The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Wii U / Switch

[Phube]

I can only see one down side to this game... My wife likes to watch me play Zelda games, but gets annoyed/bored when I have to find all the bugs etc...

 

This game looks like I'll be 'messing around' for so long they'll be a divorce!

[Mr-Paul]

Sounds like Aonuma isn't a fan of the Gamepad

 

We realized that having something on the GamePad and looking back and forth between the TV screen and the GamePad actually disrupts the gameplay, and the concentration that the game player may be experiencing. You have your car’s GPS system on your dash. If you had it down in your lap, you’re going to get into an accident!

[Dog-amoto]

Any chance they'll put the demo on the eShop? Wishful thinking I know, but they should really be letting us all have a chance to have a go.

[Rummy]

Sounds like Aonuma isn't a fan of the Gamepad

 

Tbh I don't think that's really particular news. It's always worked for the DS due to the proximity of screens, but that extra few split seconds dashing your eyes up and down and re-adjusting with the game pad doesn't come anywhere near acceptable. I'm sure there was something I played on WiiU before that made me think the same, but I can't recall what now.

 

 

Also whilst this is looking good - I'm still wondering about this NX dual-release and delay. I'm not planning to get an NX after my personal experience with WiiU - but I wonder; would it be a good idea to allow a crossbuy/free upgrade to any WiiU owners of this for NX? Like if I bought this at first and change my mind down the line and do end up with an NX.

[S.C.G]

Any chance they'll put the demo on the eShop? Wishful thinking I know, but they should really be letting us all have a chance to have a go.

 

Probably no chance.

 

Though that's not to say that the thought didn't cross my mind several times while watching others play it on the Nintendo Treehouse Live stream.

 

I would love for it to happen though as if we did get any kind of demo for a main Zelda title that would be pretty amazing as it has previously only happened once to my knowledge, that was on the Zelda Collector's Edition disc which came with the Nintendo Gamecube Mario Kart Double Dash pak; you had Zelda, Zelda II, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, a video of other games plus a brief Zelda history and a timed demo of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

 

Although that was a completely different situation, things have moved on since then, there is also the side of the discussion that it would show Nintendo has moved on if they provided us with a downloadable demo but I know it's not as simple as that because these days even if it is just 2% of the game and if it's timed... I could see certain members of the Nintendo community data-mining it which may lead to spoilers so being that it's looking like we won't receive a demo, I can understand why.

 

But still, what if? I can just imagine spending a fair few hours in such a demo if it were to happen.

[Pestneb]

If they released an area each month, maybe that could work. You can't data mine for what isn't there. Just release the plain as a full game and then each month give free dlc for the next area's. I know that isn't going to happen, but if the map is as big as it seems I imagine it could have worked (if they had planned it that way ahead of time). Just track where most players have been (have an online component that sends a gps like message to Nintendo) so they know which area most people are near to. People buy the game as it is online, people wanting the whole lot in one go wait till march when the nx version releases with a physical version.

9 months away or so (hopefully) so if they release 10% of the map each month....

 

Anyway, I am sure they didn't plan it out that way, it would defeat the "go straight to the end" idea and would also require them to pop in some glass walls for those players not content with being penned in.

[Ronnie]

Been thinking about that weird cut in the middle of the trailer. I wonder if they had proper footage of the end boss but chose to remove it at the last minute. Definitely seems like something was edited out

[Kav]

Been thinking about that weird cut in the middle of the trailer. I wonder if they had proper footage of the end boss but chose to remove it at the last minute. Definitely seems like something was edited out

 

I thought that was a bit off too, poor editing. Still, I'm glad they did if that's the reason, I don't want to see too many spoilers at this point.

 

A trailer showcasing the world with the towns inserted back in would be nice.

[Pestneb]

 

interesting article.

 

single-screen gameplay with a standard gaming controller because Nintendo is bringing Breath of the Wild to NX, its next console. The two games will play identically. “I’m not going to create something where the users are going to have a different experience,” he says.

