Zelda: Twilight Princess Discussion (SPOILERS: BEWARE)

[Mr_Aonuma]

mid next week?

oh ok thanx. that isnt all that far from now.

has anyone actualy played right through TP?

if not then, wont the reviews be short 'n' sweet?

 

i think OMN have their reviews later this month.

NOV 24th i think it was.

wont really matter though, we will have many reviews before theirs.

[solitanze]

arn't testers meant to try every nook and cranny to find bugs. So might well be slighlty shorter for us game-pros.

 

With the huge land mass in the game, it probably will end up being shorter, not like 40 hours shorter though. The Hyrule Field would've been most time consuming to test seeing the size of it, the dungeons have confined spaces so they can just wiz around the room, ram right against the wall, test items and move on.

 

I'm really looking forward to the Wolf parts of the game seeing that this is where the bulk of the titles originality comes from, having the limitations and really feeling the pressure and getting greater satisfaction of beating menacing enemies along with all the other abilities not available to Link.

[Mr_Aonuma]

well acording to nate bildurf ( sorry if ive spelled it wront) from NOA,

he wasnt sure of the completion time for OOT by testers was over or under 30-35 hours until the interviewer told him 30 hr+. He said Tp would easily touble that.

[Heaven]

And now it gets delayed again....

 

 

(Yes, I always do bad thoughts)

[Kraser]

Lol, it's impossible this game getting delayed again! It's the first time that a Zelda game goes on sale with nothing left, no ideas left! That's why it's going to be the best Zelda ever ^_^

[Emasher]

It wont be delayed again!

 

 

we already have a concreate release date : peace:

[froztyman]

Delays means quality, just look at Blizzards games! If they ever pick up production of Starcraft:Ghost again and finish it (by 2009 or something) it will be as awesome as Zelda.

[Heaven]

It wont be delayed again!

 

 

we already have a concreate release date : peace:

 

Remember my thread on general forums about subtitles? Well I emailed Nintendo and they replied to me that they will delay Zelda once again just to add subtitles for me:D

 

You still love me no?

[Mr_Aonuma]

do you think 5x the size of OOT field is big?

well acording to nintendo that is the size of hyrule field in tp.

 

do you think 5x the size of OOT field is big?

well acording to nintendo that is the size of hyrule field in tp.

In a recent video interview with NOA guys, they said the demo we seen at e3 2005, the horse mounted battle... that field was around the size of OOT's field. Just that section.

hmm dont you think it looked much bigger than that?

[Knives]

I would say so too, Mr_ Aonuma. 5x the size of OoT field isn't incredible big... It's gotta be way bigger, if you ask me! The Field of OoT was small... very small! With the speed of Epona in TP, OoT field would be so incredible fast to cross...

 

Don't worry, it'll be big! They've said before that the idea of crossing the field on foot is not very realistic and would take too long! That's why you'll get Epona early on in the game...

[jakeee]

Delays means quality, just look at Blizzards games! If they ever pick up production of Starcraft:Ghost again and finish it (by 2009 or something) it will be as awesome as Zelda.

 

What about Daikatana? I thought it was delayed a few times. And then there is Duke Nukem Forever. I guess it'll crush every game ever made.

[Mr_Aonuma]

yeah i gues so.

 

to me it looks bigger than 5x though. honnestly, i cant see it being on scale with somehing like WW, i dont think we could have a 70+ game with an overworld the size of WW. its not possible. you gota remember that the other worlds will be huge... so i dont see the field being TOTALY TOTALY massive!

[Jasper]

Zelda is shaping up to be the greatest. It's going to be huge. Huge. I think I made the right choice pre-ordering it and using it to be my only gale at launc. I'll certainly last untill christmas with that!

[Mr_Aonuma]

Tp is my only Wii game also.

i dont really want anything else right now. ill prob pick up red steel for christmas.

[Mike]

I'm pleased to have definite confirmation that the field is so big, but I hope it's full too, unlike the boring emptiness of the Great Sea in The Wind Waker, which was only broken up by a few small islands and submarines, for the most part.

