The Shrine

Looks good, looks like they're trying to make this Zelda the most open world 3D Zelda yet for exploration.

MORE!

It's good to see the solid design going into this game after the last three entries, which while good, never seemed to quite catch that Ocarina of Time magic. I suspect that they have been bringing Tetsuya Takahashi into the design and scope discussions. This kind of colossal sized world play has Xenoblade written all over it; and he's the only designer I have come across who has created a massive sized game that has an abundance of things to do, and doesn't feel sparse (like FF12, for example).

Not to mention, Xenoblade made traveling across these huge distances very easy and very well paced, while allowing the player to go off and explore and do side quests if they wanted... For hours (Unlike certain other massive world games whose compasses will lead you into walls, or just eliminate exploration, by only having the critical path accessible, like FFX or FF13).

That's because almost every 3D Zelda after Ocarina just tried to copy Ocarina's formula instead of do something new.

Nice, Star Fox is guaranteed next year too? I'm hoping they get their heads out of their asses and go back to the first one

The big thing about the gameplay that I'm looking forward to is the increased control feeling over the last two games.

Twilight Princess's horse mechanic was a little shakey. With the horse's auto-evasion, to prevent the user from constantly running into things while firing the arrows at enemies. The slowmo stuff also increases control.

Skyward sword was overly precise, it was less fun swinging the sword in Skyward Sword than Twilight Princess, and often due to the precision the player has to think and act more in order to acomplish a movement; sounds great on paper, but can become a chore.

The size of the world is a little surprising. In the original Zelda trailer, they showed a massive area, and I figured that would be most of the Overworld map. Yet what was shown in this video is an area larger than that first one, and then they show it on the map as being roughly 1/25th of the map zoomed out. So it is MUCH MUCH larger than what I thought it was going to be. Although I am unsure if it will be an XCX (Xenoblade Chronicles X) scale world.

Napoleon Dynamite has a coffee and examines the video in detail.

Delayed to 2016 to the surprise of no one anywhere.

I hope it is the next console's flagship launch title. Twilight Princess really helped the Wii get off to a fast start as something like 75% of initial owners picked it up. Aonuma says the reason for the delay is due to some new additions to the game, and their wish to make the ultimate Zelda game, so optimize it for the NX... Or maybe they saw what Takahashi was doing with Xenoblade, and realized they had to really step it up.

I hope this does not mean a delay for Xenoblade Chronicles X to launch around Christmas, I want that game as soon as possible.

Julius Seeker wrote:I hope it is the next console's flagship launch title. Twilight Princess really helped the Wii get off to a fast start as something like 75% of initial owners picked it up. Aonuma says the reason for the delay is due to some new additions to the game, and their wish to make the ultimate Zelda game, so optimize it for the NX... Or maybe they saw what Takahashi was doing with Xenoblade, and realized they had to really step it up.

I hope this does not mean a delay for Xenoblade Chronicles X to launch around Christmas, I want that game as soon as possible.

I think it's the opposite, this pretty much clears the way for Xenoblade, might move it up a week! lol.

How so? I am thinking they are going to need a big title for Christmas, and Xenoblade is one that is ready this year. Localization rumors have all pinned it to be released around June/July. Were I in charge of Nintendo, I would probably use that one to fill the gap, and push it back to November... but as a gamer, I really don't want them to do that! =D


Anyway, another hint for a possible NX move. They're not showing the game at E3. This, to me, speaks about some sort of a graphical upgrade taking place. That's the only reason I can think of to explain why they wouldn't be showing anything at E3 this year. I realize I am jumping to a conclusion to another conclusion here, but, maybe they'll just cancel the Wii U version altogether?

Rumor report time:



Second Source:

https://twitter.com/nron10/status/718440249882386433
https://twitter.com/nron10/status/718448543833296896

Glad it's coming to Wii U because I just bought one.

Me and the 10 other people who bought a Wii U will get to play it without shelling out the extra cash.

Game is now titled "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild"

Trailer from E3. Game looks incredible.

Another one from E3 with some gameplay and interviews. It looks like the game is much more like an RPG than previous Zelda games. Character art style looks similar to Windwalker animation style.

Game looks very very ambitious. Hoping for good things.

I' expectations watched all the, and I have a load of stuff to say, but I want to make sure I have some time, so it probably won't be until Friday or Saturday.

Some short thoughts for now:

This looks like it could be THE Super Mario Galaxy of Zeldas. I mean that in terms of quality and jump over previous iterations of the game. This is also the biggest jump in change since Adventure of Link to Link to the Past. There were some hints of this sort of stuff in Skyward Sword, but Breath of the Wild takes it all the way.

