Ronnie

It was a HD Twilight Princess art style on show at E3. Sigh.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but technical prowess should be the icing on the cake of a good Zelda game. Having a clock that knows what time of day it is or what phase the moon it is has nothing to do with the technology, it has to do with the creativity of crafting a living and breathing Zelda world, nothing to do with next gen HD graphics horsepower. Majora's Mask had limited hardware and yet it was a triumph in terms of what you're talking about. Less loading times is nothing ground breaking and just a natural progression with each passing console. One of the biggest complaints about Skyward Sword is the hand-holding and linearity of the gaming world which were both a step down from previous games on less powerful consoles. Better tech won't fix either of those issues, nor will it fix many of the others from TP and SS. The direction will. The added processing power will just (hopefully) make what will (hopefully) be better designed and implemented gameplay... look stunning. And yet and and Aonuma agreed that Wind Waker/Skyward Sword style visuals suit Zelda games best. I don't see where he mentions anything to do with 'realistic' graphics anyway.

"helps bring everything to life" so, window dressing. Skyward Sword had excellent subtle facial expressions, but let's say they were even better, as well as the animations. How would that fix the issues in the game? A lot of people seem to be putting too much emphasis on art style, or graphics horsepower when the problems that need fixing are at the core of the gameplay, NOT something that's supposedly instantly fixed with the jump up to HD.

You can't expect that level of OTT detail and polish for every part of a 45 hour long game. Of course it looked stunning, but it was a tech demo showing off one room, of course it looked amazing. Thankfully, both previous Zelda tech demos looked nothing like the end result. I suspect Zelda Wii U won't either

Oh wow, yes please to this gorgeous art style (fan vid): Must have been a hell of a lot of work put into that!

You really need to learn how to construct sentences properly. Also please don't put words in my mouth. Of course I would rather have a better looking, HD Zelda, but that's the bare minimum for the next Zelda game, it won't fix any of the issues that have hampered TP, SS, PH and ST. It's like the motion controls in Skyward Sword, yes they're aspect of the game to look at, but there are far more important things.

So we're back to: the move to HD will make the game look prettier, but unless Nintendo fix the glaring issues that have plagued the last two major Zelda titles, and not just to do with the overworld, we're back to square one, just with a sexy HD game world, ie. window dressing.

No? Feel free to rephrase properly if you can be arsed. The problems with Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword have nothing to do with the visuals, be they expressions, art style, texturing, polygon count. A few people have suggested that Zelda in HD will 'save' the franchise, when IMO, adding fancy graphics would just papering over the cracks. @Fused King: That was actually explained in the game. Power: battling with all the bosses Wisdom: puzzle solving Courage: the Silent Realm trials I was actually disappointed there wasn't a bit more of this. It didn't add a huge amount to the mythology I thought, apart from a couple of big developments obviously. I'm also sad that you didn't have a deeper connection with your Loftwing, especially after the pre-surface bit at the start of the game. After that he just became a way to get from point a to point b. As for the sky, I think it's unreasonable to expect a Wind Waker-like area in size and scope, given this game also had a huge surface world to explore and Wind Waker didn't. Battle with Demise, I enjoyed it but it was a little anti-climactic given the final battle stages of OOT, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Hell even Spirit Tracks.

Sadly it's very hard to disagree with any of those five points IMO. A very well thought out article, and just goes to show how high the bar is for Zelda games. Those sort of things are the differences between good and great Zelda games. It's why I don't understand when people say HD graphics will save Zelda and make the Wii U game amazing. There are far more important things they need to focus on, as mentioned in that article.

I liked how in true Zelda fashion the skies cleared up within seconds of Link defeating it!

Have to agree that the half the bosses and a lot of the dungeon designs themselves (1, 2, 5, 6) are pretty forgettable. It was also annoying having to wait so long between storyline cutscenes, the pacing seemed a bit lazy, but nowhere near as bad as Twilight Princess.

Was playing on a 50" flat screen, turned sharpness down a tad and didn't notice any jaggies at all.