[Emasher]

yea they could at least put some more trees than the had in ocarina *sorry about the grammar*

 

i still want travellers.

[DCK]

5x bigger isn't all that much. From what I've seen it seems easily bigger than that.

 

Maybe it's five times as far across from one point on the edge to another. That would make it about 25 times bigger.

 

Either that or there are 5 provinces each with a part of the field that's comparable to OoT. More than enough to do I'd say.

[McMad]

Spoilers Ahoy! Chris Kohler's Preview

[Mr_Aonuma]

yea thats what i was thinking today.

it might be 5 sections to Tp each the size of OOt field. but that being the case, they still look bigger than OOts. even the title screen looks bigger than OOt and was was a very small section located around the castle.

[triforce_keeper]

Spoilers Ahoy! Chris Kohler's Preview

 

I guess we have broke up then

[Guest Stefkov]

 

IMO there aint that much new in them, however the first one looks lovely.

[Mr_Aonuma]

my advice is stay da hell away from spoliers.

its only 4 weeks or so to Tp.

 

i know its hard, but 4 weeks is nothing. we have been waiting alot longer.

[McMad]

I guess we have broke up then

 

Sorry Triforce, I don't go for the man sausage anymore, too many fine girls to stare at... And dream about.

[triforce_keeper]

my advice is stay da hell away from spoliers.

its only 4 weeks or so to Tp.

 

i know its hard, but 4 weeks is nothing. we have been waiting alot longer.

 

You speak true words my friend. Although 4 weeks till I will be looking and dribbling all over the manual and another 2 weeks after that to play it ahhhhhhh!!!!!

 

EDIT: I agree with you mcmad. Wanna go clubbin grab some gals?

[Dante]

For the folks who miss this:

 

Iwata Ask! - Volume 5: Zelda: Twilight Princess

Part 3: 120% Zelda

 

The interview translated:

 

Miyamoto

How did the staff interview go? Were there any interesting stories?

 

Iwata

Miyamoto, you could have joined us. But you didn’t come.

 

Miyamoto

Yeah, I thought it’s easier for them to speak without me, and I was looking forward to hearing what kind of stories they would tell.

 

Iwata

It was interesting. There was a lot of views about your ‘table upturning’ (laughter), from people who said you did not much, to people who said you stuff one by one, until you had done lots (changed everything)

 

Miyamoto

I don’t think I did this time. Aonuma-san, I didn’t do it did I?

 

Aonuma

Umm, well… kind of! (laughter)

 

Iwata

You didn’t do it like the star from the hoshi of the giants – but, there were lots of voices that said, without noticing, you changed everything!

 

Aonuma

Yes, this time everything was changed politely/neatly!

 

Miyamoto

No, this time, because people did good, I just had to shuffle.

 

Aonuma

Maybe you’re kidding a bit, right? (laughter)

 

Iwata

So, you didn’t turn the table, but you shuffled the plates.

 

Miyamoto

Yes, I shuffled (rice goes here.. main goes here etc!)

 

Aonuma

Well, it’s up to the person how you view your behaviour. Like me, people who are used to your upturning, we don’t have a problem with it.

 

Iwata

Some people said it was like the game ‘othello’, turning one by one.

 

Miyamoto

Ah, Othello.. yes, it’s kind of like that. But really, I didn’t upturn the table this time! Because when I really do it, it’s really huge, like “Link should be a woman!”

 

Aonuma

You’re kidding! (laughter)

 

Miyamoto

“To solve this problem, it’s quicker to make Link a woman!” (laughter)

But it wasn’t like that!

 

Aonuma

Yeah, we didn’t have that type. (While watching demo of Twilight Princess)

Oh – did you interview them while touching Wii?

 

Iwata

Yes, I asked them to show their favourite scenes, but most of them we can’t show the public yet (laughter)

 

Aonuma

It must be the final version. Ah yes.. good.

 

Miyamoto

We were changing it up to the last minute (laughter)

 

Iwata

Because this is a good opportunity, lets talk about the boot up time. How long does it take from the time when you turn on the Wii, till you can play Zelda, in the final version?

