Our knight on shining armor is always pictured riding a horse, but for over a decade and a half our Hero of Time was horseless and stuck to the ground battle. Of course on the original NES there was not many opportunities for including horseback game play. The very fact that the Legend of Zelda was not a side scrolling adventure was in itself an amazing feat. After a long hiatus the Super Nintendo hit, A Link to the Past was released. While it reinvented the series with updated graphics, new weapons and a progression of dungeons- our hero was still without a horse.
It was not until the 3-d Nintendo 64 was released that we finally saw Link mount up and take to the saddle. After traveling through time he must have finally decided a horse may be faster to explore a vast kingdom rather than rolling through Hyrule Fields, almost breaking his neck each time. While introducing a new concept to the series’s gameplay, it still had some huge limitations. To ride quickly one would have to use up a carrot meter, which was limited in itself, and combat was severely restricted. There was no sword or hand to hand combat while on Epona, at best you had the ability to stop and then shoot arrows from your bow. You could not maintain movement while shooting however.
Epona made a few other appearances after Ocarina of Time, including Majora’s Mask, but no new enhancements was made to riding or combat style until the Twilight Princess. Nintendo finally included sword combat, tracking on to enemies with the bow and allowing attacks to be done while still in movement. Some criticism was still prevalent however. While sword combat now is an option, it was very limited. It was basically moving very quickly and flicking your wrist (Wii-version) wildly to get off a flurry of sword strikes, ignoring the need for precision, a string of offensive and defensive sword play, or targeted attacks. There was nothing graceful or beautiful about Link’s swordplay, it was swing widly until you accidentally ran over the enemy with Epona’s hooves or finally got a blow on the enemies that are half the height of Epona- almost rubbing against the ground.
Now we have the Legend of Zelda 2010 game in production, using the same graphical and one can assume- the same wii motion controls as Twilight Princess. That leaves us wondering whether Epona should be included or not. Yes a horse makes for faster travel and can provide a satisfying crunch as you run over enemies, but there are some combat flaws that existed in Twilight Princess. Is the speed factor enough of a reason to include Epona in the game? Or should Nintendo hold off until they develop a smoother and more precise way to handle Link’s horse mounted combat system.? Perhaps the Wii- Motion Plus will be their answer and the evolution of Epona’s combat system will continue though.
