Games

[icycalm]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/ ... -for-wii-u

New HD Zelda Revealed for Wii U

Nearly two years after it unveiled an HD concept at E3 2011, Nintendo has revealed its early thoughts and visual intentions for The Legend of Zelda on Wii U.

Franchise producer Eiji Aonuma, citing the scope and ambition of this new project, declined to do a full unveiling of the Wii U Zelda entry, but provided some insight into his team's mission. In essence, Nintendo is "rethinking the conventions of Zelda." Ideas like dungeons needing to be completed in order, and Zelda adventures being single-player only, are being set aside as the team focuses on "returning to basics." The goal of all this, Aonuma said, was to create a reborn Zelda - and more details on this will be shared as the game comes together.

But that wasn't all Aonuma detailed about his new Zelda endeavor. He discussed Nintendo's new visual approach for the game, which apparently is completely unlike the HD demo shown at E3 2011, but wasn't ready to be shown at this time.

Aonuma noted this still-mysterious "new style" developed as his team experimented bringing Zelda's many graphical styles into HD. The producer said over time something entirely new and unique evolved. There are many questions - and it seems as though we have a while to wait. No release window of any kind was provided for this new game. But for now, we have a brief glimpse into the direction of the HD future of Zelda.

[Ryusenshi]

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/50386/zelda-wii-u-will-feature-more-unexpected-elements-aonuma/

And, of course, we'll introduce even more unexpected elements [than in Link To The Past 2] in the Zelda game that we're making for Wii U

"Unexpected elements"? Like, say, a decent combat system? That would be unexpected. Unfortunately, given their track record, it probably means a bunch of forgettable gimmicks.

[icycalm]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=834785

The Legend of Zelda Wii-U Shown at Nintendo Digital Event ["2015"]

WOW different from what I was expecting but awesome! I cannot wait until we get some more info about it.

You are able to travel to where ever you see, even the mountains in the distance. Particle, and fire effects were absolutely stunning.

Releasing 2015

Zelda WiiU Reveal Trailer

Photos from Nintendo's E3 Press Kit

http://gematsu.com/2014/06/new-legend-z ... wii-u-2015

New Legend of Zelda coming to Wii U in 2015
Open-world Zelda offers lets players decide how they play.

The next Legend of Zelda game will come to Wii U in 2015, Nintendo announced.

The game is open-world and offers the player a choice in where to go and in what order to solve puzzles.

“As far as what you can with such a vast field to explore, as soon as those boundaries are removed, it means you can enter any area from any direction,” series director Eiji Aonuma said. “So the puzzle solving in this game begins the moment the player starts to think about where they want to go, how they will get there, and what they want to do when they arrive.”

He continued, “You can even reach those mountains in the distance, if you walk far enough. We couldn’t create such a wide world like this in the past.”

Watch the first footage below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

The graphics rival PS4 and Xbone games, but that monster looks so stupid it could have come out of an "indie" game. The free roaming sounds great though. Too bad the whole thing is set in the lame Zelda universe.

[Some guy]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/miyamoto ... ld/0134909

Miyamoto doesn't like describing Zelda Wii U as 'open world'

Will Zelda for Wii U be an open world game? Perhaps not in the traditional sense.

Speaking to shareholders, Nintendo’s development boss Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the term “open-world” was used to describe the game at E3 as it’s something that players understand – personally, however, he doesn’t like it.

“I prefer not to use the generally used term ‘open world’ when developing software,” he explained. “This term means that there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily.

“In the traditional Legend of Zelda series, the player would play one dungeon at a time. For example, if there are eight dungeons, at the fourth dungeon, some players may think, ‘I’m already halfway through the game,’ while other players may think, ‘I still have half of the game to play.’

“We are trying to gradually break down such mechanism and develop a game style in which you can enjoy The Legend of Zelda” freely in a vast world, whenever you find the time to do so.”

Miyamoto also alluded to fundamental problems with the triple-A model, speculating that Sony and Microsoft are under pressure.

