No, actually, this sounds God-awful. If you make these items this shitty then there would be no incentive to pick them up. Bear in mind, when you use a potion in a 3D Zelda game, it's probably during a boss whose pattern you haven't quite got down yet. If these items are borderline worthless, they're not going to help you live that much longer, meaning you probably won't be able to figure out how the boss works. Then the game becomes this Impossible Quiz-esque "waste your time getting back to the boss repeatedly until you figure out what to do through trial and error". I'll reiterate what's been said; if you don't like restoratives, don't play with them, but just because you don't like them doesn't mean they need to be nerfed. Zelda isn't a competitive game, If a strategy makes the game easier, that doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be removed.
No that's not how the game would become. The potions and fairies could restore more, but as they are the game is unbalanced. The inverse of your proposal is also true: If everything is barely damaging you, what's the point of even having full restoratives in the first place? If the enemies are smarter and damage you more, the restoratives needn't be nerfed in how much they heal, but they would still need to be balanced some other way, like healing over time instead of all at once.
For one, why would fairies heal more than a potion? That makes potions entirely pointless, especially considering it's generally easier to get a fairy than a potion.
Secondly, the potions would virtually be worthless. Usually in a Zelda game you have like what, 4 or 5 bottles? That would mean you would need 5 potions to even come close to healing all the way, when you could just break some grass for some hearts, and with how the game is presented so far, getting hearts seems like a really simple process. If anything, at the least, Potions should be able to heal about as much as Lon Lon Milk can heal in OoT, which was roughly 8 hearts. It's fair, doesn't feel like a cop out, and it doesn't permanently save you from danger, but is way more likely to.
Point taken on the first. I was just thinking of the Fairies as the magic side, so it'd be more potent than a potion, but since their main purpose is for revival, then I guess they should heal less. I can accept that. But then they should still revive you with a small percentage of health, because unlike game overing, you continue right on the spot without having to restart any fights or whatever. This is why this revival needs balancing.
How about what they did in Skyward Sword where Link was open for attack while he was drinking his potion which gave you a lot of your health back? I like that approach more than just giving Link a few hearts gradually. That, and why even have an auto revive at one heart? I would rather just get a game over and continue with more health. This isn't Dark Souls, it's the Legend of Zelda so I'm not sure where you expected Zelda to become brutally challenging. Zelda 1 was cryptic with a difficulty spike caused by arguably a mistake and Zelda 2 had a lot of unfair moments with a overly punishing continue point. I would rather have smarter enemies than nerfed and cheap refills that feel like a waste of rupees.
If anything though, they should revamp and improve the Hero Mode formula. Like potions, it's optional and could really work if players truly want an extreme challenge.
None of these changes, or proposed adjustments to the changes would make any of the games that much harder. You're never in any danger in them as they are now, whether you have potions or not. This is all purely to balance that out, to make the restoratives actually worth getting and buying, since they could actually save you, rather than being "Why do I even need this?," while at the same time, making them non game-breakers.
Dark Souls is more like, nearly everything can kill you in one or two hits. That's not what I'm proposing at all. I'm proposing that they actually be a threat to the player, rather than being largely just useless minor inconveniences that you ignore, even the bosses. Otherwise, they lose their purpose for being if they're negligible, which is a big no no. Both entities are supposed to steadily do more damage and get more difficult as the player gets further in the game. You shouldn't be 70% done with the game and still only taking less than about 15% damage. That's totally outrageous.
Edited by Koh, 10 May 2016 - 07:50 AM.
