[SPOILERS!!] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Burny]

As people in the spoiler-free topic are once more trying to apply "real world logic" to the evolution of Zelda races and its timeline ( ), I remembered this weird penguin creature from the trailer. Did anyone else catch this?

 

 

 

 

It's a bush. Megaton!

 

The first few times I watched the trailer I overlooked this. The open "tail" is only visible for two frames ... You'd almost think they wanted to hide it.

[Fused King]

Sort of the 'evolution' of the Deku Scrub

 

During an IGN podcast they dubbed it a 'penda': Penguin x Panda.

 

And they had the best of times stating how awesome they were with coming up with this and that they should let NINTENDO executives know that this is how they should call it....:/

[Dante]

New & Old Trailer! (Comic-Con)

 

 

Clips of shops, statue of a peahat and traveling Goron mixed with old E3 trailer.

Edited July 21, 2011 by Dante

[Fused King]

Fucking Awesome!

 

Made me cry like a little girl.

[Ronnie]

Skyloft looks great, hopefully it'll be as busy and full of stuff to do like Windfall or Clock Town

[The Peeps]

I saw a Goron

[Fused King]

The theme is just so fucking brilliant!

 

The orchestrated version we heard of it during E3 made me remember once more why Zelda games are awesome!

 

I love you guys:love:

[Ashley]

Anyone else feel the eyes looked really dead in that trailer?

[Guy]

Animation still looks pretty poor. The scene where Link jumps onto the vine looks particularly jerky, as do numerous instances of swordplay. Other than that the game looks gorgeous. Consider me excited.

[Dante]

 

Summary by zeldainformer

Bill Trinen, one of the biggest and most influential people at Nintendo of America's localization divison, sat down with GameSpot at Comic-Con to talk about Skyward Sword. Most of this is old news, such as explanations of the Ghirahim boss fight, the dual-overworlds of Skyloft and the surface, and so on, but there are a few details that, while they've been alluded to in the past, haven't been discussed quite as directly before. One of these is the system for item upgrades, which Trinen confirms will involve Link collecting items and Rupees in order to enhance existing items:

 

What I can say though is what we have done with the game this time that I think a little bit different is... They've built an entire upgrade system into the game. So for example, right now you can see that Link has his traditional shield, but he actually will get a lot of diferent shields in the game. He will start off with a very basic one, and then as you fight enemies, you will recover these kind of treasures or artifacts that you can then use as resources to upgrade your items. And you can do that with your shield, you can do that with the beetle, and some of the other items that you have where you're able to kind of combine your collection of rupees and your collection of resources and improve the items that you have.

 

So far he's confirmed only shields and the Beetle - perhaps we'll collect parts for Beetle upgrades in the field but won't be able to synthesize them without going to a workshop first? Either way, this system sounds totally rad. I'm going through and giving this interview a listen and will be updating with a breakdown of pretty much every detail soon.

 

In case you guys missed this back at E3: You pronounce "Ghirahim" as "geer-rah-HEEM"

Ghirahim seems to have been following you up until the battle in the Sky Temple

The world below is indeed a "vast overworld," and that treasures and people will be scattered throughout the islands in the sky; they're definitely meant to be two full overworlds

Not necessarily having to use your dungeon item to defeat a boss is just one of the many ways the Zelda team is trying to get away from tired series tropes

The game is designed so that you can deal with enemies and situations in a variety of ways; I've hinted at this before from my own experiences but now it's coming from the horse's mouth

Bill acknowledges that enemies weren't a challenge before and they've been working to fix that this time by creating a richer combat system; previous enemies you could just walk up to and swing your sword, but you have to use more strategy and skill this time

Dungeon-like gameplay isn't just limited to dungeons this time

Bill insists that the game is going to have a lot of content, and that we'll be hearing more about the content and story soon

Bill himself says the style is a fusion of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, but with a watercolor style versus the cartoon style

Even Skulltulas can be defeated in different ways; you can cut the thread and flip it over, you can stab it in the gut while it walks around, or you can knock it around while it's still attached to its thread and hit it in the belly