“I suspect that software makers that develop game software (for advanced game players) for the game systems from Microsoft and Sony must have actually been having a harder time than we think,” he claimed.

“It takes a year for the development teams to get used to high-performance graphics using recent shader technology, and afterwards it requires two or three times the time and labour costs to develop a game.

“According to one theory, since some projects even require the budgets of over ¥10bn, not all projects will be profitable. It is a harsh world, in which a game can hardly survive if it doesn’t make it into the top ten of the sales rankings.

“However, I am not saying that Nintendo will not work on this. Our subsidiary, Monolith Software, is working on several projects, and Platinum Games has announced two titles for the Bayonetta series. It took time, but we are now able to develop software suitable for Wii U, and we would like to release new titles from now on.”

[Some guy]

Zelda Wii U no longer launching In 2015, will not be at E3 this year
http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2015/03/zel ... -2015.html

aonuma-miiverse.jpg (111.46 KiB) Viewed 24546 times

Wii U - The Legend of Zelda Development Update – 3/27/2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEgGwRPpIl8

nintendo-america-twitter.jpg (109.44 KiB) Viewed 24546 times

[Sparkster]

Official Game Trailer E3 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rPxiXXxftE

Today Nintendo gave fans just a taste of how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes the franchise to new heights. Nintendo’s booth at E3 immerses attendees in the world of the game. As E3 attendees investigate Hyrule, they can explore the game any way they want because the world is so vast and players are not required to take a pre-determined path. This sense of freedom and vastness will truly come alive in the final game when the experience isn’t limited by the restrictions of a show floor demo.

During a Nintendo Treehouse: Live demo, Nintendo showed that heroic Link needs to be resourceful as he explores his environment. It’s important for players to become familiar with their surroundings so they can find weapons or collect them from defeated enemies. Food helps Link sustain his hearts and can give him a temporary boost or ability that will sustain him.

The game breaks with some conventions from the series. For example, many of the minor enemies are no longer scattered randomly around the world, as many now live together in colonies. Link can climb towers and massive structures to get a bearing on his surroundings. He can even reach the top of mountains – any mountain he can see, he can climb. He can paraglide to lower areas or even use his shield to slide down a mountain. Link will travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks.

The game’s wild world surrounds Link, and he must pay attention to changes in climate, as a shift in weather or temperature can affect the environment and his ability to survive in it. A sudden downpour might douse a roaring campfire or a lightning storm might be attracted to Link’s metallic weapons. Players might need to bundle up with warmer clothes or change into something better suited to the desert heat.

More than 100 Shrines of Trials dot the landscape, waiting for players to discover and explore them in any order they want. As players work their way through the traps and puzzles inside, they’ll earn special items and other rewards that will help them on their adventure. Puzzles in the game often have multiple answers, and secrets can be found everywhere. Exploration and discovery are a huge part of the fun.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is scheduled to launch simultaneously for both the Wii U console and Nintendo’s next system, code-named NX, in 2017. The game also includes compatibility with amiibo, which are sold separately. Nintendo announced a new series of amiibo figures specific to the game that includes Link with a bow (“Archer”), Link on horseback (“Rider”), and a “Guardian” that is the first amiibo with flexible parts. The existing Wolf Link amiibo works with the game as well: When players tap a Wolf Link amiibo to the Wii U GamePad controller, Wolf Link will attack enemies on his own and help players to hunt. He has three hearts, unless players carry over save data from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. Wolf Link disappears when his hearts run out. Details can be found here.

More Details (9:30 p.m.)

Shrines of Trials: More than 100 of these locations are scattered around the world for players to find, and in some cases finding the Shrines can be a puzzle in itself. As a result, Shrines offer more compact challenges that can be solved in a variety of ways. In order to earn a Spirit Orb from the monks who designed these challenges, players must overcome challenges or solve puzzles.

