And Eiji Aonuma. That f***er kept so many secrets from us in LoZ:TP, and almost had me feel like he'd been leading us on about Ganon being in the game (I was specific about how he was gonna appear, as Ganon, or as Ganondorf, or both. Turns out it was both). Hell, he should've at least mentioned Zant.
Wait... Isn't it better Zant wasn't mentioned? Keeping secrets from the players is a good strategy, by the way; it means you're going into the game with less of an idea what's going to happen. I can't see how that's a bad thing.
I'd like to say Aonuma taking over really made a huge improvement to the Zelda series. Sure the games were already great to begin with (my favourite is ALttP, for instance), but he really gave it that amazing feel that began in, say, Majora's Mask. While I'm aware he worked on OoT as well, it wasn't till MM that he got huge control over the games, and it really shows how much of a difference he makes.
TP, however, I'm on the fence about. While it was fun, it felt rushed and too short for a game hyped up to be "the biggest Zelda yet". There was a
lot of cut material, and when you see these things in old screenshots you wonder what the extra year delay was for. Apparently it was for the Wii version to be made, but really, look at those beautiful locations they dropped/altered - Hyrule Market? Used to be HUGE, with over 100 NPCs walking along on-screen at once. Now look at the final version. It's like a fucking step backward. To be honest, I found TP to be really enjoyable, but there was a lot of wasted opportunity; the Wiimote ideas suggested in a magazine I read were really clever, and now of them were in the final game. Throwing bombs with the Wiimote, pulling back the remote for the bow, swinging bottles to catch things, physically deciding your style of sword swing...
Zant was great though, what a fucking nutcase.
Wait, this is the Influential thread? Jesus Shadow, why are onto a Zelda discussion?
