'Zelda' may be the game of the year, but it's disappointing when it comes to accessibility

It has been critically acclaimed, it is selling what is not written and it has the gaming community so absorbed that many have forgotten that this weekend it was time to go vote. Everyone is hallucinating with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and it is not for less. However, most people with some type of disability are going to have a very difficult time enjoying the latest wonder from Nintendo, and that is because the adventure starring the hero Link has hardly any accessibility options.

Unlike other great releases in recent years, which have stood out for offering features that made them more inclusive and enjoyable for all types of players, the new Zelda lacks the most basic options to modify the size of the subtitles or to change the volume of sound effects, to name just a couple of examples. It is something that surprises today and especially in a title that so clearly aspires to become the so-called GOTY, the game of the year.

“Nintendo creates games for a very wide and open audience, from children to the elderly, and has a game concept for everyone; however, they don’t usually pay attention to small details for players with disabilities”, says Antonio Ignacio Martínez, a consultant on accessibility for videogames and co-founder of the Games Accessibility Nexus project, which is in charge of analyzing and disseminating accessibility in videogames.

For this specialist, who for years has been advising internationally renowned developers such as Microsoft or Ubisoft when it comes to making their titles suitable for players with functional limitations, the Japanese company stands out for creating “intuitive games, which to a certain extent could be said that it would fall within the inclusive design and it is very good, but it falters in terms of accessibility”; And that – as we will see later – Nintendo was one of the first companies to offer solutions for players with difficulties.

Before analyzing why the new Zelda is a limited title in terms of this type of options, it is convenient to define what accessibility is. It could be said that it consists of encouraging anyone to be able to play a game despite suffering from a functional limitation or a disability. It is one of the great battles that the electronic entertainment industry is currently facing, and its adoption, a trend whose advances are as impressive as they are exciting for the people who can benefit from them.

For Martínez, making a game inclusive is something that goes beyond a handful of options. “Accessibility is the fact of being able to adjust and eliminate the barriers that may exist in a game, and that are unnecessary because they are not an essential part of its design, and, therefore, the person can adapt them to the game and their needs,” he explains. .

To understand us, something as well known as subtitles are an accessibility option. “People who are hard of hearing need subtitles. By default, they are usually quite small in most games, so the first thing they do is go to the corresponding menu and increase their size and, if they can, they change the background to make them more opaque and have better contrast. That is, precisely, adapting the game to the person”.

Beyond subtitles, today many games incorporate dozens of accessibility options. Undoubtedly, it is a great advance in this industry that productions as ambitious as God of War Ragnarok from Sony, Forza Motorsport from Microsoft, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla from Ubisoft, or virtual reality games like Moss, from the developer Polyarc, to say just a few. few, can be played by people with visual, hearing, motor or other limitations.

What happens, then, with Zelda? “In Zelda there are options like inverting the direction of the camera, which in the end has to do with accessibility, but, for example, you can’t map the controls according to your needs,” says Martínez during the video call with this newspaper. “You can map the buttons at the console level, but it is not a good practice because when you remap the controls in this way, later in the game the indications that appear on the screen are not changed. If you do it because you have a need, you have to constantly remember the buttons, which creates a new barrier at the cognitive level for people who may have some kind of memory problem or similar ”, he details.

Another element that, according to Martínez, can make it difficult for people with disabilities to enjoy Tears of the Kingdom are the constant combinations of buttons and the obligation to keep them pressed on many occasions: “One of Link’s new powers is the ability to combine objects ; to do so you have to hold down the L button, then move a stick and then press another button. There are three simultaneous pulsations and one of them is maintained. This for a person with, for example, only one hand or a limitation, can be a big problem. Solutions can be found to avoid unnecessary keystrokes, and which are also maintained, which is very tiring and, for some players, impossible to do”.