I find SS's art style makes the TP visuals even more fugly. So muddy, generic and bland.

Loved the Zelda inspired level. Especially hearing the jingle when you light the 4 torches

I preferred Galaxy 1. Galaxy 2 felt a bit lazy and less cinematic. Some of the galaxies in 2 were a waste of space. As for Mario 3D Land, finally 100%-ed it this morning. Amazing game, but I'm finished with it now having done every level twice! Love the return to retro artwork for the snapshots.

Great post Deku-nutz. For the record, I adored Skyward Sword. On par with Wind Waker for my favourite ever Zelda. The nitpicking about the overworld like/not like a dungeon is as you say pointless, and not a big deal in the slightest. Personally, I was just disappointed with how standalone the dungeons were, having expected a totally new spin on it from what I'd read previously, but it's not a big deal in the slightest. I definitely agree with you that the three areas were superbly done, they felt massive, realistic and were packed with things to see and do. A real triumph, it also made Hyrule (or what would become it) far more believable, rather than the entire land that you can run across in five minutes. Hamishmash, loved your post as well :-) totally agree re: dungeons

I thought the desert part felt very same old same old. We'd had those puzzles throughout the game. LOVED the return to Eldin. The whole atmosphere and visuals of that part was a series highlight IMO. Enjoyed the tadtone hunt personally, dunno why it seems universally hated. The transformation in that area looked beautiful.

There's always things to do in the run-up to a dungeon, that's what the overworld is for in Zelda games, I just didn't see this one as any different. You were still doing what you always do, making your way through the overworld, talking to people, and eventually getting to a dungeon's entrance. It was no different to any other Zelda game. I expected it to feel far more seamless than it was, no clear entry/exit points, popping in and out of what would traditionally be called a 'dungeon', bosses in the overworld (which to be fair we got, but we also had in TP). Basically, everyone keeps saying 'the overworld in Skyward Sword is like a dungeon in itself'. I just don't see it.

I still think the whole 'overworld is a dungeon' thing is rubbish. The dungeons in this game were far more obvious than those in Twilight Princess and as for the overworld, so they added lots to do in them, doesn't make the overworld a dungeon. After all the chat about seamless dungeons and not knowing if you were in one or not, I was left massively disappointed in the finished game. And as much as I loved the third, fourth and sixth dungeons in the game at the time, they were some of the most forgettable and generic ones in the series. The latter ones from TP stick it out in the mind far more.

The fact that you can cross the overworld in a few minutes always ruined the illusion of a big open world to explore IMO. I quite liked what Skyward Sword did, the surface world was enormous, as big as it should be if it were real life, but only small pockets of it were uncovered for you to explore. And each area was PACKED full of stuff to do and explore. Twilight Princess' overworld felt soul-less and empty, Skyward Sword's was alive. Wind Waker's overworld was more like Skyward Sword's than any other game and that was the most incredible Zelda experience yet. Anyway I still maintain more processing power doesn't suddenly equal a better Zelda experience. It may look prettier, and provide a richer experience in terms of eye candy etc but that isn't what makes Zelda games special IMO

I still don't see how HD graphics = better Zelda game. It's not about the graphics, it's about the art style, and even that isn't in the top criteria of what makes a great Zelda game. F*ck the former, give me the latter two every time, not as a 'hopefully'. Skyward Sword had them, with SD graphics and a gorgeous art style and it's had pretty much universal acclaim.

Same here. I sent an email for them to cancel my order and just ordered off Amazon. If Play Asia had some they'd have dispatched by now. And their product page says Out of Stock

Has anyone who ordered from Play Asia received or heard anything yet?? Apparently a second print run is now on sale at amazon.jp and it's tempting to just get that and cancel the play Asia order!

Yep, instead it's being scanned in and distributed online for all to see for free. Idiots.

You're not a salesman, you call yourself a photographer, do you want to be seen to be covering up a lovely photo you took with a mugshot? People want to see your work in full. Do you need to write "Tel"? Especially since you didn't put "Web" and "Email" above. Consistency is key and a set of numbers is obviously going to be a phone number