 

so that at least shows that the NX will have a standard "pro controller" type control pad. I hope the pro controller will be backward compatible. Also maybe using the next handheld (or even 3ds with a free app downloaded) to act as a gamepad, should they choose to allow Wii U backwards compatibility.

 

This is a group of people who have studied triple-A games

 

So Nintendo looking outside at what other developers are doing... which is promising... I wonder what we will see next. The NX may well have a number of very exciting titles if this is a new philosophy.. taking what succeeds elsewhere and adding a Nintendo touch...

Edited June 16, 2016 by Pestneb

[Ashley]

And what a glorious Saturday it is!

 

And now, some stupid (And hilarious) death GIFs... With my personal favourite at the end.

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping the next nine months is spent ironing out the ragdoll physics

 

I watched the trailer but don't really want to spoil anything beyond that. That said, does the footage shown give any hint at any civilization/life in the world we've seen? So far I've seen ruins and dungeons, cliffs and forests, life in the sense of animals... but no towns, huts or people.

 

Edit: I just read about there being towns and them being interconnected to the world. But just wondered if there's a hint of anything so far, roads, NPCs, etc..

 

For me Zelda's biggest weakness has always been how uninhabited (and often uninhabitable) the overworld feels. Skyloft, Termina, Kakariko Village, OoT and TP's Hyrule Castle Town... they all hinted at something brilliant but never got there.

 

They've said there are towns, but they're not showing them because of spoilers so who knows how much we'll know about it in the next 12 months...

[Ronnie]

The Legend of Zelda is the biggest game at E3 because it finally changed

 

 

It’s not really accurate to describe Nintendo’s E3 2016 show floor presence as a booth — it’s more of a shrine. And that shrine is dedicated almost entirely to one thing: the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is launching on both the Wii U and NX some time next year. This year’s showcase in Los Angeles is the first time that the much-anticipated game has been playable by the general public, and Nintendo is using the opportunity to make Breath of the Wild arguably the biggest attraction at E3.

 

On the second day of the show, the line to play the game stretched around Nintendo’s massive booth, with a wait time measured in hours. It was so big that there was a line to get into the line. Meanwhile, the inside of the booth was resplendent with massive sculptures, showing off larger-than-life renditions of hero Link and some of the game’s ancient enemies. Zelda was everywhere you looked. When I sat down to chat with Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO of Nintendo of America, even his outfit was in the spirit; he paired a smart plaid blazer with a pair of Zelda-themed Vans sneakers.

 

“We think we’ve struck a chord,” Fils-Aime says of the game’s coming-out party at E3. “And we’ve struck a chord with what is a very important franchise for us. A franchise that is going to be key to our long-term success.”

 

While Breath of the Wild is being developed in Japan, helmed by long-time producer Eiji Aonuma, many of the changes and updates that make it feel so fresh are elements typically found in Western-developed games. Titles like Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed helped usher in a wave of open-world games, while role-playing games such as Fallout or The Witcher 3 introduced crafting and survival elements to a huge new audience. Since the Zelda series is traditionally more popular in the West than in Japan, you might assume that these changes were made to appeal to that core audience — but Fils-Aime says that isn’t the case. In fact, the company has found that games more closely associated with the West actually do quite well in Japan.

 

"Behaviorally, the Japanese home market and the West, aren’t so different that the tastes are fundamentally polar," he says. "A great example of this is Splatoon. [An online multiplayer shooter is] something that you would associate with the West, and yet in Japan the amount of players playing Splatoon, the amount of games sold relative to the install base of Wii U, is better than the US performance. It all comes down to this: is it fun? Is it compelling? Is it unique? Does it provide something to the player that they really relate to?"

 

 

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/16/11951730/legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-reggie-fils-aime-interview-e3-2016

[Rummy]

I know you don't like to hear it Ronnie, and I'm very glad and appreciative of this potential Zelda direction as it's right up my street, as TP would have been, as long as they manage to capture the charm of the game that tends to be in the things we haven't actually seen.

