TRANSLATING THE ZELDA EXPERIENCE INTO THE WORLD OF MINECRAFT
Updates to Zelda Adventure slowed and the mod was eventually abandoned, but a group of people who named themselves the Zelda Adventure Team (ZA Team) took up the reins again in order to give the mod an ending it deserved.
In order to bring the narrative of Zelda into Minecraft, the ZA team has established a form of storytelling through iconic characters across the franchise such as Sahasrahla from A Link to the Past, or Navi who can be summoned to relay instructions to the player when they get stuck through the press of the "N" button.
TRANSLATING A ZELDA EXPERIENCE
To translate an experience, various elements are referenced from a medium and recreated into a game. An example cited by Crawford and authors is the game NCAA Football 06. NCAA Football 06 recreates the football experience by implementing narrations similar to American sports broadcaster Lee Corso as well as game assets that heavily reference graphics from sports cable channel ESPN. Players of Zelda Adventure have expressed that one can't just include a single element (such as the action of picking a pot and throwing it) and call it Zelda. Many players who enjoy the mod have cited various elements designed by the developers that have made their experience truly a Zelda-like one.
Game research studies often touch upon Transmedia Storytelling as a narrative expansion of media such as film, television and comics recreated into the game medium. One notable example is the Star Wars games that create storylines not found in the movies. However, a phenomenon uncommonly talked about are mods that recreate published games into another. Players who enjoy dabbling in such mods are often existing fans of a game franchise and are seeking additional content after completing what the franchise has to offer.
Minecraft, released in 2011 by company Mojang, is a sandbox game that functions as a creative tools for players. With no defined endgame, players are free to do whatever they wish.
FARM MATERIALS
Following basic logic, players gather material by mining blocks around them. Wood can be gathered from trees, rock can be gathered from stone, etc.
SURVIVAL
During their adventures, player may encounter mobs that behave differently. Defeating them may be the only option to survive.
BUILD ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
Using the materials they've gathered, players can build anything out of their imagination, from houses to entire cities.
Unlike Minecraft where the mechanics of the game acts as a creative tool for players to create endless possibilities with no end-game in sight, ZA removes the sand-box aspect of the game and brings players through a linear storyline in the format of a roleplaying game, where players must complete objectives in a sequential manner in order to progress.
ZELDA ADVENTURE: ETERNAL AGES
In 2012, Gary520 released Zelda Adventure: Eternal Ages (ZA), a mod which gave players the experience of playing Legend of Zelda franchise in the world of Minecraft. ZA was also created using Adventure Craft, another mod that functioned as a program for players to create their own adventure maps using features they offer such as trigger events, camera cutscenes and NPC creation.
When players explore the world and discover hidden collectables referred to as Pixelsprites, bite-sized lore pertaining to the franchise is relayed to them when they access the Pixelsprites' information through the game's menu.
Mini-games hold an iconic status within the franchise, where the original game's intention was for players to test their newly-learned abilities within a stress-free setting. Though some mini-games designed in ZA were original ideas by the developers, others were recreated from the original series. A notable example is the Epona Horse Race where players go up against Ingo in a race where at the end of the game, the player keeps Epona. However instead of keeping to the settings of a circular haddock, the team decided to situate the race at Hyrule Field where they intended for the game to function alternatively as a sight-seeing tour. Upon obtaining Epona, instead of running around exploring areas on their feet, players can now travel around faster by horse.
BUILDING IMMERSION THROUGH MUSIC, MINI-GAMES AND MONSTERS
One of ways ZA immerses players in the Zelda experience is through the game's soundtrack which accompanies them throughout their journey across various destinations. The original voice of Link also sounds out in pain whenever Link gets injured while battling or falls from a great height. The soundtrack paired with the sound clips give players the illusion of playing Zelda, though they're conscious of their surroundings residing within Minecraft's three-dimensional space.
Since its early days, a battle system was implemented by Gary where players would fight monster mobs and bosses populated across locations players explored, whether outdoors or within a temple. However the monsters that were found in the game, were monsters brought in from Minecraft. This decision in design made players felt as if there was a lack of creativity especially when players were met with a giant Zombie boss. In the recent version of ZA, the developers took special care in revamping select bosses and monsters to replicate those from the franchise, such as the Poe Sisters found within Jungle Temple.
In order to bring a fresh experience especially for players who were old time users of the mod, the developers also took care to design original monsters that had specialised attacks which changed the way players fought against monsters. No longer were they picking up a sword just to hack and slash away at enemies, they had to look out for weaknesses too. With new equipment and weapons they gain as they progress, players could utilise the special abilities they had in order to face off various enemies.
