the plots and would ruin controversies about certain characters. (eg.: the multiple Ganon theory.) Voices could potentially ruin the accepted games in the series just like they ruined / helped ruin the CDi games. (Though CDi was mostly just a graphical failure.)

I see no reason to ever add voice acting AND Nintendo agrees on that mater (as stated at E3 among other sources.)

And trust me blind fanboys are the worst thing that can happen to a series, they refuse to admit flaws and blurt out those who have legitimate complaints.

It can make the developer think that the fuckups are brilliant and add more fuckups to their next project.

By the way if you do not like the word fuck (derived from a german word which means to strike) then censor it if you wish.

my personal complaint at the moment is against the overuse of Cel shaded cartoon graphics with Zelda recently.

Breeze Breaker Four sores adventures the Mushie Cap and Phantom OW! ARR! Ass and Methylated Spirit Cracks (these name puns doing anything for you fella's?)

Have all been CELL SHADED It's a nice style but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH let it rest.

That's what bothers me the most, the Asparagus syndrome creator of Zelda seems to have hijacked the project with a weak excuse to cater to his shoddy taste with graphics.

I like this list, glad to see i am not the only person who is sick of the elemental temples, plot twist, somewhat unpredictable but rather unimpressive final revelation at the end.

But you should add number 6

Overuse of Cartoony graphics for too long.

On other notes, I think yeahs, sometimes we want more from a game, but when we get it, all nintendo get is complaints telling them that they should of known better.

I do agree with the Side-quests part though. It is true that a lot of the side-quests become challenging chores rather than enjoyable breaks from the story.

The Kafei and Anju quest in MM was really challenging for me.. I don't know about anyone else, but it was all easy until the 3rd day when we had to beat the mask to the end of the place. True to, is that the bug finding was a little rediculous.

At least we know now that nintendo has said themselves that the game is going to be a completely different game in terms of Zelda, and will be taken out of the formula a bit more.

This is an interesting thread that makes some valid points, while in some cases is stretching it a bit. I still don't think that those points are any reason to "hate" zelda… just things that it needs to improve a little on.

Now that is one good reason to request better development of the Zelda games (not that the recent games weren't good, but they could be better if the developers added some elements like that one). In the long past, considering the old Zelda games, there were no conditions to do such a thing as voice acting on a game. But now it just depends on the developers disposition and courage to place good quality voice acting in the series. Some thinks that the voice acting would destroy the feeling of a open world rpg-like game in the series, but seriously, putting as a example, the Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodline game has a lot of voice acted dialogues (except for the Player's character ones) and still, it has so many paths (and endings) to be followed according to your choices, side quests, rpg elements and even the feeling of really being in the game, living the plot as you would really live, with a character that (normally) acts like the Player (that makes a real conection between the player and the game, like Link does in the Zelda series). And that is just one example, more games of similar style had Voice acting and those elements were not only present, but they were a lot more interesting and original in those games. So, as i already said, applying Voice Acting in complex dialogues don't exactly destroy the original elements that features the Zelda series since its beginning.

…but seriously, if this is the only bad point in a specific Zelda game, in my opinion, it can be easily ignored. The Next Zelda games lack of voice acting will still be aceptable if those entries turns to be good games… but it will be very boring if the series keep in this way for too long.

…shit man…. forget about it

As for no voice actors, I like it. I am terrified of people coming in and screwing it up. Even in 2009 you can still find games with shoddy voice acting, even some of the big budget titles.

I did not even write this article but I do not appreciate people being rude like that.

For voice acting, I have never been too sure on my opinion. I could go either way. A lot of games have great voice acting but there are some that are terrible.

The games are very predictable and linear. I would very much like things to be mixed up a bit.

As for the "grievances", I agree with most to a certain degree. I don't agree with the voice acting – seriously, in most games (specially localized japanese games) voice acting is awful. Tales of Symphonia? Awful. Eternal Sonata? Awful. Final Fantasy X? God-Awful.
Would you want what would have been a good game ruined by crappy voice acting? That wish doesn't represent even half of the LoZ community.

As for companions, I think we're getting better. Sure, Navi was annoying (but as zoomot said, it's from a 10 year old game) but Tatl was a little better, whoever-spoke-from-the-stone in WW was better, and I don't really have any problems with Midna in TP and Zelda in Spirit Tracks. Or did you dislike Midna? Seriously?

As for the side quests, they were boring in TP and a little in WW too, but again I think they're getting better. Spirit Tracks makes me _want_ to search for the stamps and the treasures, which is a first for me.

As for Linearity+Predictability (sorry, but your wording was so bad that it made these seem the same problem more or less) you have a point – forest-fire-water-some other element is getting tired. What is wrong with simple caves, labyrinths, dungeons, swamps, like in the old games? I wouldn't mind exploring the Rawrmonster Cave instead of Rwarmonster Volcano. At least I wouldn't be expecting fire all the time.

As for plot predictability… we're getting better, but it's not going to change too much. And seriously, I don't mind it. Japanese RPGs are getting very cliched too, they feel like glorified anime or korean soap operas (never seen one? Watch one. There – you've watched them all). I don't mind Zelda's easy plots because at least they don't get all high and mighty and try to pretend to be, y'know, all DEEP and STUFF about LIFE.

Midna was always in there being annoying

But these statements really do apply to all zelda games. Not just OoT and TP. He made references to the 2 most popular but it applies to all or a good percentage