Lens of Truth

Well I wasn't.. but I am now:love: This is such good news! I hope the graphics are brought to a level of polish comparable with Sonic. With everything in place this could be one lush game (no angst rock for this, ok Sega?).

Trusting that it's not an April fool, I would love either Nights, Earthbound or Starfox to make a return!! We should find out anyway before the issue's out if it is real, so no sense in getting too worked up (memo to self).

The ladies have certainly taken a shine to my Wii.. in fact everyone I've shown it to becomes a giggly child in its presence. They seem to think the Xbox 360 is a big geeky turn off tho. You win some..

The cel-shading looks good from what I can tell.

I actually kinda liked the bubbles! But if there had been some sort of sequence revisiting characters and locations from the game that would've been nice. There should have been one for Nayru's Pearl as you say, but I always felt that an extra 2 dungeons in the last section (all four points of the compass) were in order.. Earth, Wind, Fire... Water *resists desire to sing Captain Planet* Triforce hunt definitely needed spicing up come to think of it, though I always assumed that they threw this in at the last minute as a way of adding length?? If they did indeed make more dungeons and it's not a complete crock, then I'd love to see a WW-Redux for the Wii at some point! Edit: Didn't they say at some point that they wanted to incorporate some of the potential WW dungeons in TP? I wonder which they might be???

Kondo is capable of writing some quite symphonic-sounding stuff. Just listen to the moody opening of the 'demo' music in TP, and the liltingly poignant oboe melody that follows it.. gorgeous! I know this is hardly necessary, but I just thought that I'd give a mention to the greatness of Nobuo Uematsu while I'm here. It's soooo good that he's doing some music for Brawl! Hopefully Kondo will also contribute. Edit: Thanks for the links Anakenobi!

Hard to tell from the screenshots, but looks interesting..

Yes. Not quite convincing is it. I do worry when they come out with this kind of crazy talk.. I don't know what's madder, actually ditching stuff they'd already spent time making, or thinking that it's a good cover story for running out of time! DCK's spot on. WW would be a real masterpiece with a few more dungeons to fill it out (unless they were removed for being substandard or overly repetitive). As it stands tho, I still love WW. Cel-Link can't return soon enough!

Jerry Goldsmith's excellent. He's not quite as accessible as someone like Williams (less emphasis on crowd-pleasing tunes) but his music is arguably more developed. What fascinates me about Kondo-san's contributions to the Zelda franchise over the years is how the various themes are subtly related. So even in a genre of composition where sustained development of musical motifs is difficult, he has achieved this. I love hearing how the main Zelda theme right back from the NES original is reworked and woven into each game. Some people at the time of Ocarina's release claimed to be disappointed at the lack of the signature tune, but if you listen carefully during Hyrule Field it's there in nascent form! There's also a clear family resemblance between Zelda's lullaby and other 'love' themes that appear throughout the series - eg Aryll's theme, Ilia's theme. I could go on..

Yes, I suppose you're right. I'm a huge admirer of Koji also, hence I would love to see him given the chance (and the budget) to work with a full orchestra. He's definately correct tho when he says that orchestral versions of the TP's music wouldn't have made a huge difference to the game. I was actually pretty happy with quality of the sound overall. I was very intrigued by a comment he made a while ago about wanting to use big orchestral sounds for the more dramatic moments in a Zelda game and a string quartet or chamber ensemble for the more intimate sequences.

Personally, I thought the 'interactive' element in the music for TP that midi allows wasn't handled well anyway. I found it actually quite annoying whenever I came even vaguely near to an enemy and the obnoxiously uninspired 'danger' music kicked in. Sometimes you kill an ememy before the music rears it's ugly head and then it pops-up too late, only to accompany a scene of serenity over Hyrule Field. I'm not against the idea in general, but I think it could have been a bit more subtle..

Aonuma: "With Wind Waker, it wasn’t that we removed dungeons because of time constraints or anything like that. Actually, we thought that there was just too much volume. So we reduced it to something that we thought was much more manageable to the end user. But having released it, we heard from North American end users that there wasn’t enough and they wanted more. So with Twilight Princess, we added one more dungeon than was in Ocarina of Time" So they removed dungeons DELIBERATELY after they'd already made them?!! That's madness! Nintendo are getting very namby-pamby about their software these days.. they worry too much about overwhelming the gamer, when in fact gamers want MORE, they want to be challenged, to be surprised, engrosed. It's like they deliberately limit themselves sometimes. TP had a lot more content obviously, but you still get the sense that they're holding back in some ways. I think Nintendo really underestimate the sophistication of contemporary gamers - it's not like we're still in the 8-bit era! Concerning Midna - Aonuma: "(laughs) Because of the way Twilight Princess ended, I don’t see her making a reappearance, but who knows. If we hear enough voices for her to come back, how can we not" Oooooooo, so there's a chance! We'll have to make our voices heard. She was hands-down the best thing about TP!

I hope we do get some full game soundtracks from Kondo-san in the future. I wonder if he's composed much for Mario Galaxy..? The music in the trailer certainly sounds like him. For the next Zelda they should get him to compose the whole thing, so it's more unified stylistically, and preferably with a full orchestra. The 'demo' music in TP is great - hopefully a taste of things to come!