Trinen reconfirms that the part of the Sky Temple we saw at E3 started right in the middle of the area, and that we'll play through a different part first in the actual game

Items do not pop out of the grass as frequently as before

The Skyward Sword will glow when Phi has something to say to you

Bill seems to acknowledge a connection between Ghirahim and Phi

Holiday release date reconfirmed

Edited July 22, 2011 by Dante

[Ronnie]

This game looks and sounds absolutely fantastic! Really like what we've been hearing about Nintendo mixing things up with this game and going for different approaches throughout the game. The colour pallette is gorgeous and I love how the treasure chest appears near the end, definitely reminds me of Wind Waker. And the swordplay mechanics seem like a homage to Zelda II.

 

My only slight nitpick, something I HATE is the 'Times New Roman' font used for speech bubbles. Looks terrible IMO (from a designer POV)

Edited July 23, 2011 by Ronnie

[Dante]

Nintendo Power Info:

 

Nintendo Power: It’s been a year since we last talked, and since I last played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. How has development gone? Have there been any changes or unexpected occurrences during development?

 

Eiji Aonuma: Skyward Sword, in that year since you last played it, has really come along nicely. We’re at that point where we’re applying polish and really trying to bring along the Japanese version, so it’s in its final stages. Over the last two months or so, [Zelda series Creator] Mr. Miyamoto has been working with me and my group to help put the finishing touches on the game. We want to continue working on it, and refine and polish it even further, so…I intend to be fully involved in that work for awhile. And also, localization is obviously going to be underway soon.

 

Additionally, in regards to your question of what’s changed and what sort of things happened in the past year, I think we have succeeded in making a game that uses the Wii MotionPlus to provide some incredibly satisfying sword combat. I feel that was a great success, but once we achieved that, it became a matter of saying, “How many other ways can we enrich gameplay? How can we continue to flesh out gameplay experience?” So a lot of our work has also focused on increasing the variety and richness of the gameplay, especially in this past year.

 

How would you characterize the game’s story?

 

As far as the story itself is concerned, one big point that makes it a very different experience is that in most Zelda games, the Master Sword has been something that Link seeks out, finds, and uses to destroy Gannon. This time around, it’s more centered on the creation of the Master Sword–the way it was born, so to speak. Link kind of forges it along the way. It’s more centered on that, which is a different pattern than we have had in a lot of ways.

 

How would you describe the relationship between Link and Zelda in this game?

 

The relationship between the two of them is one of being great childhood friends. They grew up together in Skyloft–this village on the clouds–and they have a great relationship. Then something happens and Zelda is taken away, and Link must chase after her and dive into this world that he’s never ventured to, and no one’s ever been to before, in order to find her. One thing that I think has been really distinct about this story is that Zelda is in no way a princess in the traditional sense.

 

 

Speaking of Zelda, what were your goals in designing her new look?

 

One of the things that I said before was that she is supposed to be Link’s childhood friends, so we tried to give her a design that made her feel sort of relatable and have that warmth to her. But at the same time as you venture deeper into the story, you find a different side to her. She’s this sweet childhood friend you have in the beginning, but as the story progresses and the gravity of the situation increases, she becomes someone who has a different side to her–someone who’s willing to face the tremendous fate that’s been placed on her shoulders. So that’s something we tried to incorporate into the design of who she is.

 

Is there any significance to Zelda’s harp? Is it the same harp that Sheik has in Ocarina of Time?

 

This time around, the harp comes into Link’s hands during the course of the game and is used to help the player find something important. You actually need to play the harp to use it, so to speak. The design is the same as the harp that Sheik has in Ocarina of Time.

 

Is it safe to say that the harp is the game’s musical component?

 

Yes, the harp is sort of the central instrument hat you’ll see this time. With a lot of previous Zelda games it has been about inputting specific notes to compose things. Given the nature of what a harp is, and the fact that it’s an instrument that one strums, this time we’re using the Wii MotionPlus to really make it based on the rhythm of strumming to get across the musical element.