It's like they decided to reimagine the original Legend of Zelda with the learnings of Xenoblade Chronicles, and throwing away the conventions that have shackled the series since Link to the Past. They took out all of the towns and most of the people from the demo, but Bill Trinen did confirm that it's all there in the main version, they just don't want to spoil anything yet.

An example of what they did is there's no longer a big 2 hour intro like Windwaker through Skyward Sword had. You wake up, open a treasure chest, and then you're set free into the world. Very similar to Zelda 1 & 2.
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I'll come back to this subject when I have more time for ful, thoughts.

So here are my more full thoughts on the hours of footage from the E3 presentation.

Overall, it's a little surprising at how effective this format was. Not long before people thought this was a gigantic mistake for Nintendo, to not even show a Direct. I think this worked out a LOT better than the vast majority of people thought it would.

But onto Zelda:

This game doesn't just bring about something new and fresh, but it fulfills what all the others were aiming for. A vast and expansive world that Link explores while on his main quest of restoring the Triforce.

World:
* Appears post-apocalyptic, a technologically advanced civilization fell, and a new fantasy world grew up in its place.
* Monolithsoft's brush can really be seen in this world. The staff also worked on Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade.
* The world may feel more like a gigantic open world Legend of Zelda 1 world - where things felt more malleable than later Zelda games; i.e. Burning trees.
* You can set huge fields and forests ablaze, and even burn down Moblin villages.
* There are gigantic ruins and structures, gives a bit of an Assassin's Creed vibe when Link climbs atop them.
* There are shrines that have entrances very reminiscent of Zelda 1... Except there are over 100 of them instead of just 8.
* There are also very large "dungeons" in the world as well.
* High tech imagery is a bit of a cross between Xenoblade and Skies of Arcadia's own ancient technologically advanced fallen ancient civ.
* Dungeons are incredibly atmospheric. It looks like the first time Zelda has really gone to these lengths since Ocarina of Time. Not to say the other games don't have atmopsphere, it just wasn't as outstanding as this game and Ocarina.
* Some of the effects look Chrono Trigger inspired; maybe more Monolithsoft inspirations?
* There are little enemy forts and such ALL OVER.
* The devs said that they removed all people and towns from the game for the demo; so expect lots of people and along with towns and villages in the game.
* The snowy areas remind me of the film, The Revenant.
* A lot of games have short little mountains you can climb in 5-10 seconds. In this game the mountains are HUGE! You could spend a whole session climbing one, of course, with lots to do along the way; it's not just a chore.
* There's a LOT of geological and natural diversity in the game, it's had a lot of detail put into it.
* Another thing is the amount of personality everything has, even the enemies have a lot of personality.

Features:
* Voice acting, a first for the franchise
* No long intro segment, no Navi-like character, you're thrown into the world after a 1 minute intro
* Food and heal items replace heart containers
* The world is packed with LOTS of collectables that can be used and crafted into other items through various methods; such as mixing ingredients and frying them in a pan
* Unlike Xenoblade, collectables are all visually represented on the map, rather than glowing blue abstractions - a gold pulsing point is used as an indicator; it looks very nice
* Lots of terrain interaction, like cutting down trees and using the trunk as a bridge, or cutting it into firewood
* Link's items are higher tech, he has a visor (Sheikah Slate) that looks based on the Metroid Prime scanner visor
* Physics are a big part, round stuff rolls, etc...
* Day and nigh cycles with various creatures and such having their specific behavioural patterns linked to times of day
* Animals behave naturally; predators hunt prey, etc...
* Moblins and such will go and hunt on their own too. Everyone behaves very organically, including the enemies
* Map uses a fog of war type thing for exploration
* Link will get cold, heavier clothing and fires can warm him up, along with various types of foods
* Puzzles are not just "one way to solve this" type things like in past Zelda games. Like the Trine games, there are different approaches to just about everything that was shown
* Enemies hold and drop multiple items
* There are multiple types of bombs (like cube bombs, sphere bombs), the ones shown were detonated by player control
* There was an item that allowed for some sort of radio-wave like viewing, Link could see things under the water clearly with it, it looked a little like the Predator's infrared vision.
* There's a lot of "mousetrap" (like the board game) type chain reaction sorts of things that can be done, particularly in dungeons.
* Bees are back, not the bees!
* Your heart limit is not necessarily the max hearts you can hold; Link could have three hearts, but eat a special food and gain 5 extra non-replenishable hearts for a total of 8.
* Fleshed out hunting system, tracking, chasing, and such.
* Fleshed out cooking system, kind of like a more detailed Rune Factory.
* You can use explosives to fish, like rednecks.
* The UI is VERY polished; for example, it shows a very animated representation of Link and he will react based on the sorts of items you equip.
* Enemies are on HP meters, some are VASTLY more powerful than others. Like some Moblins with 30-40 HP, but then some had over 2000, you had to be creative to kill those.
* There appear to be a stat system, taking some pages from the RPG genre.

