Missable items in Zelda can be a pain if you're a hundred percent completionists like me. Do not cross the point of no return before getting the upgrade! Remember to pose with Richard at the gate for a photo before you open it! Don't beat that boss before Carlov approves its photo! Don't forget that treasure chest under the library! In worst case you've forgotten something and you have to play the game a second time to achieve the 100%. Especially if it's your first time playing the game things like that are very easy to miss and when you realize that you've missed something, it's already too late.
The only two Zelda games that don't have any occurrence of missable items are A Link to the Past and Spirit Tracks. Congratulations. Ah, yeah, and the Four Swords games, but there you can't keep items anyway. Other games only have minor stuff, where you either won't notice that anything is missing or where you have to be somehow stupid to miss the item. For example in Zelda I there you can chose multiple times between a Heart Container and a potion. In some cases between the loss of a Heart Container or the loss of money (2nd Quest only). Of course you'll always get and keep the Heart Container. In Phantom Hourglass there's the Heart Container from the Ghost Ship, but you really have to deliberately avoid it in order to miss it. Zelda II has some missable P-Bags, but you'll never notice. Majora's Mask got one treasure chest in the area at the beginning of the game, where you can't return to. But that's really, really minor. And Twilight Princess has two missable letters from Ooccoo if you do use him in the Forest Temple and never use him in any of the other dungeons. Again, this is minor.
The classic version of Link's Awakening has some missable sea shells including one in a treasure chest, that you can only get with the Flying Rooster. However, you only need 20 out of 26 available seashells, so you'll never notice. However, in the DX version the photo sidequest got added and four photos are permanently missable. Three of them while traveling with Marin and the other one at the still closed gate of Kanalet castle. Also, one photo requires you to steal from the shop, which results in the loss of your name (you be called THIEF from now on) and in a kill, if you ever enter the shop again. A bad deal.
Interestingly one of the most evil and bizarre cases of missable items happens in Ocarina of Time. It's the second Deku Nut Capacity upgrade aquired in the Forest Stage. To get it you have to show the Mask of Truth to the Deku audience, but you'll only be awarded with the upgrade if you show the mask before ever pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal. There's only a small window in the game, where this is actually possible. The running man, who buys the Bunny Hood, only appears after you've received the Zora Sapphire. And in that moment you are probably too excited to progress into adulthood, you won't come up with ideas like "hey, before playing the cool part of the game, let's first trade some masks and show them at the Forest Stage" unless you really are aware of the above problem. The thing is, this is probably not even intended and a glitch, because it doesn't make much sense to have such strict restrictions for one upgrade, so I really hope this will get fixed in the new 3DS version.
The Oracle games, while they don't have any missable items, give you a series of choices to make. First of all, you have to decide, which game will be your start, Ages or Seasons. This choice heavily influences the rest of the game, the linked quests and the bonus dungeon will be completely different depending on what game came first. You can't even get all 64 rings, no matter what game you chose as a start. Because of this you'll get the Hero's Secret at the end to link your first playthrough with more save games, where you'll possibly play in the other direction, play the other quests and complete your collection. Also, you can only have one of the three animals per playthrough and this heavily effects one environment in the game. Additionally the child of Bipin and Blossom may grow into one of four possible outcomes. So, it's not possible to have one save file that covers everything, but you can cover as much as possible with multiple play throughs. It's some work.
The Wind Waker is the king of missable items. However, everything you can miss is related to the figurine quest only, you can miss 15 figurines from 9 snapshots there. This includes Tetra and the Pirates, the Helmaroc King, Zephos and Cyclos, the Big Octo, Kogoli (some random Rito that disappears after the Eart Temple quest), the Wizzrobe miniboss, Phantom Ganon, Puppet Ganon and Knuckle. Some of them are quite tough, for the (mini)-bosses you'll have to save and quit during the fight, deliver the photo and check if Carlov is happy with it. Because if he's not and you've already beaten the boss, it's over. The missables here are so hard, that Nintendo designed a 2nd Quest specifically for you to complete your figurine collection. There you'll receive the color Pictograph from the start and all your figurines from the first quest save file will be transferred. But even then Knuckle can only be gotten if you finish some of the Tingle Tuner sidequests before getting all other figurines. If you don't have a GameBoy Advance or a cable you're screwed.