 

Given the orchestral performance of Zelda music at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, can we expect Skyward Sword to have a fully orchestrated soundtrack?

 

I wouldn’t call it completely orchestrated, because we have decided in certain situations and parts of the game to use music based on what the Wii can synthesize in order to provide more effective music. But there are quite a few songs during the course of the game that are fully orchestrated and recorded.

 

 

I’ve also been wondering about this Lord Ghirahim. Who is he, and why is he so creepy?

 

Thinking about Gannon, the prototypical villain in the Legend of Zelda series–he’s a very masculine, powerful, evil character that anyone can look at and realize is your archenemy in the game. This time around, I thought that if we featured a character similar in presentation to Ganon, it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference and that new character wouldn’t have much impact. I wanted to make to make a character that contrasted what people think about Ganon–someone who is a little bit mysterious and kind of makes people think, “well, I don’t really know what to make of this somewhat terrifying character.” That was sort of my goal in making a character like Ghirahm, and that’s basically why I did that.

 

Is he related to Vaati from The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures? He’s also very white and has similar eye makeup.

 

Well, the director on the project this time around is Mr. Fujibayashi, who also worked on Minish Cap. Perhaps there’s something about Mr. Fujibayashi’s sensibilities in regards to design that might have influenced both characters. But beyond that, I don’t think so.

 

 

Ghirahim also reminds me a lot of David Bowie.

 

[laughs] I can certainly see that. One of the things that relates to what I said about contrasting Ganon is that he does have a sort of unisex-like, genderless feel to him. I can certainly see the resemblance there.

 

Where does Skyward Sword fall in the timeline? Does it come between Minish Cap and Ocarina of Time?

 

Well, calling it the first Zelda might sort of box me in, but what I would like to say is that it does come before Ocarina of Time.

 

 

That probably means we won’t be seeing Ganon then, right?

 

Yes, that’s right. Ganon typically appears in a Zelda game when the story is centered around the Triforce. This time around, the Triforce sort of takes on a different meaning and plays a different role in the story. So because of that, Ganon will not appear.

 

Who are the characters with Link at the start of the bird race? Not just the competitors, but also the older guy.

 

The people you saw in the opening scene are part of–we don’t have an official name for it yet–a sort of academy, a knight academy, that Link is a part of and [they] oversee the school, and [the people are] also his classmates. So in that sense, this is a game that really puts Link in a different context and a different environment.

 

 

When it comes to the birds, will you be riding them more than just in the race minigame that’s been shown? Will they be a form of transportation?

 

No, the birds aren’t just for racing in this game. In the context of the story, Link lives in this world above the clouds, but eventually has to dip below to the surface world in order to move things forward. So [the birds] are a key to accessing those areas. In addition to that, there’s a vast world above the clouds as well–little islands floating in the sky all over the place that you can explore, and there are events and scenarios that play out there as well, which are accessed by riding your bird. But one thing I’d like to emphasize is, when you think about it–for example, how Spirit Tracks had the train and Wind Waker had the boat you rode around in–there’s a lot of stuff that happens when you’re in transit. [The Bird is] sort of a new form of that mechanic in that it’s a vehicle that allows you to do other things and takes you to other places.

[Dante]

Nintendo Power Info Part 2

 

Last night we managed to get you a good chunk of a recent interview with Eiji Aonuma that was conducted by Nintendo Power for their August issue. It was one of the richest interviews in terms of story details that we've had the pleasure of experiencing since last year's E3. Today we've managed to get hold of the rest of the interview. If you're not the interview reading type, I'll pick out all of the juicy details (and some of the not-so-juicy ones in case you've missed them) and line them all out in my usual breakdown fashion first.

 

• This is definitely the "longest and deepest" Zelda experience yet. Aonuma and Miyamoto still haven't been able to look over all the content.
  
• Aonuma would like to make a Zelda movie if the time and resources were available.
  
• Part of the challenge with creating Zelda on Wii U will be finding ways to distinguish it from handheld games now that games like Ocarina of Time 3D are playable on a portable system.
  
