I love storytime; it’s one of my favorite parts of parenting, and I’ve ruthlessly staked a claim on bedtime stories that I rarely relinquish to my wife. Together my daughter, Rosie, and I have read Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Tale of Despereaux, as well as countless other picture books. Rosie keeps up with the stories fairly well; we’ll review what has happened so far with each new chapter, and she’ll sometimes stop me along the way to ask questions. One of my favorite parts of storytime is coming up with voices for all the characters. I know that by any decent theatrical standard, my voices are terrible (hence no audio sample), but I do my best and Rosie knows what voices to expect for the different characters once I’ve got them all worked out.
Then a few months ago, Rosie pulled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess out of the video game drawer and, with a glimmer in her eye, asked, “Can we play this game, daddy?” At first I was hesitant; some of Twilight Princess‘s scenes might be scary for a four year old, and I also knew that the game was too advanced for Rosie to be able to do much playing on her own (except for maybe running around Hyrule field). But then I realized Zelda’s great advantage: it didn’t have fully voiced characters! I could read all the dialogue as if we were reading a story.
So we began playing The Legend of Zelda, and while I always knew that the Zelda dialogue was a bit hokey, the offense to credulity is magnified tenfold when you read it all out loud. (Nintendo’s going to have to really step up their game if they ever plan to do a fully voiced version of Zelda.) Here’s a bit of dialogue from Zane, one of the game’s villains: “Are you implying that my power is… our old magic? Now that is a joke! This power is granted to me by my god, and you will respect it!.” I do my best deep, dark voice and off we go. Yet while I’m cringing at the writing, Rosie is enchanted.
Best. Zelda. Character. Ever. (from Wikipedia)
Our playthrough of Twilight Princess went remarkably well, and now we’ve moved on to Skyward Sword. Rosie not such a fan of Link’s new sidekick, Fi, the “android in a sword” character. We haven’t finished Skyward Sword yet, but Rosie often looks at me and asks plaintively, “When will we get to see Midna again?” Still, despite the absence of Midna, my daughter finds the new game engrossing, particularly in its “quest to find Zelda” component. In the midst of playing, Rosie will become so engrossed that she migrates to stand directly in front of the television, which often instigates Link’s hasty demise. The visual style of the games is so enchanting that she has trouble remembering to stand back.
And for those who think that using a video game for storytime is a sin only slightly less heinous than playing video games in church, I can only say that her enthusiasm for reading has remained strong. I do have a fear related to our Zelda adventures, however: have I ruined Zelda for my daughter by presenting the games in this way? The Zelda games are, in their very nature, games that challenge your problem-solving skills, encouraging you to develop solutions to difficulties the game throws at you. Instead of experiencing the benefits of developing solutions to impediments, Rosie only watches as the solution is discovered for her. With Skyward Sword I’ve tried to alleviate this issue by asking Rosie for input, and she’ll make suggestions to help me (and once she even noticed a solution that I hadn’t). So maybe not all is lost?
Are there other games that would work well as “storytime” games? Do you think future Zelda games will be fully voiced?
Isaac
/ May 21, 2012Couple of thoughts:
- That’s great that storytelling forms such a strong bond between you and your daughter.
-For me, Zelda stories always have a bit of a mythic quality to them. Yes, it is derivative, and the dialogue is cheesy (it’s rare that videogame dialogue isn’t) but it’s also timeless, like a legend that’s retold and interpreted differently with each new entry.
-I wonder how your daughter would respond to an older Zelda as well, like the original or the Link to the Past, where there is less of an emphasis on dialogue and visual storytelling, but more of the problem solving, spatial orientation and exploration.
-Yeah Fi is a pale shadow of a companion compared to Midna, who is pretty much the best Zelda sidekick ever.
Sheikah
/ May 22, 2012Zelda dialogue, cheesy? Buddy, have you seen what Sheik can say? That stuff is poetry, right there.
I quote : “Past, present, future…Time passes, peolpe move…Like a river’s flow, it never ends”.
Otherwise, yeah I totally agree with you. Mythic storyline, Fi kinda lame.
jonahstowe
/ May 22, 2012I dunno, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on the poeticism of Sheik’s waxing philosophic.