Last but not least, The Minish Cap. Here you can miss the Light Arrows if you don't free Gregal from the ghost before reaching the Cloud Tops. This happened to me on my first play through, so I had to beat the entire game again just to get the Light Arrows... yeah, and there's a treasure chest missable in the cave under the library, but that's not as important and you'll never notice if you've missed it. And some versions of the game have a glitch, where you can screw up the fusions with the scarecrows, which results in the loss of one bottle and the Mirror Shield.
No matter how you see it, missable items are unpleasant. If you really want the 100% you'll be forced to start over and replay the entire game making sure that you don't miss the item another time. On the other hand you could say that missables are a nice motivator to play through a game again. You want those Light Arrows? Just beat The Minish Cap a second time!
Links:
Permanently Missable Items Guide @ ZU Forums
The only two Zelda games that don't have any occurrence of missable items are A Link to the Past and Spirit Tracks. Congratulations. Ah, yeah, and the Four Swords games, but there you can't keep items anyway. Other games only have minor stuff, where you either won't notice that anything is missing or where you have to be somehow stupid to miss the item. For example in Zelda I there you can chose multiple times between a Heart Container and a potion. In some cases between the loss of a Heart Container or the loss of money (2nd Quest only). Of course you'll always get and keep the Heart Container. In Phantom Hourglass there's the Heart Container from the Ghost Ship, but you really have to deliberately avoid it in order to miss it. Zelda II has some missable P-Bags, but you'll never notice. Majora's Mask got one treasure chest in the area at the beginning of the game, where you can't return to. But that's really, really minor. And Twilight Princess has two missable letters from Ooccoo if you do use him in the Forest Temple and never use him in any of the other dungeons. Again, this is minor.
The classic version of Link's Awakening has some missable sea shells including one in a treasure chest, that you can only get with the Flying Rooster. However, you only need 20 out of 26 available seashells, so you'll never notice. However, in the DX version the photo sidequest got added and four photos are permanently missable. Three of them while traveling with Marin and the other one at the still closed gate of Kanalet castle. Also, one photo requires you to steal from the shop, which results in the loss of your name (you be called THIEF from now on) and in a kill, if you ever enter the shop again. A bad deal.
Interestingly one of the most evil and bizarre cases of missable items happens in Ocarina of Time. It's the second Deku Nut Capacity upgrade aquired in the Forest Stage. To get it you have to show the Mask of Truth to the Deku audience, but you'll only be awarded with the upgrade if you show the mask before ever pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal. There's only a small window in the game, where this is actually possible. The running man, who buys the Bunny Hood, only appears after you've received the Zora Sapphire. And in that moment you are probably too excited to progress into adulthood, you won't come up with ideas like "hey, before playing the cool part of the game, let's first trade some masks and show them at the Forest Stage" unless you really are aware of the above problem. The thing is, this is probably not even intended and a glitch, because it doesn't make much sense to have such strict restrictions for one upgrade, so I really hope this will get fixed in the new 3DS version.
The Oracle games, while they don't have any missable items, give you a series of choices to make. First of all, you have to decide, which game will be your start, Ages or Seasons. This choice heavily influences the rest of the game, the linked quests and the bonus dungeon will be completely different depending on what game came first. You can't even get all 64 rings, no matter what game you chose as a start. Because of this you'll get the Hero's Secret at the end to link your first playthrough with more save games, where you'll possibly play in the other direction, play the other quests and complete your collection. Also, you can only have one of the three animals per playthrough and this heavily effects one environment in the game. Additionally the child of Bipin and Blossom may grow into one of four possible outcomes. So, it's not possible to have one save file that covers everything, but you can cover as much as possible with multiple play throughs. It's some work.
