Death’s Door Helped Me Finally Understand Zelda’s Appeal
Acid Nerve has opened the door to my newfound love of Zelda.
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Have you ever tried to force yourself to like something? Maybe you’ve gone on a diet and wanted to get into salad. The wet and bland crunch of lettuce didn’t hit the spot and the deli was right around the corner, egging you on to buy a spicy seasoned chicken wrap instead. It could be that you were able to hold off the temptation for a while, but forcing yourself to enjoy something is difficult and not always worth it. That’s what Zelda’s always been for me – a big bowl of unpleasant greens and overly watery vinaigrette. I’ve never managed to get through the tangy aftertaste it leaves when I put it down for the night.
The way to force yourself to like salad might be to ease your way into it. Perhaps you get that spicy seasoned chicken wrap with lettuce in it and gradually work your way up to enjoying the extra bit of flavour it adds. Once you’re used to it, you can take it out and have it by itself and finally recognise what everyone else has been tasting this whole time. That’s what Death’s Door has done for me. It combines Zelda and Dark Souls – the former is the salad and the latter is the wrap. Now, I’m confident I can split the two and enjoy the former.
In Death’s Door, you play as a crow from a black-and-white limbo where you’re tasked with going through doors to reap souls. The world appears simple on the surface but there’s a deeply heartfelt message at its core about coming to terms with finality. Complementing that are quirky dialogue and fascinating characters who pad out the journey. There’s a child-like sense of wonder to the game, akin to what you expect from a traditional fairy tale. All the while, you play as a silent protagonist who oozes charm. I never got the love for Link – I always saw him as being a bland fairy pastiche with a powerful sword and a knack for saving princesses like an elvish Mario. However, Death’s Door’s similar approach has helped me finally understand what all the fuss is about.
He’s the stand-in for the player like Gordon Freeman or the Doomslayer, but he has much more personality than other silent heroes of that ilk. Link mainly stands out due to his unique mannerisms. He’s often a bit of a deer in the headlights, a little child in green rags with a rusty iron sword. He takes on beings of godly power while saving royalty from monsters that would make the Dragonborn wet the bed. All the while, he’s being sarcastic, sleeping in, acting as dumb as a bag of rocks, and getting into mischief. He’s cute just like the crow of Death’s Door, which is something I never really got before playing Acid Nerve’s Zelda-like. I thought he was bland – now I can see he’s anything but. He’s an example of what silent protagonists should be like and I finally see that because of how similar he is to my new favourite crow.
That’s ultimately how Death’s Door has opened my eyes. It’s not that I saw Zelda as being bad. I always figured it just wasn’t for me. I know it inspired generations of RPGs from the ‘80s to the modern-day, constantly ushering in brilliant games in their own right from Shadow of Colossus to Dark Souls, to Genshin Impact and beyond. Death’s Door has offered me a Zelda-like experience, or rather a Zelda-lite experience. It feels like a simplified version of Nintendo’s hit with flavours of other games thrown into the cooking pot.
With it wrapped up, I’m going back to the games that clearly inspired it – the “classic” Zeldas – because I need more of that genre. Now that I’ve experienced it in a more digestible form, I’m ready to try something a little more rigorous. Granted, there’s still that jank that comes from these games being older – Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask could certainly benefit from remakes akin to Spyro or Crash Bandicoot’s – but given that I see a lot more of Death’s Door in their design, I’m starting to enjoy them more. I get what makes them tick, I get the reel in the gameplay, I get the slower-paced momentum that speeds up the further you push on.
It’s not the first time this has happened to me, either. I finally got into Resident Evil 4 by playing through Resident Evil 2: Remake. Something about seeing what a series has led to makes me appreciate the originals all the more. The same thing occurred with The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and the first Fallout. I don’t know where to go with this newfound appreciation – Skyward Sword, Majora’s Mask, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker? At any rate, I have a few decades of masterpieces to get up to speed with.
If you struggled to get into Zelda, Death’s Door could be your gateway too.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/deaths-door-the-legend-of-zelda-appeal/