The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[Ronnie]

5 minutes ago, Julius said:

and would there ever be a year where Nintendo isn't excited about their upcoming year

To be fair this isn't some official statement Nintendo put out, it's behind the scenes conversations he's had. Feels a bit more real than the stock PR answer from a big company. But yeah, who knows really. It's good to hear Nintendo seem confident but we'll see. 

And yeah, I tend to ignore Schreier at all costs haha

[Julius]

31 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

To be fair this isn't some official statement Nintendo put out, it's behind the scenes conversations he's had. Feels a bit more real than the stock PR answer from a big company. But yeah, who knows really. It's good to hear Nintendo seem confident but we'll see. 

Oh yeah, I know it's stuff he's heard off the record at a social event, it's just one of those situations where I'd be very surprised if anyone who works at Nintendo would actually turn around and openly say to someone - even in a social setting - that they aren't feeling good about 2022, or doubt that BotW2 is making next year? And if they did -- would Peer actually share it in that situation? Because I'm not sure he would. 

For me it's nice to see someone saying that basically they haven't heard anything about it being pushed back, but hearing this doesn't really move the needle for me  we've already been told to expect BotW2 in 2022, and we can already see from Nintendo's 2022 slate that it's shaping up to be a stacked year. 

It's just another six months until E3 (holy smokes E3 2021 was already six months ago?!) and then I think we'll have a crystal clear idea on when BotW2 is coming. I'm basically hoping for the best (2022) and preparing for the worst (2023) 

31 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

And yeah, I tend to ignore Schreier at all costs haha

These two minutes basically sum up how I imagine Schreier when he gets to leak something or fearmonger 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Julius

[Glen-i]

48 minutes ago, Shorty said:

Is anyone hopeful that BotW 2 will follow a Majora's Mask style approach, not in terms of Groundhog-daying it, but in terms of making everything a little... weirder? If we're going to be in the same Hyrule, one great thing that you can do is shift the tone a little bit and make it all quirkier, more colourful, and a little bit... strange.

That already exists. It's called Age of Calamity. The game where I defeated Calamity Ganon by setting the Great Fairies loose on him and literally kissing him to death.

[Sméagol]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

That already exists. It's called Age of Calamity. The game where I defeated Calamity Ganon by setting the Great Fairies loose on him and literally kissing him to death.

Some people don' t consider that a Zelda game.

[Glen-i]

4 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

Some people don' t consider that a Zelda game.

Weird, considering there's someone called Zelda, and she's playable in it.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Shorty said:

Is anyone hopeful that BotW 2 will follow a Majora's Mask style approach, not in terms of Groundhog-daying it, but in terms of making everything a little... weirder? If we're going to be in the same Hyrule, one great thing that you can do is shift the tone a little bit and make it all quirkier, more colourful, and a little bit... strange.

Honestly, anything and everything this game can do to help differentiate itself from Breath of the Wild is only going to be a good thing in my eyes. I have many concerns going into this game, arguably the biggest of which is if my memories of this upcoming game are going to end up getting mixed up with memories of the first game (compounded by the possibility of the open world not changing all that much), so a slight change in tone and a noticeable shift in colour palette could be the way to do it. The first game was very heavy on lighter colours for instance, such as light greens and blues, as well as natural textures of the surroundings; something as simple as making the grass a few shades darker could make a huge difference I feel. 

It's funny because I think the first trailer for this sequel nailed it thanks to the environments shown: everything just looked visually darker (most of those shots being interior shots helped), which matched the tone of that trailer perfectly. We then start to see Hyrule Castle rumble in a very familiar looking open world, but it taking off almost makes you ask the question of what changes this would bring. There's a lot of reds, shadows, and purples in the trailer, which heavily contrasts against flashes of light (Link's arm, the glowing strands at the start and end of the trailer, etc.). 

The second trailer starts out with this before we see Link going all Fortnite and dropping in from the sky, which takes us through a few scenes up in the clouds to show off a colour scheme which generally looked even lighter than what we saw in the first game: yellow and golds of trees contrasting against the whites of the clouds, and the blue of the sky. So the potential underground and skies look fresh, but then I think seeing Hyrule at ground level still have that largely unchanged colour palette just really makes me a little nervous about this game's visual identity when compared with the first. 

