After a short break to watch Lost, I returned to 3D Dot Game Heroes. The game is obviously a throwback to the Legend of Zelda - most notably to A Link to the Past, and as I started playing it the nostalgia came flooding back.
Seeing the hero of legend place the sword back in the sacred forest, the bazaar salesman selling a single glass jar, and the incessant slashing of Miracle-Gro bushes to find a few bits of cash gave a sense not unlike coming back home after a long trip. It was comfortable, familiar, and I basked in it.
But just like coming back to your hometown years after you leave, not all things were the same. The difficulty definitely seems to be bumped up. I welcomed this as I didn't want to walk through the game like I owned the place. I had left, after all, and thus had given up rights to custody.
The variety of swords is welcome. It gives something to spend all of that money on - one of the flaws of the actual Zelda games (so much money and nothing to buy). But the gamut of swords seems to have taken the place of all the items. Maybe my inventory is just as robust as Link's, but it feels small.
As I progressed through the game, however, those waves of memory fell back and the tide ebbed. And as the waves of swords, jars, and sages fell back, I stood there wanting substance. Just as I have grown up since playing my SNES, so have my tastes. The Zelda franchise has always had a sense of history when playing the games. The sense that stuff had happened to make the world the way it was. That the goddesses had formed the world, left the mark of their power behind, and the sages sealed it up after a great war.
3D Dot Game Heroes doesn't have that same sense. I feel this is a downfall for the game. Just because I'm reliving my childhood doesn't mean that it has to be presented to a child. Give me some plot twists here and there, some decisions to make that affect the outcome, and some smart, witty banter. Take the game from spoof to satire. Make me think a little about what is going on in the game. Make me salivate about what's coming next. Do that, and I'll supply my own tide.
Still the game is enjoyable, and I'll play it because sometimes the kid in me wants to have fun too.
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