How would you like to see the Zelda legend told? - Page 2

Perfect Stu · 01-29-2002, 06:59 PM

Novel!

Whaaaaaat...I like books...

*runs away*

Koopa · 01-29-2002, 09:47 PM

can i vote for all of the above?

Perfect Stu · 01-29-2002, 10:52 PM

Koopa, if I can prevent trouser fires, why'd my pants go up in smoke yesterday?

Gamer · 01-30-2002, 12:56 AM

I think that if they made a cartoon series that would be sweet! I think that watching it on TV like the old days would be awsome, i would have to reserve a half hour a day, just for that. Hmm, *goes and votes for animated series at nintendo.com* My job here is done!

surfin4lifer · 01-30-2002, 01:15 AM

I think a book written right would make one of hte best books ever.

It wouldn't be too hard. I mean they could make it huge.

I mean they make games out of books and movies. why not make a book out of a game?

It wouldn't be straight forward like a game.

I don't have time to write about it right now but I'm sure i can come up with some crazy ass **** for a zelda book.

Xantar · 01-30-2002, 11:03 AM

surfin4lifer, there is more to writing books than coming up with "crazy a@@ s***." Take it from someone who writes books as a hobby. It's nice, sometimes even essential, to have novel ideas, but if you don't know how to properly tell a story, the book will be terrible. You have to know what writing style to adopt, how to properly develop characters, how to properly describe situations and generally how to use the language. This is why most fanfics you can find on the internet are terrible. The writers don't understand how to make a good story.

Let's suppose you have all the proper skills, then. How do you adopt the Zelda story to the page? You cite the example of movies and books being made into games, but there's a critical difference. Games are not concerned with having good plots and storylines. I just got around to reading about Metal Gear's storyline. With all due apologies to Metal Gear fans (I'm sure the game is enjoyable to play), the plot stinks. It has holes and clichŽs everywhere. Without the gameplay to make it enjoyable, in other words, it would be terrible. Guess what? If you made Metal Gear into a novel, you'd take away the gameplay. So if Metal Gear wouldn't make a good novel, what makes you think Zelda would? You'd have to change things drastically to make it decent.

Ah, so you're thinking we could change things around a bit. Introduce new characters, worlds, weapons etc. Yes, you could do that, but then are you really writing a story based on a game? Or are you just borrowing the superficial elements that make up a game? For once, I'm going to talk about my fanfic in a constructive way. The Zelda storyline is terrible as a storyline goes. It's riddled with inconsistencies and just not very interesting. I have only found one way to write a book about the world of Hyrule, and that's the tactic I'm adopting in my fanfic. Now, only 2 chapters are available right now, but already you can see that Hyrule has politics, religion and a smattering of violence. Is this really what the Zelda world is about? Does the princess blackmail people, do we see religious ceremonies dictating lives or blood spilling when things die? No. That's part of the game's charm. But you can't write a book that way. It will fall flat. You can't write a good book in which everybody goes out of their way to help Link, sometimes getting absolutely nothing in return. You can't write a good book in which legends about the Triforce exist and people don't start attaching morals to the belief in its existence. You can't write a good book in which there is no emotion attached to the pain and suffering of something that dies. Beyond a certain age, people will reject it.

But then again, it won't quite be a Zelda novel no matter how much the characters have the appearance of the game models.

I don't claim that my fanfic is the ideal way to write a Zelda story. It's just the only way I can think of. And don't get me wrong. I would favor a novel if it could be done right. But how easy is it to do a Zelda novel the right way? In my opinion, not easy at all.

Gamer · 02-08-2002, 01:13 AM

Does anyone know if Nintendo has official plans to make a movie or a series?

02-08-2002, 01:27 AM

Well, I'm guessing they're asking for a reason...and then work from there.

KS · 02-08-2002, 10:38 AM

A novel.

Naturally it isn't as easy as it sounds, as Xantar quite nicely explained above. It would take a great writer and a lot of time for that writer to write a fine Zelda story, but even then it could fall flat. I envisage a story of epic proportions similiar to LOTR, a plethora of landscape adjectives and positions that make the reader feel like the're the ones in the state of trepidation. Along with all the melancholy falling off bridges scenes

02-08-2002, 04:52 PM

Though they don't have it as a choice (damn American audiences) I would like it as an anime. Not crap like Nintendo's current Pokémon series but a really serious full length anime taking into account the beginning of everything even before Link came along started with the three goddesses.

Plastic0006 · 02-08-2002, 10:43 PM

dang man xantar i just got done reading the zelda fanfic of yours keep going that is one of the best descriptive fanfics ive ever read and i havent read that many fanfics but im sure its good.

u should really publish your own books.I could never do that in a million years im amazed. keep up the good work man.hey im gonna im u later k?