• My personal favorite detail from the interview: The possibility of Majora's Mask getting a 3DS makeover is discussed.
  
• Aonuma loves the functionality of the Wii U controller as we saw it in the E3 tech demo.
  
• The team doesn't want to limit themselves to a particular art style.

 

I heard a rumor that this may be the longest and deepest Zelda game ever made.

 

 

It's certainly no rumor what-so-ever. It is definitely a tremendous game- there is so much content that Mr. Miyamoto and I haven't been able to thoroughly play it all. We're obviously in the process of doing the refinement, but the fact that we're still chewing through the content as we go is a testament to the fact that it is a game backed by a tremendous volume of game play and content. When I say volume, its not necessarily just that there's a big world out there to explore. You come to understand the structures of things in your world, and you'll see a broadening of a kind of game play that goes on in these structures as you're playing through. So, that's one way the game has tremendous volume.

 

If you had more time and an unlimited budget, what else would you do to try to celebrate Zelda's 25th anniversary?

 

If what we're really talking about is a sort of a "sky is the limit" approach to things, I always thought it would be really cool to have a real Zelda movie, something really grand and sweeping. But, of course, I have neither the time nor the wherewithal for all that, and even if I did have the money to make such a movie, I don't know if it would turn out well. But there are those days when I fantasize about how cool it would be if something like that would happen sometime in the future.

 

Now that handheld systems are powerful enough to provide the kind of Zelda experience that has previously been available only on consoles, will there be any differentiation between the two styles going forward?

 

Certainly in making the DS titles as handheld Zeldas, one of the goals has always been to make something you can play in little bits and pieces so that you have a little fun, put it away, and do something else, and come back to it. That's sort of the accessibility of playing the game in bite-sized chunks. But as you pointed out, Ocarina of Time is a fully fledged,, previously console Zelda that is now portable. So in that sense, yes, the ability to deliver that kind of experience is now available for handhelds as well; it's not just in the domain of consoles anymore. However, if that's the case and we can deliver what people previously considered a console experience, to a handheld, it makes me think, "Well, what can we do to make those home-console Zeldas that much more engrossing and appropriate for being in your room and spending the time to really dive deep in the game?" So, that's a theme that I'm certainly going to carry though into future development. One way that I've really thought about it is that motion controls, for example, are great fun when you're in your room and swinging your sword. But if you think about it, if you were to do that out in public, in front of people, it may not be the best experience for everyone. So, I definitely want to continue to think about experiences that suit themselves to long periods of deep exploration in game play at home, and also look more at what types of game play are best suited for being out and about.

 

After playing Ocarina of Time 3D, the next question that comes to mind is: Will we get a Majora's Mask remake next?

 

Would you like to play such a remake?

 

Well, Yes!

 

It's been 13 years since Ocarina of Time was originally released, and one of the big things that we made this remake possible was that there was an outpour of emotions from people who said they would like to see this game done. We said we could do it in 3D, so we did. I think certainly if there was a similar output of emotion and clamor from fans for a remake of Majora's Mask, it wouldn't be an utter impossibility.

 

Thinking on it now, having a handheld Majora's Mask where you could kind of just set things down on your own time - close it, set it aside and come back to it later - might be a game play element some fans will actually take to and might really appreciate. Especially considering how you really had to rush through the original game, in a sense.

 

Do you have any ideas percolating regarding how you'd like to a see a Zelda game play on the Wii U?

 

Obviously software sort of evolves along with hardware and the functions that are built into hardware. I think if I was to give away all the ideas that are floating around, it wouldn't be as much fun when those products actually come to life. But one thing I certainly find myself liking is a lot - that you saw in the Wii U Zelda HD experience - is the idea of being able to pill your map onto a separate screen and really make use of that separate display in order to make your adventure more exciting and more streamlined. That is certainly something I find very appealing.

 

Speaking of that demo, is the Twilight Princess art style what you'd like to use for a Zelda game on the Wii U?