 

Whilst that's a very positive article for this one game - my concern is still that this is just one game. Is this Nintendo now? A one-trick-pony heavily built on a single game to satiate their current users and somehow encourage adopters of their next system? I know it's an old argument, but how many people are actually going to pick up or buy this game from the general population? How much is it going to bring in for Nintendo? If it isn't some overwhelming success, if it doesn't bring in a ton of new users, what happens then to both the future of Nintendo, and importantly, this franchise too? No matter how good this one game is?

 

Telling me there's a huge queue to play the next game in one of the biggest series franchises of all time really just does not say enough about the future to me. It tells me that Zelda was, is, and possibly still will be great.

 

But my concern is whether that in itself is enough. Would you be the same if it was an article about the queues worldwide for games like GTA, CoD, or FIFA? I'm not so sure.

[Ronnie]

I know you don't like to hear it Ronnie, and I'm very glad and appreciative of this potential Zelda direction as it's right up my street, as TP would have been, as long as they manage to capture the charm of the game that tends to be in the things we haven't actually seen.

 

Whilst that's a very positive article for this one game - my concern is still that this is just one game. Is this Nintendo now? A one-trick-pony heavily built on a single game to satiate their current users and somehow encourage adopters of their next system? I know it's an old argument, but how many people are actually going to pick up or buy this game from the general population? How much is it going to bring in for Nintendo? If it isn't some overwhelming success, if it doesn't bring in a ton of new users, what happens then to both the future of Nintendo, and importantly, this franchise too? No matter how good this one game is?

 

Telling me there's a huge queue to play the next game in one of the biggest series franchises of all time really just does not say enough about the future to me. It tells me that Zelda was, is, and possibly still will be great.

 

But my concern is whether that in itself is enough. Would you be the same if it was an article about the queues worldwide for games like GTA, CoD, or FIFA? I'm not so sure.

 

GTA, COD and FIFA are the three biggest, most mainstream games there are, adored by millions of casual gamers who buy systems just to play those and nothing else.

 

This is what annoys me about attitudes on this board. Nintendo have created huge buzz and are the talk of E3 and yet a lot of the praise on here sounds almost grudging and conditional. After years of negativity why can't people just enjoy the moment, for once. Not everything has to be "pfft it's good, BUT..."

 

You claim this is "just one game", why not wait until they reveal their first year or two of NX software before making that call? They're obviously holding their cards close to their chest. As for Zelda being all they have, I seem to remember that a brand new IP, a Nintendo multiplayer online shooter of all things, selling over 4 million and Mario Maker just over three, as of the beginning of the year.

 

And as for your comment about needing to see charm in the parts of Zelda we haven't seen, I can confidentially suggest right now that this game will have ten times more charm than the likes of Watch Dogs, Horizon and Ghost Recon Wildlands could ever dream about. Charm isn't usually lacking in Nintendo games.

 

The article I linked to wasn't that gushing. If you want a properly raving article, you've plenty to choose from. Here's one...

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/06/hands_on_wide-open_wanderlust_in_the_legend_of_zelda_breath_of_the_wild

 

I only posted that original article because of the quotes from Reggie and in particular that gorgeous screen shot.

[Rummy]

Sorry I'll just wait for the entire future to occur and put my life on hold in the meantime before saying or doing anything instead. BRB going to burrito in my quilt for 50 years.

[Ronnie]

*rolls eyes*

 

Anyway, back to something a bit more interesting...

 

[Dog-amoto]

So, a big fuss was made of the poor animation that was shown a couple of years ago. Do you reckon it's improved/stayed the same?

 

Can't say I pay a great deal of attention to it myself, doesn't really bother me that much but was wondering if you guys were happier about it?

[Kav]

So, a big fuss was made of the poor animation that was shown a couple of years ago. Do you reckon it's improved/stayed the same?