(But who knows, maybe that stuff is magical in Japanese–lost in translation, perhaps?)
jonahstowe
/ May 21, 2012Thanks for the feedback–I’ve wondered about going back to some of the earlier titles, too. I did play a little bit of the Mario RPG from SNES a while back, and she seemed to like that, but her patience for the numerous battle sequences wore out pretty quickly (as did mine, to be honest). I was actually introduced to Zelda with Ocarina of Time, so Link to the Past would be new for me as well. Maybe it could be one we do together (rather than just me doing most of the playing) once she’s a bit older.
cary
/ May 22, 2012Zelda’s hard to beat in terms of storytelling and games that are appropriate for children and it’s great that your daughter is so engrossed in Twilight Princess’s story. My niece became similarly interested in Kingdom Hearts – it helped that it contained Disney characters – but she was older, around 6/7. KH is a great series with great stories, though they can get a little dark at times. I’d also argue that the Paper Mario games are great for kids and storytelling, though the player has to work to get the story told.
It would be interesting to play a fully-voiced Zelda game, but I don’t know that I have a strong opinion for or against. Having played almost all games since Ocarina of Time, it might be a little odd at first, getting used to the voices. The key will be maintaining a strong story, whether voiced or not.
jonahstowe
/ May 22, 2012Kingdom Hearts is a great suggestion that I hadn’t thought of before. We live in Florida, so there’s a significant Disney presence in our lives. I bet she’d like those–thanks for the suggestion! I’ve thought about playing Paper Mario, but never got around to it, so we’ll have to try that one too.
Austin D Hill
/ May 23, 2012Jonah, this is such an encouraging post! I have a 6 month old daughter and I can’t wait for her to get older so I can read great books to her and play these kinds of games with her. As the youngest of three brothers, I grew up watching the stories of Zelda games unfold. I have such fond memories of my brothers and I collectively working through the puzzles of every console Zelda game all the way back to the NES. Your daughter might be a little young for the NES iterations of Zelda for now, but in a few years she will likely be just as enthralled with them as the others.
You might want to consider some of the other SNES RPG classics like Final Fantasy 3, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, or Earthbound. Though they have more random battles than Zelda games, they are also pretty heavy on dialogue which could provide a more in-depth story. The reading level isn’t all that sophisticated either. Earthbound might be the most light-hearted of all those. Also, each one of those games is only like 8 bucks on the virtual console.
Thanks for so clearly demonstrating how playing video games and engaged fatherhood aren’t mutually exclusive!
jonahstowe
/ May 23, 2012Hey Austin, thanks for the enthusiastic reply. I would love to revisit some of these SNES games, especially Chrono Trigger, which I still regret never finishing. You also pointed to one of the key misconceptions about games: that they somehow deprive us of valuable memories, when quite the opposite is true. I also have many fond memories of times enjoyed with friends and family playing together. My dad was also a good example of engaged fatherhood vis-a-vis gaming; he’s not a gaming enthusiast or anything, but because we were excited about it, he played many a Goldeneye deathmatch with us (and his favorite MarioKart character was, and remains, Wario).
alisewrite
/ June 1, 2012My kids are all fans of Zelda. I’m still partial to Ocarina of Time and my daughter loves the much darker Majora’s Mask. But really, they’re all so good. And I think they’re a great way to incorporate story into gaming. I think the first Super Mario Galaxy game has some pretty fun story-telling in it as well and also incorporates a lot of problem solving.
Love this idea!
jonahstowe
/ June 2, 2012I *gasp* never played Majora’s Mask. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to go back and try it out. Lots of people claim that it’s their favorite Zelda title, despite its being one of the more unusual entries in the series. My daughter also enjoys Mario Galaxy, but Super Mario hasn’t generally been known for super storytelling; maybe one day that will change.
Isaac
/ June 1, 2012The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that Majora’s Mask is actually a unique narrative in theme and delivery. It really is in the vein of the old traditional fairy tales, and deals with mature subject matters (grief, loss, death) in a very sophisticated manner. Perfect for kids.
jonahstowe
/ June 2, 2012Okay, well now I guess I have to try this one out. Anyone know if it’s available on Virtual Console?
Isaac
/ June 2, 2012Yup it is.