Your post also reminded me of some great speculative fan art which came before the second pack of DLC, which I think kind of nails the colour and tonal shift, as well as the weirdness: 

23 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

That already exists. It's called Age of Calamity. The game where I defeated Calamity Ganon by setting the Great Fairies loose on him and literally kissing him to death.

Like @Sméagol said, some people don't consider that a Zelda game...

...they just consider it a Saturday night. 

[Ashley]

37 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Weird, considering there's someone called Zelda, and she's playable in it.

Oh so where does this game fit into the timeline?

[Glen-i]

16 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Oh so where does this game fit into the timeline?

No-one knows. But it's a very weird shift that no-one liked, so Ninty pretends that it doesn't exist.

You know, like the CD-i games.

Nice try, I was prepared for Sabrina.

[Glen-i]

44 minutes ago, Julius said:

The first game was very heavy on lighter colours for instance, such as light greens and blues, as well as natural textures of the surroundings; something as simple as making the grass a few shades darker could make a huge difference I feel.

See, if Hyrule wasn't so ridiculously massive, they might be able to pull this off, but it's precisely because it's so huge that Ninty are reusing it mostly wholesale.

The plus side is that most of the heavy lifting is already done, so they can experiment more with the new stuff that is there. Kinda like how Mario Galaxy 2 could go crazy with new and existing mechanics compared to Galaxy, or how Pokémon Black/White could focus on those animated sprites and far more elaborate looking places because the engine was already there.

That said, anyone who thinks that the Sky sections in this are going to be as stupidly humongous as Hyrule itself is only setting themselves up for disappointment. I'm not even convinced that this idea of a complex underground section is going to be a thing.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Glen-i

[Sméagol]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Weird, considering there's someone called Zelda, and she's playable in it.

Right, but it's not a Zelda zelda game.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Sméagol

[Ronnie]

26 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

That said, anyone who thinks that the Sky sections in this are going to be as stupidly humongous as Hyrule itself is only setting themselves up for disappointment. I'm not even convinced that this idea of a complex underground section is going to be a thing.

Every time I try not to get my hopes up for the sequel I remember that by the time it releases it will have been nearly SIX YEARS since BOTW. I know they spent time on DLC and development on BOTW2 might not have happened as soon as the previous game finished, but that seems like an awfully long time. Unless it ran into trouble and they restarted development half way through or something.

1 hour ago, Julius said:

These two minutes basically sum up how I imagine Schreier when he gets to leak something or fearmonger 

Love that. I can easily see Schreier being like that.

[Sméagol]

5 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Every time I try not to get my hopes up for the sequel I remember that by the time it releases it will have been nearly SIX YEARS since BOTW. I know they spent time on DLC and development on BOTW2 might not have happened as soon as the previous game finished, but that seems like an awfully long time. Unless it ran into trouble and they restarted development half way through or something.

That's for the best, filling a huge world with new content (and hopefully dungeons) takes time. Plus it makes much more sense to release it on the new Switch.

[Glen-i]

39 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

Right, but it's not a Zelda zelda game.

You realise you're talking to the guy who thinks BotW is very un-Zelda, right?

I don't understand your argument.

[Sméagol]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

You realise you're talking to the guy who thinks BotW is very un-Zelda, right?

I don't understand your argument.

Then let me make it explicitly clear (though I find it hard to imagine I need to).

Breath of the Wild made some major changes, but it's still an adventure game.

Age of Calamity is a Musou game. They're two totally different genres, and I find it ridiculous to compare it to Majora's Mask, as if they hold similar appeal, which they absolutely don't.

I'd love a new (non-spinoff) Zelda game with a MM vibe, and I'm not going to play Age of Calamity like you suggest.

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Sméagol said:

Then let me make it explicitly clear (though I find it hard to imagine I need to).

Breath of the Wild made some major changes, but it's still an adventure game.

Age of Calamity is a Musou game. They're two totally different genres, and I find it ridiculous to compare it to Majora's Mask, as if they hold similar appeal, which they absolutely don't.

I'd love a new (non-spinoff) Zelda game with a MM vibe, and I'm not going to play Age of Calamity like you suggest.