 

Can't say I pay a great deal of attention to it myself, doesn't really bother me that much but was wondering if you guys were happier about it?

 

It's improved a hell of a lot! It's still not up to par with most games of similar I'll these days but it's not anywhere near as jarring as it was previously. I've no found it to be distracting like I had done before.

[Rummy]

So, a big fuss was made of the poor animation that was shown a couple of years ago. Do you reckon it's improved/stayed the same?

 

Can't say I pay a great deal of attention to it myself, doesn't really bother me that much but was wondering if you guys were happier about it?

 

Personally I don't notice too much. I think it looks good, but not remarkable. I think the art style allows and adds to its movement, possibly similar to how Wind Waker would have at the time. I do feel it looks a bit to Skyward Sword-esque, and hoped for something a bit more different - but ultimately I've always generally been a gameplay over graphics kind of man. I think that did shift somewhat since getting a HDTV after having my 360, but I think really it looks nice/acceptable enough for me.

 

Again, for me and Zelda, it comes down to charm. Things look good so far, I like what seems to be new iterations of classic enemies, I'm hoping we'll equally get some quirky looking NPCs etc too. One thing I will give TP, is that hilarious little midget Malo. I want that. I want so much more of that.

 

 

I want the jugglers/circus folks. I want an old lady who loves her fucking dog. I want Ingo/Gormans. I want Gorons of all shapes and sizes. I want a kid with a drippy fucking nose. I want little pigs that fart out green gas when they're scared. I want a guy who scratches himself and loses his hair. I want a grown man who thinks he's a fairy. I want a poor little girl who's just scared about the aliens coming to town that wants to be saved by her grasshopper. I want a big mean man in black with a smokers lung. I want a mysterious old man. I want some kid who doesn't think I'm hard enough because I don't have a sword and shield. I want someone who likes to rave to a hot hot beat. I want a princess who's in love with me, even if she can't have me. I want a kid who's still the same kid, who sees a man but can't quite figure out why he remembers him. I want a kid, lost and alone in the forest for years, alone and scared and just looking for friends. I want a creepy old dude with an unhealthy mask fetish. I want a local gang of do-gooding kids. I want to meow when I've never seen a cat in my life. I want a teacher who's adored. I want a father who's embarrassed. I want a mother who misses her son. I want a woman who misses her fiance. I want a dude with a stutter who's just trying to get into his room. I want a mayor, overwhelmed by the requests of his people. I want a guard who thinks he's invisible. I want a girl who just loves her brother. I want a bird lady who's happy to go on an adventure. I want a big tree and all his children. I want a pirate! And her merry men! I want a man who likes to drive trains. I want a man who's going to sell me things in his boat. I want a man who wears a silly helmet, but still sells me things from his boat. I want a big fairy lady who doesn't wear enough and has a cackle that'll scare the shit out of a child. I want an uncle who wants me to stay in bed. I want a princess who just wants to escape. I want to see a horned bully beating on some poor little ball. I want a monkey who'll show me the way, if the price is right. I want an old man, hiding in the desert. I want a girl, who I mistake for my princess. I want a goat who just wants a hibiscus. I want a mother and father who are just trying to raise their baby right. I want a man who loves his vases. I want a scarecrow in a field, who just loves a hard tune. I want a kangaroo, a dodongo, a flying bear, to be my friend. I want to save a princess, and meet all these people on the way. I want the charm of their characters and their existence, beyond and without me. Simple, and easy. I want a dancing goddess, an angel with a harp. I want them, and all the rest too.

 

I just want it to have some fucking character, or maybe even a few more, and I'm really worried that it won't.

 

I want to meet them all on my adventure. That's Zelda, truly, for me.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Rummy

[Ronnie]

Most of those fit Wind Waker perfectly, but it wouldn't fit in every game, potentially, including this one. I could say I want all of those things in The Last of Us 2 or Tomb Raider 3, but that would be ridiculous because they wouldn't fit the tone of those stories.