 

Miyamoto

Well, when you turn on the Wii, there’s the instruction about how to hold the controller, and some warnings/notices as well, and we can’t say how many seconds it’ll take, but it’ll start comfortably/shortly. Let’s try.

Because the recent consoles have big memory, it’s usual that it takes time to load, but we tried to make it not like that.

 

(first movie)

 

Iwata

If you put the disc in after it starts up, it’ll take some time for Wii to recognize the disc, but if you turn off the Wii, with the disc in, for the next time you can resume the game, it’ll start more comfortably/shorter.

 

Miyamoto

Yes, I want people to see staff’s effort, such as when you resume the game, with the same disc in, we made it start up faster by using flash memory (I think he’s just referring to the recognizing the disc process, not some kind of PS3 style HD dump)

 

(second movie)

 

Iwata

I feel that it starts comfortably myself. But, since we decided the concept of Wii, we’ve been telling the staff, “Let’s aim to make it startup in 3 seconds”, but we still haven’t achieved it yet.

 

Miyamoto

Yes, I guess we have to say, no we haven’t. It takes more time than we expected when you go back from channel to Wii menu, or when you move between different channels. I’m concerned that it’s slower than when you change channels on TV.

 

(third movie)

 

In the future, when we update the system, I want to make it more comfortable/faster. If you think about the startup of a computer, it’s much more comfortable, but still I’m not satisfied with this. We should make it as close to the speed of changing TV channels.

 

Iwata

Yes, I’m especially concerned about the time of going back to Wii menu from channels. This time, through internet or disc software, we’ve made a function for updating the system. So the people who buy Wii at launch, will be able to update casually.

 

Miyamoto

But, in reality, I think it’s very good that the web browser starts up with some speed

 

Iwata

So what about the loading time in games?

 

Miyamoto

It depends on the scenes, but it will take about 2-4 seconds to move from one scene to another scene. So, once you start the game, it’s very comfortable. Wii Sports and Wii Play is very comfortable in that regard.

 

Aonuma

Regarding Zelda, there’s no scene that needs a loading indicator. If we needed one, we were prepared to do it, but we didn’t need one after all.

 

Iwata

Yes, that was good. I’m sure the fans will be pleased. Now, let me start the real interview.

 

Aonuma

I’m kind of nervous! (laughter)

 

Iwata

Usually I ask you to introduce yourselves, but we don't need it for you two. (laughter). We have Eiji Aonuma (director) and Shigeru Miyamoto (producer). First, Aonuma. What is the starting point for Twilight Princess’ development?

 

Aonuma

Of course we have this theme to make a realistic Zelda since Ocarina, but we don’t put all effort into that. – we wanted to use more ideas that we imagined, so we talked about the idea of Link becoming a wolf. We thought we needed a new theme. The reason why it’s a wolf is because we just thought of it, and the real purpose is that we hoped the idea will become a trigger for people to imagine something. I suggested a wolf with the thought of how much people will like this idea. Later, Miyamoto got mad at me (laughter) saying “It’s more difficult to make a 4 legged animal than a 2 legged human!”

 

Iwata

So what’s the biggest difference when you compare the starting point and the final work?

 

Aonuma

I didn’t expect this project to become this big.

 

Iwata

So you didn’t plan to make it this big?

 

Aonuma

Yes, at least I didn’t imagine that it would become quite this big, but in the staff’s mind, it should be a really big Zelda, so the project developed and became bigger and bigger. When I felt I should do it a different way, the project became big naturally, so it was hard to stop. So we decided we should just put lots of fun stuff, but until the end, we had a difficult time with the scale. Of course it’s not a bad thing, because it became a big scale Zelda eventually, at the same time, it is full of things to do. Nowadays, people enjoy big masterpieces like Lord of the Rings, so to make a realistic world, we need to have this scale, but I had difficulty gathering all the parts and I felt I’m still inexperienced.

