What was the point of Wolf Link's scent ability?

[MegaHiro91]

More specifically, what was the point of having him only be able to learn one smell at a time and then have to forget the other? Because learning a new smell serves no other purpose than to lead you to where you immediately need to go, and you will never need the previous smell ever again, so why not just let us keep all of them? Or just not give us the option to keep the old one? I mean the game asks you if you wanna learn the new and forget the old, but unlike a game like Pokémon where there is actual strategy to a choice like this... you won't be able to progress unless you agree anyway. Or can you? I have never actually tried to beat Twilight Princess without learning the new smells. If you know where you are supposed to go, can you move the plot forward still?

Either way, whether you can or not, it strikes me as an odd mechanic why you can only know one smell at once. I mean real dogs/wolves don't work like that.

 

[Aziamuth]

I... don't remember, right now, but it may have been just a poorly executed way of progressing the plot?

 

[MegaHiro91]

I... don't remember, right now, but it may have been just a poorly executed way of progressing the plot?

Yeah I mean, they could have just added the new one to your "collection" and said: Congratulations, you just learned a new smell.

 

[Yousef's iconYousef]

To smell stuff.

 

[Tonberry]

Twilight Princess is full of garbage half-baked ideas, the smell stuff was probably the same. They wanted you to get an epic ”Danananaaa new item Get” moment as a wolf too so they added it as a weird ”item” since it fits with the whole heightened sense thing, since dogs can’t speak and ask for directions.

I’ve never given it much thought but you’re right in that it feels pretty pointless.

 

[Elwiwi]

The whole wolf mechanic was poorly done

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I think its kinda cute. I think Twilight Princess needed more dev time instead of trying to port it on the Wii

 

[MistHunter]

I recalled when a friend, liked a lot The Legend of Zelda - The Twilight Princess. And I liked more The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past. Played both.
There is a precedent here.
Maybe it is annoying, but it was a very interesting mechanic.

Looking on the brighter side...
Wolf Link has more functions than Bunny Link.
It can bark, can sing, can smell, can dig (and can dog), can focus and attack.
Instead of a "functional" Wolf Link, and instead of a "jumpy" Bunny Link in Twilight Princess...
I can imagine, there is two different directions here.

If Link's next (inner) animal is something like a horse, a frog or even a cat (Toon Link, in this case), imagination is to be tested...

What's next could be happening...?
I'm just waiting to see it... And be amazed with the result.

 

[MegaHiro91]

Twilight Princess is full of garbage half-baked ideas, the smell stuff was probably the same. They wanted you to get an epic ”Danananaaa new item Get” moment as a wolf too so they added it as a weird ”item” since it fits with the whole heightened sense thing, since dogs can’t speak and ask for directions.

I’ve never given it much thought but you’re right in that it feels pretty pointless.

I mean you can have your danananaaa moment just fine, I just don't get the idea of forgetting one smell in favor of a new one.

That said, what other half-baked ideas did it have?

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:51 PM

The whole wolf mechanic was poorly done

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I also could've done fine with a Twilight Princess that was just as better Ocarina of Time without the wolf.

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:54 PM

What's next could be happening...?
I'm just waiting to see it... And be amazed with the result.

I just want them to be gone with the open world BotW/TotK formula and go back to the linear design. Do that, and they can do whatever they want for all I care.

 

[Tonberry]

I mean you can have your danananaaa moment just fine, I just don't get the idea of forgetting one smell in favor of a new one.

That said, what other half-baked ideas did it have?

Not sure half-baked ideas were the right term, sorry, but it always felt to me like it has a bunch of elements that feel sort of haphazardly conceived and thrown in with not too much planning, instead of actually meaningful.

Bridge collecting, those forced shadow beast fights, the items in general, bug collecting, ghost collecting. It’s just a game with a lot of back-and-forth which feels like it’s just there to elongate the game instead of elevating it, sort of.

It’s also got these weird one-off moments that, while not bad, kind of makes it feel empty, like the cowboy shootout town. That Master Sword statue minigame could’ve just been a cool cutscene to give it more oomph rather than an annoying hurdle.

 

[MistHunter]

I just want them to be gone with the open world BotW/TotK formula and go back to the linear design. Do that, and they can do whatever they want for all I care.

The Legend of Zelda has many directions, but has aged well.
I can't deny, there is only one thing I was expecting, since discovering it:
The third unreleased/not made Oracle game (with Farore being the Oracle in matter, this time).
However, I have seen Echoes of Wisdom has replaced it, in certain degree.
You are not painting the world, you are replicating it.
And Zelda being the protagonist, this is something else.

 

[MegaHiro91]

The Legend of Zelda has many directions, but has aged well.
I can't deny, there is only one thing I was expecting, since discovering it:
The third unreleased/not made Oracle game (with Farore being the Oracle in matter, this time).
However, I have seen Echoes of Wisdom has replaced it, in certain degree.
You are not painting the world, you are replicating it.
And Zelda being the protagonist, this is something else.

