In terms of puzzle levels, if "Dark Souls" tells the world what level design should be in an RPG, then "The Legend of Zelda" redefines the meaning of "level design".

Of course, Dark Souls is embodied in a way that players are abused, full of desperate intrigues, forcing players to suffer and find the best solution, and occasionally seeing a campfire and shortcuts is almost moving to tears; But "The Legend of Zelda" is the opposite, a small shrine contains a lot of mechanics and all kinds of different elements, the only frustration is the irritability that has not been solved after trying many methods, but once it is solved, players will praise their wit crazy.

The entire puzzle element is divided into three levels: Yahaha - Shrine - Divine Beast.

The puzzles are relatively simple, such as seeing a circle of duckweed in the water, as long as you jump off the cliff and fall to the center of the duckweed, you can find one; There is a circle of small stones on the mountain, and if you move the stones next to them and put them in the gap, you can find another one; More complicated, you need to fish out the iron from the water and place it on a pile of iron blocks to form a specific shape, and you can find another one.

And the difficulty of the puzzles at the shrine has been raised a notch.

There are different types of shrines, some of which are directly exposed to the ground, and you can directly challenge them when you enter them; Some are surrounded by thorns, and special means must be used to get in; Some are simply buried underground and must complete side quests to unlock.

For example, on a tower, the player will encounter a birdman playing the accordion, and after talking to him, they will get a message about a poem. According to the poem's message, the player will land on a shrine buried in the earth, and over time, the shrine will activate when a rocket is fired at the tower when the tower's shadow overlaps with the shrine's position.

There are also some shrines hidden in the labyrinth, and the walls of these mazes are all higher than the mountains, and it is impossible to climb them when Link is not strong enough, and this is when the player really feels the pain of walking the maze. However, when the player is fully stamina, they can skip the class a little and climb directly to the top of the maze to find a shortcut.

Once inside the shrine, players must use a combination of their abilities to trigger the various mechanisms in the shrine, sometimes requiring not only some intelligence, but also a certain amount of hand speed. For example, some traps require the player to jump at a certain moment and shoot a distant trap with Link Time, which players with handicapped hands must try many times before they can finally complete it.

The puzzle-solving elements of the Four Divine Beasts and the final boss battle have reached the highest level of difficulty, and players must pass through the various experiences and knowledge they have gained in the Shrine Trial.

Before the Divine Beast War, Link has to enter the village where the Divine Beast Hero is located, complete the main quest, and get the help of NPCs.

In the first stage of the Divine Beast War, Link needs to cooperate with the NPCs, and after getting close to the Divine Beast, while resisting the Divine Beast's long-range attacks, he will shoot the red key parts of the Divine Beast with a bow and arrow to make the Divine Beast stop.

In the second stage, Link will enter the interior of the beast and complete a complex puzzle-solving level. The levels of the Divine Beast far surpass the Shrine in terms of scale, and the difficulty has skyrocketed. The levels of each Divine Beast are carefully designed, and they are very much in line with the characteristics of the Divine Beast itself. For example, the Water Beast is an elephant, and after gaining some control of the beast, Link can manipulate the elephant's trunk from low to high to climb on top of the elephant's head, or use the water sprayed out of the nose to break through the mechanism and open up some areas that he couldn't go to before.

Moreover, the interior of these mythical beasts is a completely three-dimensional level, not just as simple as layering, different parts will affect each other, and the player must have a good three-dimensional mind to solve the puzzle. In order to adapt to this level design, The Legend of Zelda also used a 3D perspective as a maze map.

The four sacred beasts are elephants in the wetlands in the southeast, lizards in the volcanoes in the northeast, camels in the deserts in the southwest, and eagles in the mountains in the northwest. Each mythical beast corresponds to a unique region and a unique village, with different customs and side quests. For example, the race of the wetlands is merfolk, the race of the mountains is birdmen, and the desert is a women's village, and Link must become a women's clothing boss to enter.

In the third stage, Link will have a boss battle with Ganon's clone, each clone's ability, difficulty and playing style are different, after defeating Ganon's clone, you can officially recover the divine beast and get a special heroic blessing effect and exclusive heroic weapons.

Even more difficult than these, there is such a thing as the Master Sword Trial.

In Master Sword Trials, players are not allowed to bring in any weapons or equipment, and everything starts at 0. From picking up small branches on the ground at the beginning to fight the weakest mob Pokbrin, step by step to get more advanced weapons, to the difficulty of the whole battle skyrocketing, it is a veritable ultimate challenge, and if you fail halfway, you can only start all over again, even if you are full of confidence, you may have to challenge many times to clear the level.

If Dark Souls is the same level style that is constantly getting harder and the most extreme, then The Legend of Zelda is a fancy showmanship, from easy to difficult, from simple to complex, everything is covered, and players will always get a completely different experience in the game.

And in terms of the combat system, The Legend of Zelda does an equally good job.

If Souls-based combat creates a new model for cold weapon combat games in parallel worlds, then The Legend of Zelda tells everyone what else can be done in cold weapon combat in addition to soul-type combat.

In addition to the classic shield-wielding duo turn, shield reversal, dodge, stealth backstab and other elements, "The Legend of Zelda" also makes richer choices in many aspects. For example, more fluid archery techniques and a variety of attribute arrows, Link time triggered by perfect dodge and mid-air bow opening, weapons can be used normally or thrown, and shields can even be used as skateboards......

Among them, the most controversial is the setting of weapon durability.

In other games, the weapon can be repaired after the durability is lost, and it will be as perfect as before; However, the durability of the weapon in "The Legend of Zelda" means that the weapon is completely exploded, and if you want to get it again, you have to continue to brush it - except for the exorcism sword (master sword) given by the plot.

When I first came into contact, the vast majority of players felt very uncomfortable, why did I just get a good weapon, but it didn't cool me a few times before it exploded? And then I'm a brave man, a knight recognized by the sword of exorcism, who can only fight monsters with Pokebrin's wooden club? Even if you have a good weapon, you don't want to use it!

After the players collected a bunch of cool and bunker weapons, they found that they were reluctant to use any of them, and in the end, they still didn't feel distressed to use the durable exorcist sword, and used it to cut a tree or cut grass, no problem!

It is really embarrassing that the dignified master sword has fallen to such a state......