Wow indeed! This looks mad! Can't wait..

: peace: No probs! I think we can pat ourselves on the back for having engaged in a rare instance of civilised disagreement. How anyone can dismiss MM is beyond me! Their loss i guess. Btw does anyone know anything about Koji Kondo's keynote speech?? I'd love to hear some reflections from the master..

You might learn to love it! I don't know if I'm quite at the amorous stage yet, but it has grown on me. It becomes a lot more fun after a while and the controls sort of 'click'. Even the frustrating parts are enjoyable in a way! And the music just adds to the comedy value. Some excellent bosses too.

Fair enough. Perhaps, as you insist, TP turned-out exactly as intended, and there was never a quiver to speak of. Though I wish you wouldn't oversimplify my (essentially ambivalent) viewpoints on the game in order to dismantle them. I still enjoyed the game enormously. Hopefully for the next installment the team will try something a bit fresher (maybe I'm just getting old and jaded)..

Altogether we’ve heard and seen some tantalising stuff this week. Can’t wait to revisit the Resi 4 engine!

I think you misunderstood me slightly. I’m no TP-basher, I love many aspects of the game. However, if TP’s development was indeed the result of a clear-sighted vision, then Nintendo certainly know how to make things appear shakier than they are (just look how completely different in tone the E3 2004 trailer was to the final game, not to mention the delays). Of course I’m only stating my view on things. It just seems to me that occasionally the cracks begin to show through all the PR-speak and hype.. If you think it’s inappropriate not to take it all at face value then that’s fine.. but as I say, it seems a bit suspicious to me. It’s the only way I can account for the patchiness of the end product. I wasn’t trying to say the developers weren’t focused and committed to the game- I would never accuse Nintendo of that! Rather that they almost too consciously set out to make it perfect, and couldn’t quite see the wood for the trees (tho I am overstating it a bit..). By ‘character’ I meant in the general sense, not just simply ‘characters’. I don’t look to Zelda games, or Nintendo games in general, for that kind of obvious character development or plot. If TP managed to sustain the dark tone of its better moments (predominantly in the first half *winks to motion2000*) it would definitely be the masterpiece it’s claimed to be. As it stands it seems an awkward mix of the inspired and the insipid. Unfortunately for TP as well, it straddles 2 generations of gaming, and I would rather have seen it earlier on the Cube. I’d also much prefer to gloss over all of my issues with the game and blindly hail it to be an unequalled masterpiece (just listen to the PR, that proves it!), but the fact is that I know Nintendo can do better.. [Apologies for longwindedness and unnecessary sarcasm]

Words can't express how much I want this game!!

The more one hears about the gestation of TP the more it becomes clear that it was all a bit of a mess. Personally, I think Miyamoto's initial gut reaction to the wolf idea as 'amateurish' was probably right.. It could have REALLY worked and been implemented so much better than it was (different attacks, more talking to animals, actual consequences to the story etc), but as it turned out it seemed like a bit of an empty novelty. I think they let the spectre of Ocarina haunt them too much as well - in the struggle to make it '120%' they sacrificed the most vital aspects of Zelda - character and soul -the very aspects that make LTTP, OOT, MM and WW what they are. The statement about including orchestral music not being fulfilled shows that they were confused (to say the least) about the direction of TP, and hints at a somewhat fraught development period.. Aonuma's comments about the inclusion of wiimote functionality also suggest a certain sense of desperation to add something more substantial to the game. I'm glad to hear that orchestral music is still on the cards for the next one. Hopefully this new style will inspire Koji Kondo back to top form!

Oh the ending is great! Better than WW I think - in terms of it's execution if not it's narative. The very last section of music during the credits has to be one of the most lyrical and sensetively composed in any Zelda.. it's just so understated, almost melancholic..

Oh god, the rupee sequence over and over is about the most stupid and lazy oversight in the game. They've got it right every time before.. wierd. The camera issue almost made me trade in the wii version for the gc one.. but then I'd be without widescreen.

Perhaps I was being a little harsh. I've not played it on the crusty old megadrive for quite a while. It does have a good story and the music's very atmospheric. It can just be quite annoying and tedious at times. But the campy retro charm outweighs that if you're in the right frame of mind. By all means give it a try.. just don't expect it to rock your world! EDIT: Incidently, there's quite a funny 'review' of it on youtube if you do a search..

Oh dear. I had a little epiphany while playing around on this the other night.. I realised that, despite attempts to persuade myself to the contrary, I do actually prefer Wind Waker to TP. You know what really irritated playing this, more than any niggly concerns about story or unoriginalty, was just how incredibly glitchy and awkward the game often is. The shadows and ground textures, not content with being extremely bland and blurry looking, flicker and glitch away like something from the 64 days. The camera is awful and extremely erratic by Zelda standards (eg when riding Epona through narrowish pathways it seems to get 'stuck' and then jerk back to where it's supposed to be). The whole game has a very rough 'soft' look to it (and no, this isn't an issue of hd vs sd), and really in the final analysis just doesn't feel like Zelda. Where is the inimitable Nintendo flow and polish..? And spirit?! For the record, I still love many sections of this game (esp the dungeons and Midna!).. I'm not looking to be flamed.