Echoes of Wisdom is a case where I thought I could at least have the 2D series "to myself" in that IT would keep following the old "one time = one solution" formula, but no, with the echo mechanic ToTK's formula of "anything can be used on anything" is bleeding into the 2D games and I hate it. Because I don't feel smart when I solve a puzzle in Echoes, on the contrary there was this puzzle that when I solved it I caught myself thinking "...was I supposed to do that, or did I accidentally cheese it?" Plus, when the solution to a puzzle is to build a bridge for a stack of beds, the game is just not taking itself serious.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:54 PM

Not sure half-baked ideas were the right term, sorry, but it always felt to me like it has a bunch of elements that feel sort of haphazardly conceived and thrown in with not too much planning, instead of actually meaningful.

Bridge collecting, those forced shadow beast fights, the items in general, bug collecting, ghost collecting. It’s just a game with a lot of back-and-forth which feels like it’s just there to elongate the game instead of elevating it, sort of.

It’s also got these weird one-off moments that, while not bad, kind of makes it feel empty, like the cowboy shootout town. That Master Sword statue minigame could’ve just been a cool cutscene to give it more oomph rather than an annoying hurdle.

The Master Sword mini-game I never remember the solution for and can't be bother so I just look up a guide, as for the collectathons... I mean you are free to skip those? Many games have a collectathons that are really only there to artificially extend playtime that you are free to do or not. I see what you mean with the cowboy shootout, but sometimes creators also just want to throw in random ideas for the heck of it. I'm a writer, and sometimes I throw random stuff into my story just because I think it'd be cool or funny. As for the forced shadow fights.. I mean they are there to activate those portals you use to teleport around with.

Sorry I am not trying to mitigate all of your points. To each their own and if this is how you feel about the game, more power to you, for me personally though, apart from the whole scent-mechanic being absolete, I didn't find much wrong with the game as a whole.

 

[Gorse]

Link should have turned into a full-on werewolf instead of just a regular wolf. That way, there could be combo-based beat-em-up segments! And, speaking of additional gameplay, he could gain new moves in that form – say, grabbing onto enemies with extendable arms – which could be "upgraded" by the player spending rupees on them between each stage.

Of course, Midna wouldn't be able to ride him any more, so we'd have to give her wings, and maybe we could give her an additional character trait to go with them, like, oh I don't know, an affection for ice cream. That would pair well with Link's new craving for "chili dodongos". The possibilities are never-ending!

 

[MistHunter]

Echoes of Wisdom is a case where I thought I could at least have the 2D series "to myself" in that IT would keep following the old "one time = one solution" formula, but no, with the echo mechanic ToTK's formula of "anything can be used on anything" is bleeding into the 2D games and I hate it. Because I don't feel smart when I solve a puzzle in Echoes, on the contrary there was this puzzle that when I solved it I caught myself thinking "...was I supposed to do that, or did I accidentally cheese it?" Plus, when the solution to a puzzle is to build a bridge for a stack of beds, the game is just not taking itself serious.

I had no idea, I apologize.
This is a good new perspective to see it
Thank you, MegaHiro91

 

[Graw]

My guess is so you don't have a bunch of different scent trails on the screen at the same time. You only need one at a time throughout the game anyway. The scent trails are just plot devices to pad out the game's run time. It would be annoying to keep seeing the trails from the beginning of the game. There's no actual reason for the scent trail things to even exist in the game in the first place. It's a boring unfun mechanic.

It could also be a programming thing. Maybe the way the scent trails are programmed only allows for one at a time. I guess a more in game explanation could be that scents fade over time and will naturally dissipate. It would be weird if the scent trails remained permanently.

 

[MegaHiro91]

Link should have turned into a full-on werewolf instead of just a regular wolf. That way, there could be combo-based beat-em-up segments! And, speaking of additional gameplay, he could gain new moves in that form – say, grabbing onto enemies with extendable arms – which could be "upgraded" by the player spending rupees on them between each stage.

Of course, Midna wouldn't be able to ride him any more, so we'd have to give her wings, and maybe we could give her an additional character trait to go with them, like, oh I don't know, an affection for ice cream. That would pair well with Link's new craving for "chili dodongos". The possibilities are never-ending!

You say Midna wouldn't be able to ride him anymore, but with your description of making Link a more physical combatant in werewolf form, I imagine making her like Daxter where she sits on Link's should and here then swings her around as an extention of his own body xD

Post automatically merged: Today at 2:48 PM

My guess is so you don't have a bunch of different scent trails on the screen at the same time. You only need one at a time throughout the game anyway. The scent trails are just plot devices to pad out the game's run time. It would be annoying to keep seeing the trails from the beginning of the game. There's no actual reason for the scent trail things to even exist in the game in the first place. It's a boring unfun mechanic.

It could also be a programming thing. Maybe the way the scent trails are programmed only allows for one at a time. I guess a more in game explanation could be that scents fade over time and will naturally dissipate. It would be weird if the scent trails remained permanently.

True, true, and true. That makes sense.