Especially in more complex games, explains Martínez, the barriers are not only at the control level, but also cognitive. “Zelda’s quest and adventure logs are great, as they keep a bit of information about what the characters have told you, but sometimes you also have to remember specific details exactly, and that’s for people with low-level cognitive problems.” by heart, or even for some people who have had Covid –since it is one of the symptoms that have been detected– it can hinder progress in the game”, he maintains.

All this, without forgetting two options as basic as modifying the size of the subtitles or changing the volume of sound effects or music. “If the music is too loud, you may not notice that an enemy is approaching you or, for example, there are players who need to hear the sounds well to find their way around, or people who have a hearing or visual impairment and need to hear a certain sound effect more clearly. clarity, and for them lowering the music is essential”, he points out. And the same goes for subtitles, “a critical feature not just in terms of accessibility, but for anyone,” she adds.

Antonio Ignacio Martínez knows what he is talking about when it comes to accessibility, not only because he has always been a fan of video games, but also because it is thanks to these options that he can continue playing them despite the spinal muscular atrophy he suffers from. His detailed explanations are complemented by historical data that has been completely forgotten when talking about the history of the interactive medium.

Nintendo itself was one of the first companies to launch an accessory designed for console accessibility. It was in 1988 that he released the Hands Free Controller for the NES, which incorporated a chin-controlled joystick, along with a sip/puff switch to activate the A or B buttons. Specialist Barrie Ellis’s website documents this accessory, as well as many others, in great detail.

“I think that Nintendo needs to realize that it’s not just important to create games for everyone from the point of view of ease of controls, that they see that it’s not just a matter of creating a design that is comfortable to use, but to understand the particularities that exist when creating an accessible game”, points out Martínez. In fact, this publisher of Games Accessibility Nexus refers to Pokémon, which is a game published by Nintendo, as “a title that is very accessible to many people in terms of controls, since there are basically four directions and a couple of buttons” .

At another extreme, for example, is the popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Despite being a game for all audiences, Martínez is surprised that it does not include options as basic as turning down the music volume. In fact, people with sensory difficulties have made online petitions for Nintendo to implement this option, but they have not been successful.

“It’s funny to me, because when I see these games, I would love to play them. Nintendo is a legendary universe, it is probably one of the most affectionate and appreciated game creators on the planet, when people talk about their games there is always a kind of affection of their own; that is why it is important that they also bet on accessibility”.

In recent years, the cases of games developed in the West with numerous accessibility options have been very notorious. In addition to those mentioned above, we can also mention The Last of Us Part II or Ratchet

“Historically, the video game industry in Japan has not followed the same practices as the West in this regard and, for the moment, they are behind in terms of accessibility,” says Martínez. However, he points out, “they are moving very fast.”

This same Friday Street Fighter VI arrives at stores. In addition to being the new iteration in one of the most iconic fighting game sagas, this 1-on-1 fighting game from the Japanese Capcom is one of the most anticipated titles of the year. In addition to all its graphic and mechanical novelties, it incorporates different accessibility options that will make Antonio and other people with difficulties for the demands that usually ask for this type of game enjoy it.

“Street Fighter VI includes an audio cue system for guiding blind people that is outstanding. They have also included a control method in which with only three buttons the character will make all the movements that he has to do. Obviously, we will not have complete control, but, on a personal level, for me, who have been enjoying this type of game since I was little, these options are allowing me to play it ”, he explains.

This expert accessibility consultant is satisfied with the work carried out by Capcom, a company that has also implemented this type of options in its brand new Resident Evil 4. “It does not have as many options as would be desirable, but it does and it is an improvement over previous installments, like Resident Evil Village, which was heavily criticized for the issue of subtitles and so on, but then they fixed it with a patch when they released the expansion, ”he points out.

What would Nintendo have to do? Martínez is clear about it: “First, they have to look at what the other studios are doing; and, secondly, having consultants, talking to people with disabilities and knowing what their needs are”.

“We all knew that when Japanese studios started implementing accessibility options they would go all out and that’s what we’re starting to see; they have just started running ”, he comments. “And this is great, because here there is no competition. Here, every advance that is made is good for everyone.”