There has always been one video game myth that has bugged me. As someone who does laugh at how the Call of Duty games really seem to all be the same thing over and over again, when my favorite series is given the same treatment, I will defend that game series with great confidence. The series is the Legend of Zelda, and every time I hear anyone say anything about the games being the same, the first thing that happens is that I totally lose respect for that person, the second thing is that through a civil debate (at least I keep it civil), I make sure that person realizes either how ill informed or just how unintelligent they are, and here's how (some spoilers ahead, although I'll try to make them minimal).
I simply start from going game to game, first by console games and then by handhelds. Fair enough, yes? So let's do that. First with the console games. Are the Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link at all alike? No, not in any way, not in story or in gameplay. So, from Adventure of Link to A Link to the Past, similar in any way? No, obviously not at all, in story or in gameplay. Now, let's pause on a Link to the Past for a second. Is it maybe a lot like the Legend of Zelda? Well, both are top down games, but one is considerably different visually, has a different sword motion (that makes a huge difference in gameplay), has a much different progression to it, and has a much more full story to it, so no, again, 3 games, none of them are anything alike.
Moving forward, we make the switch into the 3D era. Are A Link to the Past and Ocarina at all alike? Well, some people do try to make that argument. However, one's a top down game, the other's a 3D game. One features inter-dimension travel while the other features time travel of exactly 7 years. So while there is some fantasy travel, they are two completely different things in this game. The story does involve 3 dungeons followed by a plot twist followed by the rest of the dungeons in both games, but what's being collected is different, and again, it's the difference between a dark world and traveling ahead in time. The stories are entirely different. I have a feeling that the whole thing about these two games being similar was started as a joke by someone who made points that were meant to be entirely a joke, and then some people started to take them seriously and run with them without really thinking about what they were saying. These games are entirely different. There are some similarities, but they are few and have a very minor effect on the games.
So, moving on, Ocarina of Time to Majora's Mask. The similarities between these two games are actually stronger than the similarities between Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. I mean, both games have the same art style, same general mechanics (fighting mechanics, item use, movement, etc), but no Zelda fan would consider Majora's Mask to be a rehash of Ocarina of Time, they are entirely different games in every other way. So now we go to Windwaker from Majora's Mask. Windwaker was a massive departure from anything in the series previous to it. There was nothing with that art style, with that overworld, and it really introduced a lot of other new things such as progression. The biggest similarity between it and Majora's Mask is that neither game had a ton of dungeons in them. The next game after Windwaker was Four Sword Adventures, I'll go over that in the portable section, only because it is actually something that actually can be addressed there, so I'll go to Twilight Princess. Again, nothing at all like Windwaker.
However, again I have to go into a side note here, because a lot of people consider Twilight Princess to be an Ocarina of Time rehash. Let's see how they're alike. Both take place in a terrestrial Hyrule, both start with Link in his home village. Both have three temples followed by a twist (okay, a similarity from Windwaker too), and there are some weapons you get throughout the game that also are in both games. That's about it. The story itself is entirely different, and the mechanics between the two games are also largeley different, even in the Gamecube version (which I am most familiar with), one of the big things (seems small, but is big when you play through a whole game) is that you can swing your sword while running. A lot of people have their own gripes about Twilight Princess, but the bottom line is that it's not at all a rehash of Ocarina of Time, and anyone who has played both games, if put through a lie detector test, will tell you that.
Anyway, next up after Twilight Princess was Skyward Sword. Sure, if you're talking the Wii version there is the similarity of them both having motion controls, but that's really the end of it. The stories are entirely different again, and one is a game where you move through the main overworld through flight while the other has you move around through horseback/running. While Skyward Sword is again a game where there's the 3 dungeon rule before a major change in the storyline, Skyward Sword features other major plot twists throughout the rest of the game, and there are so many new mechanics that you are obviously playing a game that is nothing like the previous Zelda console game when you play Skyward Sword.