The Wind Waker is the king of missable items. However, everything you can miss is related to the figurine quest only, you can miss 15 figurines from 9 snapshots there. This includes Tetra and the Pirates, the Helmaroc King, Zephos and Cyclos, the Big Octo, Kogoli (some random Rito that disappears after the Eart Temple quest), the Wizzrobe miniboss, Phantom Ganon, Puppet Ganon and Knuckle. Some of them are quite tough, for the (mini)-bosses you'll have to save and quit during the fight, deliver the photo and check if Carlov is happy with it. Because if he's not and you've already beaten the boss, it's over. The missables here are so hard, that Nintendo designed a 2nd Quest specifically for you to complete your figurine collection. There you'll receive the color Pictograph from the start and all your figurines from the first quest save file will be transferred. But even then Knuckle can only be gotten if you finish some of the Tingle Tuner sidequests before getting all other figurines. If you don't have a GameBoy Advance or a cable you're screwed.
Last but not least, The Minish Cap. Here you can miss the Light Arrows if you don't free Gregal from the ghost before reaching the Cloud Tops. This happened to me on my first play through, so I had to beat the entire game again just to get the Light Arrows... yeah, and there's a treasure chest missable in the cave under the library, but that's not as important and you'll never notice if you've missed it. And some versions of the game have a glitch, where you can screw up the fusions with the scarecrows, which results in the loss of one bottle and the Mirror Shield.
No matter how you see it, missable items are unpleasant. If you really want the 100% you'll be forced to start over and replay the entire game making sure that you don't miss the item another time. On the other hand you could say that missables are a nice motivator to play through a game again. You want those Light Arrows? Just beat The Minish Cap a second time!
Links:
Permanently Missable Items Guide @ ZU Forums
That's a nice listing of all the missable items, very well done :)
ReplyDeleteI think most people don't even care about these things. No deku nut upgrade? Whatever, I've got a boomerang now anyway!
As you mentioned, those things like the figurines are for the absolute nerds of video gaming, and for that I think it's okay to make it hard. Most people will simply stop collecting figurines in Wind Waker at some point.
It's like Pokemon: If you really want to catch all the monsters, you have to put a lot of time into the game. But it's simply not necessary. If that's not the way you want to spend your free time, then leave it. You've beaten the main game already!
For me, I also try to do all the sidequests (other than you already while playing the main quest, not only after the end) and collect as much as possible. But I don't go over the top: If I don't have fun in collecting any more, I stop doing it. For example in Pokemon, I don't catch all the pokemon any more, did this only once in the silver edition. But then again, "The world ends with you" on DS was SO much fun, I collected all the (about) 300 pins you can get.
Also, if I missed something and notice it at the end of the game only, I don't replay it just because of that - but I would start from my last savepoint if I missed something and didn't save in the mean time, even if that means I have to play 2 hours again.
So yeah... that's my point of view on this thing :)
@romplayer:
ReplyDeleteThere are many different factors. It really depends on how much you enjoy the game and on how hard collecting everything in this game can get. And on how many games you play generally. But if I really enjoy a game, then I want it to last as long as possible. That's why I go play sidequests, try to get achievements (though I don't play many modern games) and similar. However, if it's over-the-top I usually stop as well. Actually it might be even counterproductive. There are cases, where I lost interest in a game, because I couldn't get everything and became frustrated. :D
But in Zelda this was never the case. I guess I like Zelda games so much, that I just want to have everything in every game, even if it's crazy stuff like the 64 rings, the figurines or the ship and train parts. But sidequests in Zelda never got too frustrating or annoying, at least not for me. Some of them might be boring (like collecting all Poe Souls in TP, all the bunnies in ST or all the random stuff), but I never got to the point where I said "duh, that totally sucks, I stop".
And I have to say, that I don't play too many games. I guess this is a factor. Actually most of my gaming interests are covered by this blog. I play Zelda, Metroid and Unreal, which are basically my three blasts from the past, where I just can't let them go. And I enjoy playing some local multiplayer games with my friends, like Smash Bros, Mario Kart or Street Fighter IV. That's it. But I love most of those games and I play them very thoroughly. So thoroughly, that I even blog about them! :D If I would play more games, I'd probably be less interested in all the small things. Most people today skip from one game to the next, the market is completely overblown by games.
About Pokémon... I was actually never attracted by the concept, though I usually enjoy collectible quests in Zelda and Metroid. But I didn't like the idea, that there were different editions and that you can't get everything by yourself... so, I never played a Pokémon game in my life! :D