 

Iwata

So you’re not saying you couldn’t gather up all the parts, right?

 

Aonuma

No, we’ve made something I can offer with confidence, just that I had a lot of help from everyone.

 

Iwata

So for you Aonuma, you felt like Miyamoto had to do a lot of work?

 

Aonuma

Yes, that’s right (laughter) I wanted to make the table clean! (laughter) But as the project becomes bigger, something unexpected happens and I couldn’t respond to everything. Then, Miyamoto came in and we started changing and fixing things. We had lots of stuff that I wanted to fix. The final game is something that’s very polished with a lot of help, so I’m very satisfied in that regard.

 

Iwata

As we know, we postponed the release of Twilight Princess for a year. That was the first game that I suggested Miyamoto delay (laughter) It’s true that I realised the situation was very tough, but at the same time, I wanted to make the next Zelda the best out of all of the past Zelda’s.

 

Aonuma

The keyword was ‘120% Zelda’

 

Iwata

Yes, we said that (laughter) You can’t really saw what’s 100% or what’s 120%, but I wanted you to make the best Zelda possible, so I suggested to postpone for a year. So what did you think of the postponing, Aonuma?

 

Aonuma

I felt very sorry for the fans who were waiting for the latest Zelda, but to be honest, I was very pleased. At the time when the postpone had been decided, we had a lot of interesting ideas but we hadn’t gathered them all up. Of course, some parts were finished, but there were many places we weren’t happy with.

 

Iwata

When we showed the playable Zelda at E3, I knew that there were many good ideas there, but they were all scattered and not connected.

 

Aonuma

Yes, that’s why one year was very valuable for me. I don’t know what the staff thought about this, some people might have thought “we have done this part, but we have another year to go”. But I think we needed the time to make the most of our ideas.

 

Iwata

You know, I’ve asked 12 staff so far, and everyone has said that it was good to postpone the game.

 

Aonuma

That’s good (laughter)

 

Iwata

Of course, some people thought they’d have more tough times to go, and others wished they knew it beforehand, but everyone was happy.

 

Aonuma

Oh okay. It’s very difficult, with or without postponing. We can’t just be happy because we postponed, we have to respond to what people are expecting.

 

Iwata

So Miyamoto, how did you feel about Zelda when the postponement was decided?

 

Miyamoto

The game was fun, but it wasn’t satisfying at all (laughter) I was kind of at a loss when I thought of what to change with the time left.

 

Aonuma

Yes.

 

Iwata

Yes, I was very surprised how you gathered it all up with only one year. Before I interviewed the staff, I thought that because Zelda’s a high profile/quality game, the top staff would give tasks to lower level staff, but I felt that everyone thought of their own ideas. It’s not a project with only 20-30 people, instead there are more like 70 people working on it. So it’s like all of those people have their own Zelda - so what do you think of that Aonuma?

 

Aonuma

I think it come’s down to what makes Zelda, Zelda. And that’s not something that can easily be understood.

 

Iwata

I have been asking the staff “What’s Zelda” in the past interviews, but everyone couldn’t say exactly what it is. There’s no clear definition. At the same time, I feel there’s one common value that everyone feels.

 

Aonuma

Yes, that’s right, you can’t make Zelda without that feeling. If there was a manual ‘how to make Zelda’, we would make it according to that, but something like that doesn’t exist.

 

Iwata

There’s no way we can make a Zelda guideline.

 

Aonuma

No, we can’t. If there is something we can say to staff, that would be “We’ve been making Zelda previously with suffering, so you guys should suffer as well, like I did” (laughter) In that regard, they can make Zelda freely with our guidance. But, when we finish Zelda, experienced staff has to check it. Without experience, it’s hard to finish Zelda so people will be happy. Like Miyamoto says, you need a good sense to finish off Zelda beautifully.

 

Iwata

I see. So Miyamoto, what makes Zelda, Zelda?

 

Miyamoto

To me, what makes Zelda, Zelda, is almost the same as what makes Mario, Mario.

 

Iwata

What does that mean?

 

…... To be continued