Cool Things Link can do:
* It's not just swords anymore, there are TONS of different weapons, many different types of swords, axes, clubs, maces, spears, etc...
* You can use LOTS of unconventional stuff as weapons too, even the arm of a Stalfos... Which they will also use in place of a more conventional weapon
* You can climb everywhere - reminds me a little of Assassin's Creed
* Link can use his shield as a snowboard, and fire arrows at enemies while boarding; Legolas style!
* Link can light arrows on fire, and fire them at trees and set them on fire; the fire can expand based on the world physics, so wind will blow fire to other burnable areas and such
* There's a magnetic sub-weapon that behaves VERY similarly to the magnetic thing in Elebits

Miyamoto Info:
* They aimed to make a modern 3D Zelda 1
* Original Zelda artwork matches the opening scene. He says the only difference is that Link comes out of a cave rather than appearing in front of a cave which he goes in for the first sword.
* Wanted to bring the mystery of the world and emphasize survival skills in a huge open world.
* Wanted the player to be able to go in any and every direction, and find lots of stuff to do, and open up their own story as they moved along their own blazed path until they discover goals to accomplish which will lead them to their ultimate goal.
* Physics are a big thing, rafting in a river, and the effects of water currents and such are demonstrated.
* Detail for how all of the elements of the world interact with each other are Miyamoto's main focus in this game.
* There's a lot of wildlife variety, and terrain gradually changes from one biome to another, there's intermediate areas rather than field area, desert area, swamp area, etc...
* Temperature systems are in place, and it opens up new objectives for the player in order to survive effectively in the cold; and they wanted to make sure this was fun and not burdensome.
* Years ago Miyamoto let slip that over 100 devs were working on this game, it appears that has stayed true; the team remains at over 100. 300 people in total. It is Nintendo's biggest game dev project ever, even surpassing Super Mario Galaxy; which, beginning after the completion of SM64, had a dev time of over 10 years - but the team was only around 60 during the main dev phases.

GX did a HUGE analysis on the E3 footage, they went over 10 hours of footage for about 2 months, found a ton of stuff and mapped out a lot of the world.



They DID miss one big thing though: the first Legend of Zelda games on NES also took place in a post-apocalyptic world that had left-over high technology in ruins while the rest of the world appears to be medieval fantasy. This theme is fairly popular in Japanese fantasy, magic is often portrayed as originating in a past time from a forgotten technology.

They touched on how at one time Zelda was supposed to take place in a high tech world, but missed how the ruins in the original Zelda game were high tech.

Where does this fit in the timeline? I think there's a good amount of evidence supporting a remake of Zelda 1, in the "Era of Decline," but there are some issues. First, the era of decline is supposed to occur many generations after Link to the Past (hundreds of years before Zelda 1), and Breath of the Wild takes place only 100 years after Link was placed into stasis.

As the original story goes:
* For hundreds of years, Kings of Hyrule used the Triforce to maintain balance and expand the realm. They each inherited the Triforce of courage within them. Hyrule became a massive Empire spanning multiple continents and islands (presumably including locations Link to the Past Link explored in Awakening and Oracle games).
* 100 years before Zelda 1, the crown Prince didn't inherit the Triforce. An evil wizard convinced the desperate Prince to put the Princess Zelda of this time into a deep sleep.
* Hyrule Empire crumbles over 100 years, shrinking to a small location on the Southern-most continent. Its people live in caves and hidden places.
* Ganon re-emerges after the 100 years at the time of Zelda 1.
* After Ganon is defeated, Link embarks on his journey across the former Hyrule Empire, beginning on the much more populace North-Western Continent. The Southern continent appears mostly desolate, there is only one town on it (Saria), the Zelda 1 realm ruins of Hyrule are depicted as being a very small location further south, past Death Mountain and Spectacle Rock. There is another heavily populated civilized continent in the center of the world, and a small sub-continental island in the east which appears to have only signs of a ruined civilization.

While Link doesn't appear in this story, he can easily be fit into it as the one who is the true heir to the Triforce. 100 years before Zelda 1, he could have appeared, and then like Zelda put into a 100 year stasis for some reason: a curse? Maybe it was the Shieka who did it to awaken him to fight Ganon when at his reemergence.

If the map of Breath of the Wild is a remake, then it could be a reimagining of the Southern continent, where the Hyrule capital lay. If they want to maintain canon of Zelda 2 that is.

Another option is that Breath of the Wild exists 100 years after Zelda 2.