Metathought: Wind Waker, Braid

Wind Waker, Braid

Posted by Temporal at 2008/09/07 02:37:09 PDT
video games

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

It's a Zelda game. I liked it for the same reasons I like Mario and Metroid. However, Zelda seems much slower-paced. I think this is why I have a tendency to get distracted and stop playing Zelda games before I complete them -- as I did with both Ocarina of Time (many years ago) and Twilight Princess (a year and a half ago). I managed to complete Wind Waker, however, perhaps because nothing happened to come along to distract me.

Don't get me wrong -- it's a pretty good game. Just... slow. But I finished it and I'm glad I did.

Braid

This game was designed and programmed by one guy, with art done by one other guy, music licensed from some music licensing service, and the whole thing distributed via X-Box Live Arcade.

It is awesome.

Braid is a perfect example of my theory of good puzzle design. Your character has a very small set of known abilities. In each puzzle, nothing is hidden. Therefore, solving a puzzle is purely a matter of planning; you never have to search for things that you didn't know you could do.

If you have an X-Box 360, go buy this game right now (it's only $15). If you don't, apparently there is a PC port on the way.

2008/09/15 19:15:33 PDT by Kass

Eh, gee, I missed this entry. You didn't write a Twilight Princess review, did you? Went through your video game review entries and didn't see one...

I want to play Braid, since it's come up six zillion times in discussions, but have no access yet.

And... I ended up reviewing your "theory of good puzzle design" where you got pissed at Uru's journey cloths. In retrospect, I don't really think it's accurate to categorize "treasure hunt" mechanics as puzzles... that seems more like reward for exploration, or maybe "making exploration mandatory to the game". Not saying that justifies the use... (one should want to explore the area because... it's interesting, not because they're hunting for things to progress)... but just nitpicking on the labeling. :P

2008/09/16 14:28:38 PDT by temporal2

I didn't finish Twilight Princess, but I also did not intentionally give up on it, so I never wrote a review. I'll go back and play through it eventually. Somehow I find Zelda games enjoyable while I am playing them, but I just don't feel compelled to play more... unlike, say, Metroid Prime games, where every Friday I was eagerly anticipating the chance to play all weekend.

I like exploring, but I don't like treasure hunts, unless there are some sort of clues pointing you in the right direction. For example, if they had a vague hot/cold meter -- even if it could only really tell you what room to look in -- that would be much, much better than an undirected search in a huge area. As to whether or not a treasure hunt can really be considered to be a "puzzle", sure, but it's not really relevant to my argument. :P The dislike of undirected searches still applies.