Zelda 2 roughs

I'm mostly doing pencil and Photoshop roughs these days. The wrists get a little better each week, overall, but there are ups and downs because I insist on trying to work or surf.

Here's a few Zelda 2 redesigns that I've been noodling on the last few days. I'm not sure what to think of the game. As a kid I thought it was a bit strange, but I played it anyways. It felt like a chore to play through, because it was more linear, but the combat was sometimes enjoyable.

A top down game like Zelda 1 has a symmetry to the up-down and left-right directions, but in a sidescroller you have gravity linked to up-down so combat and navigation is quite different. The Darknuts... sorry, Ironknuckles were both fun and frustrating to fight.

Anyways, I decided to draw some Zelda 2 creatures because I hadn't done that in years. A lot of the monsters are sort of based on the ones in Zelda 1, and since I like that game more, I used the designs from it where possible. The Zelda games change the story, style and monster designs a lot in every game (and the manuals have their own style too), so I decided to just use the sprites from the original games as a base.

The story never sat well with me, so I decided to rewrite it. Hyrule almost has a garden-like terrain in the first game, and there are these strange rocks and statues standing around in formations. The dungeons feel technological and otherworldly with their smooth clean walls, though that was changed in BS Zelda and later games. I hadn't heard of Lovecraft in the 80's, but that's sort of the feel that I got. What strange ancient race had built the dungeons, and perhaps even the overworld? The Great Race of Yith? The Elder things? The... Like-Likes (whom have since then regressed)? Something I'd like to play around with.

As for the gameplay, I always wanted to make an isometric "topdown" version of Zelda 1, but since this is a Zelda 2 project, It'd have to be a sidescroller with a topdown worldmap. I wonder how that would play if combined with Roguelike? It's sort of unusual to see, and I like unusual.

So, a random world map, with palaces/dungeons, towns and NPCs who generate quests (e.g. a fetch quest NPC would create a cave/dungeon on the world map and toss a kidnapped kid into it). The dungeons should probably be generated from finished rooms though, to ensure enemy placement is fun and suitably challenging.

The weapons, armour, spells and items could be random, and before you drink that potion, you might want to identify it...

And then there's permadeath.

Concepts:
Sheet 1
Sheet 2

12 comments:

-=Y=- said...

new update, great!
i miss your thoughts about game design.

Samuel said...

Good to see you around again. Great designs as usual.

Anonymous said...

That is awesome... I'd love to see a Zelda 2 based on your designs. It would be great if you could find some people to do this with you. Also the best with your arm. Linkeltje.

Anonymous said...

I actually just played through Zelda 2 about a month ago. I actually like the side-scrolling aspect because the fighting takes skill and is still pretty unique with the blocking. I was thinking introducing more Metroid/Castlevania SOTN elements could help break up the linearity some.

Also, a lot of people don't seem to notice, but Zelda 2's World Map is a scaled out world of the first game. I remember reading it in Nintendo Power back in the day. In the Death Mountain area (where you get the hammer) - if you look closely there is a lake there that is the same shape as the Zelda 1 world map.

http://i39.tinypic.com/2s17wj6.gif

You can also see lost woods, and the cemetery, too in the corresponding areas. I always thought that was kinda cool.

Haynesy said...

Awesome roughs, I wish you would do a few tutorials on the propotions you use. I assume it's just practice and knowledge of anatomy though

Nice Work look forward to more

Adam

Sauro said...

Nice to see you back!

Galspanic said...

Of course I just want to see more and more. Classic Zelda is one of my favorite game series, but I agree that it always felt a bit disjointed. I was always intrigued by the ruins. Dragon Warrior series had some of those elements as well. A hint of a larger deeper history. Nice to see your thoughts in picture form again!

Plimer said...

Wow. Those are some pretty cool designs.

Anonymous said...

You're back! I've missed your designs so much! Have you ever considered actually making a game? I've played your Mario demo and I enjoyed it a lot.

duo said...

I'm glad that you're getting better. I really missed your art for a long time.

RADIX said...

Good to hear you're getting better. :)

Rougelike and Zelda 2? Considering how unbelievably pathetic I am at the latter, I don't think I'd last very long in a game like that...

Anonymous said...

It's cool to see you again, nice job (as always)