Okay, so what about handhelds? Well, this is, admittedly, a different story. However, the first question I will always pose is asking how many people are really talking strictly about handheld games when they say that all of the Zelda games are the same? The truth is that none of them are. Moving on though, the only real thing that's consistently the same on the handheld games is the style being top down. However, once you go deeper, you start off with Link's Awakening and the Oracle games. Anyone who says that these games are the same is absolutely nuts, outside of the view they're not alike at all, from the design to the story. I guess you could say the mechanics are similar, but even those are not the same. That brings me to the Oracle games. Those games are very much the same, but at the same time they were marketed as so and were intended to be part of it's own series within the series. There was an actual purpose to this, and the way they allow you to link your game in these actually makes for something that was really cool and ahead of its time.
So now we get on to the whole Four Swords and Four Sword Adventures games. Those are two other games that have their similarities, and first off, both games are entirely different from the rest of the series. Also, they're quite different from each other. The methods you use to solve puzzles and such, but the levels are very different, but the look of the two games are entirely different (as Four Sword Adventures is actually a Gamecube game), but the progression is also the same. There are similarities between these games, but you also need to take into account that one was a throw in with a remake of A Link to the Past too.
Moving on, the Oracle games and the Minish Cap also do have their similarities, as those are the three Capcom games (all of which turned out very well, I may add), so that does make sense. However, the stories are entirely different between the Oracle games and Minish Cap. Also, Minish Cap went more with the Windwaker type of artstyle. Next up was Phantom Hourglass. This game had a little more of a half dimension thrown in with height, even if it did play like a top down game. The two games were entirely different still. Spirit Tracks was a little bit more like Phantom Hourglass, as you do finish a temple then go back to another temple after every other temple you finish, but even there you have a lot of differences from the overworld to the story. The worlds are really nothing alike. Most recently was A Link Between Worlds. This game was made to be a lot like A Link to the Past, and it has the same overworld design, but with different things at most of the spots, different places for things like heart pieces. However, as you go along, after the first three dungeons the game becomes entirely open world where you can play the dungeons in any order you want. On top of that, you have an entirely different weapons system that involves borrowing and later buying weapons. Some items are found throughout the game, but the weapons system is entirely different.
Now, there are remakes as well. A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Windwaker have all been remade. Remakes are remakes though, they're not marketed as a new game, and each of the remakes had differences that were significant enough to make it worth it to buy them. The bottom line is that these are the only games that you can consider to be rehashes of each other in the entire series. Every game is going to have their similarities, but the Zelda series has always been good about balancing similarities and differences between games, with a couple of exceptions, but as a whole the series has been great at that. Any times they have released games that were very similar it has been with reason behind it. Just because a series has a lot of games doesn't mean that they're rehashing games, like some ignorant types would try to lead you to believe. The myth of Zelda games all being the same thing or being rehashes is just simply not true.
Now for the bonus. I'm sure that you remember my recent post about games in a series that are underrated among the fans of that series. Well, here's a bonus one. Silent Hill: Downpour. This is one that I will fully admit has a number of glitches, so I can see how people who are easily irritated by little things would have their issues with the game, but the game itself, outside of those minor glitches, is a fantastic game.
It's a bit of a reboot to the series, as it kind of takes a big step towards...I guess modernizing the series. The controls are the easiest to use in the entire series and are done in a way that you would find in a lot of action games. This game still has some incredible atmosphere to it, and there are some of the best dungeon type levels in the entire series in this game. There is just so much more variance to them than in past games. This game also has an optional spot that is one of the creepiest moments in the entire series, when you have to play the music backwards.
Like I said before, the controls in this game are much easier to use than in any other game. Also, the story to it is one that you can still feel very strongly about, as it involves child molestation and a father's revenge as well as a daughter's revenge on a man she feels has greatly wronged her as well. There are a lot of the classic Silent Hill levels in this game as well. As a whole, despite the occasional momentary glitching, this is an absolutely incredible game that is so horribly underrated by fans of the Silent Hill series.
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