Oh right, I get that. I'm just pointing out that AoC is a game that has a different, more weirder tone to BotW. I never meant to suggest that it's somehow a replacement for a Zelda same-engine sequel like MM in its gameplay, that's silly.

I just get the feeling that BotW 2 won't really depart much from the vibe the first game had in comparison.

[Julius]

Officially delayed to Spring 2023. 

Pretends to be shocked

Some interesting new shots on show and Aonuma rocking a new haircut was a nice little surprise, but yeah, the delay wasn't unexpected. It's a shame, but hey, they should take all the time they need as far as I'm concerned.

It's not like we're currently starved for games. Let it cook!

Edited March 29, 2022 by Julius

[Dcubed]

Ahh, Smug Mode!

[Ronnie]

They're making a sequel to one of the most beloved games of all time, let them take all the time they need!

So yeah, fair enough, I think a lot of people predicted a delay to early 2023.

Nice to get a few seconds of new footage! That's a step up from the usual twitter delay graphics.  Interesting how he talks about the scope of the game increasing, which is a bit of a relief given it'll be 6 years since the original!

Edited March 29, 2022 by Ronnie

[Ashley]

20 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Ahh, Smug Mode!

Yes...because you're the only person that thought this game would be delayed...

[darksnowman]

Very happy about this.

Just now, Ronnie said:

Interesting how he talks about the scope of the game increasing, which is a bit of a relief.

Tbh, I kind of wish they were taking time to compact it down. 

Here's hoping it ends up being something special.

[killthenet]

Can't say I'm not disappointed but I'm not surprised either, after that latest Direct it became clear that 2022 was already stacked even without BOTW 2 so it would have been a pretty crowded autumn/winter release schedule if it had been on course to come out this November. 

Do we think they'll show anything more of the game this year? I would assume (if it doesn't get delayed again) that it'll come out in March which seems like a long lead time if they're going to show off gameplay demos during their 'E3' event or at Gamescom, but it'd be the same time scale as the first game had. I know they don't exactly need to follow a typical marketing schedule, it's going to get attention and sales no matter what promotion strategy Nintendo adopts, but it would be kind of weird not to show anything more until a Direct next January (or even a big trailer at the Game Awards in December) to announce the release date...

Either way, it looks great and I don't mind them taking their time with it, there is so much to play already (and a tonne on the way) so it doesn't bother me waiting for a few more months to get my hands on it.

[Ronnie]

12 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Do we think they'll show anything more of the game this year? I would assume (if it doesn't get delayed again) that it'll come out in March which seems like a long lead time if they're going to show off gameplay demos during their 'E3' event or at Gamescom, but it'd be the same time scale as the first game had. I know they don't exactly need to follow a typical marketing schedule, it's going to get attention and sales no matter what promotion strategy Nintendo adopts, but it w

Tough one, they could do the same as last year and have a big blow-out at E3, then release 9 months later, or just have another teaser trailer and then a deeper dive at their September and Jan/Feb Directs maybe. I think we'll see something though, unless they have something else lined up for Q4 they want to focus people's attention on...

Edited March 29, 2022 by Ronnie

[darksnowman]

Totally agree with where you're coming from, @killthenet. I don't know how I was going to fit in another huge Zelda game at the back end of this year. (Not that I expect to be any better positioned for it in 12 months' time. ) 

I wonder if they have another little Zelda title in the E3 pipeline to tide fans over this year. Something on the scale of the Necrodancer crossover although A Link Between Worlds on Switch would be fantastic... or throw that DSiWare Zelda anniversary thing on the eShop. 

12 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Tough one, they could do the same as last year and have a big blow-out at E3, then release 9 months later, or just have another teaser trailer and then a deeper dive at their September and Jan/Feb Directs maybe. I think we'll see something though, unless they have something else lined up for Q4 they want to spotlight...

What're the chances of it getting pushed to Summer 2023 and next E3 being BotW2 only.  

[Dcubed]

So March 03/03/2023 it is for BOTW 2 and Switch 2 then... All according to keikaku.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just in time for the release of a new Switch model...

Yeah, Nintendo don't really need the game this year. Their current known lineup is already stacked and imagine both Splatoon 3 and the next Xenoblade will carry the Switch for the backend of the year.