[Ashley]

I think that was his point? That kind of charm/personality is part of the Zelda franchise and he's hoping it carries on with the new title. It's difficult to tell at this stage as we've only seen one NPC (unless more has been shown since the first day, not been watching) but I imagine it will still have a quirky cast of characters.

 

And we all know we just want Lara brutally murdering everyone she comes across in Tomb Raider 3.

[Rummy]

But if you knew your Zelda, you'd know they're all characters from the entire series that have stayed with me, and no doubt countless others, despite just being some side people in your story, or you in theirs. They're only a handful of all of the ones I remember, and I felt I should stop the list. That's what I mean when I talk about it's charm. There's some I even forget, but all of those were off the top of my head and there's many more I could list if I continued. The charm of Zelda hasn't necessarily been its wealth of characters, but each and every one's uniqueness. They all exist in your adventure, but also too in just their own lives. You aren't really anything to them, but you meet them and they're part of YOUR story, even if you're not part of theirs.

 

I don't know if I can say or think of any other game series that has or does the same for me. For many you don't even ever get to know their names. You can only recall or describe them by their stories, but what little you know of them. Whilst I'm very keen on what the new Zelda is doing with gameplay - I want/need it to be a game that captures all of that for me.

 

Tbh I think that essence is something that makes MM one of my favourite games, because it really, really, REALLY, captured the fact that all these people exist. With all their own little quirks and charms, and went about their day without a clue that you were essentially saving their world, and yet they all helped you along your way.

[Ronnie]

I want this Zelda game to have a great storyline and for the tone and mood to feel spot on. If that means it can have a population of quirky, lovable characters goofing off everywhere, then great. If the game is more similar to the original Zelda for NES and the world is more desolate and in ruin, and such things wouldn't fit, I'd rather they didn't try and shoehorn them in. I'm sure there'll be a great set of NPCs, regardless of which style they go with/fits the story.

[Rummy]

But I think you're on the wrong lines if you like the look of this game so far Ronnie. You want a great storyline? This game potentially doesn't even have one, depending on how you play, apparently. It isn't on a set path or line, it's your choice, your adventure.

 

As such, I'm not asking for anyone to be 'shoehorned in' - but I want characters to be there, present. Regardless of whether I ever see them or not. You never had to talk to everyone in Market Town or Karkariko in OoT...but I'd bet most folks did. I'd dare say there's even at least one person out there who never went down the back alleys of Market town, simply because they didn't realise they existed.

 

A lot of characters mentioned in my previous post weren't necessities, they were just there. I'd call them options, but it devalues that existence of them being there in themselves and you just going along your way and business of saving the world.

 

I think for this game to take the huge open world approach it's taking, again akin to what TP sort of attempted, they need to ensure that they put enough into it for it to feel like that. 'Shoehorning' characters isn't the way either, you can make a ton of bland/generic characters to fill space - but what I'm saying that I want and what I think this game truly needs to be a 'Zelda' game is the presence of such characters and uniqueness to them all.

[Ronnie]

All I'm saying is, if the storyline (ie. the overall narrative) of this game demands a desolate Hyrule in ruin, with Link tasked with returning it to its former glory, then I want the NPCs in the game to reflect that, and I'm sure they will.

[Mr_Master_X2]

All I'm saying is, if the storyline (ie. the overall narrative) of this game demands a desolate Hyrule in ruin, with Link tasked with returning it to its former glory, then I want the NPCs in the game to reflect that, and I'm sure they will.

 

I believe the story will be focused around milestones ie reaching certain points, getting certain items or dungeons. I'd say there'll be a MM style NPC situation where the side quests you go on for them fill in the details of te world. Basically meaning the story's as short or as indepth as you like. Other game's have used this very method and it can work. Heck, the game could have more story and world-building than previous entries; you just have to look for it by undertaking the optional quests (maybe).