 

Not necessarily. Really, this time around it was more about seeing what we can do with the Wii U. In making the experience, we had the Twilight Princess art style as a base more or less to gauge what we were doing. But for a Wii U Zelda in the future, there's no art style or design direction that's been laid down - we're very open to distinct possibilities.

Edited July 24, 2011 by Dante

[Ronnie]

Will we get a Majora's Mask remake next?

 

Would you like to play such a remake?

 

HELL. F-ING. YES!!!!! err... pretty pwease Aonuma san

[Dante]

GameTrailers Bill Trinen Interview

 

Forging Hyrule Interview

 

Timelines Interview

 

Future Of Zelda

 

Summary

- Majora's Mask was done in Japan before localization in the states started

- Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess both used simultaneous localization

- there were some finer details in the story that were changed in these projects

- Skyward Sword ties into Ocarina of Time

- Nintendo fears that if they put out an official timeline, they'll be limited with future Zelda ideas

- There is a a master document for the Zelda timeline, but it's kept under wraps

- it contains overall plans for the series

- Skyward Sword will be 'tremendously expansive'

- Nintendo says there's nothing else like it as far as motion control goes

- Looking at holiday release this year

- More details on Golden Wiimomte and other info later on

- More events and activities surrounding Zelda to come

- Skyward Sword blends overworld and dungeon elements

- more puzzle and exploration than before

- Bill Trinen hasn't finished the game yet, but he believes it to be one of his favorite Zelda games ever

- the Wii U tech demo doesn't necessarily show where Nintendo will go with Zelda on Wii U

- Skyward Sword starts off in Skyloft

- The game kicks off with a series of events that sets Link on an adventure below the clouds to save Zelda

- the game involves lots of mystery elements, including why you can't quite catch up to Zelda when trying to rescue her

- Link's female companion isn't the sword exactly, but a spirit in the sword

- she guides Link on his adventure

- Ghirahim is following Link at one point, but Link isn't aware of it

- The E3 battle with Ghirahim is the first time Link comes in contact with him

- You don't know why he is going after Zelda

- there are a lot of new character races in Skyward Sword, more than what we've seen at E3

- you will visit familiar places in Skyward Sword, but they may or may not be part of Hyrule

[Hero-of-Time]

Footage from Gamescon. I haven't watched it myself but thought I would slam it in here for those who want to take a look.

 

[LegoMan1031]

I have not been reading the spoiler topic so i don't know if people already know this but i just read on GAME's site that nintendo have confirmed the release date to be 18th November 2011.

 

http://www.game.co.uk/lowdown.aspx?lid=16499&cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Digital-_-Gamescom-_-Link

[canand]

[canand]

another video

 

 

another video

 

Edited August 31, 2011 by canand

[Burny]

Gameinformer has a cover story about Skyward Sword. They're also releasing a couple of videos with new footage.

 

This is the first.

 

For anybody who has seen the E3 footage, this is practically free of spoilers. The music however! There is something that the sweeping music over the clouds reminds me of and I think it's Indiana Jones.

[Ronnie]

Looks great, nice visuals and presentation

[bryanee]

From GI. Stolen from GAF.

 

-If Link's hanging from a ledge and enemies are up above, they'll try to step on his fingers to make him fall

-When enemies are knocked off of high ledges, they won't "disappear" until they hit the ground

-Bokoblins that carry horns will use them to summon reinforcements

-When Link is on fire, if he tries to use a Bomb it will explode instantly

-If you're running low on Bombs, you can pick up Bomb Flowers and add them to your Bomb Bag

 

More info here

 

http://www.zeldadungeon.net/2011/09/game-informer-tons-of-skyward-spoilers/

Edited September 13, 2011 by bryanee

[Hero-of-Time]

Man, just watching the conference and this looks freakin amazing. I can't wait to see a video of it as i'm sure I seen the Wind Fish in it. Oh and the Gust Jar from Minish Cap seems to have returned.

[bryanee]

Heres the footage

 

http://nintendoeverything.com/73627/

 

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, goty.

[killer kirby]

Fuck you Nintendo, your going to make work hard for me tonight >