Runes: While exploring Shrines, players can earn Runes. For instance, the Magnesis Rune can help Link lift and toss metal objects. The Remote Bomb has two different types of bombs: rolling spherical ones and cubical ones that stay in place. The Stasis Rune briefly stops moving objects, while the Cryonis Rune freezes water and causes an ice pillar to appear.

Weapons and Combat: The game contains a wide variety of weapons, many new to the series. Players must find weapons or take them from enemies, but weapons wear out as you use them. Players can also time offensive and defensive maneuvers to temporarily slow time and connect with a flurry of strikes against their opponent.

Food: In another break with conventional gameplay for the series, players hoping to replenish their hearts or score some easy rupees will come up empty when they cut grass. Link can forage for a variety of foods in his environment, including apples and mushrooms. He can also hunt for food. Consuming uncooked foods gives him a modest health increase, but cooking different kinds of ingredients together will result in dishes with different effects, such as cold or heat resistance, for a limited amount of time.

Climate: From snowy areas to desert heat, Link must dress appropriately for the weather. If he needs to stay warm, he can don appropriate clothing, warm himself with a fiery torch or even eat food to maintain his body temperature and his health. Link also needs to be careful during lightning storms – if he is equipped with metal equipment during a downpour, he can find himself attracting deadly lightning bolts.

amiibo Compatibility: A new series of detailed amiibo figures specific to the game were announced this morning, and Treehouse staff finally revealed how the Wolf Link amiibo from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD will connect to the game. When players tap a Wolf Link amiibo to the Wii U GamePad controller, Wolf Link will join Link to attack enemies on his own. He initially has three hearts, but players can raise his heart count by completing the Cave of Shadows and carrying over the save data from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. Wolf Link can be summoned once a day, and disappears when his hearts run out. However, you can use Wolf Link again the next day.

[SriK]

http://www.vg247.com/2017/01/12/zelda-b ... g-to-game/

Rumored to come out in March, as a Switch launch title:

UK retailer GAME is already accepting pre-orders for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which it says will be out in March.

A NeoGAF user has spotted pre-order boxes for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at their local GAME, the big UK retailer.

The boxes clearly mention March, 2017 as a release window, as you can see. March is when the Nintendo Switch is expected to release worldwide.

This date is interesting because a recent report suggested the game may not be a launch title in Europe/UK, only in North America. Of course, this information could be outdated, and Nintendo of Europe could’ve simply found a way to make it work.

There’s also the possibility GAME printed those ahead of time believing Breath of the Wild will launch alongside the Switch, as was previously rumoured. The Switch event later today will no doubt shed more light on the whole thing.

[El Chaos]

Third trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yIHLQJNvDw

[recoil]

I got to play a few hours of this and I have to say it's the best Zelda game yet. The first thing I noticed is how beautiful it looks, the environments are varied, detailed, and huge, it's a shame they didn't put more hardware behind it. As for the mechanics, Nintendo has been taking a lot notes from other games. Climbing is reminiscent of Shadow of Colossus, the new stamina bar makes battles feel as tense and skillful as Dark Souls, scavenging for weapons and gear is as fun as Dead Rising, and the free roaming is on par with the rest of the free roamers. With the little time I had to play, I went straight for Gannon's castle and whole thing turned into a stealth survival game. 5/5 so far, I'm gonna borrow my brother's Switch when he's done with it, he's not going to have other games to play after this one for a while, lol.

[icycalm]

You just sold a Switch.

[icycalm]

Verdict is in, 0/10 from sumbodyshero:

http://www.metacritic.com/user/sumbodyshero

1. Link is LEFT-HANDED. I guess the Producer didn't know that (who thinks that Phantom Hourglass and Triforce Heroes are the best Zelda games ever made).

2. Zelda is supposed to have EXCELLENT MUSIC.

3. "Link" is not the character's name, but a placeholder name. You are supposed to enter your own name.

4. They nerfed the Gamepad functionality. No Zelda will ever come close to Wind Waker's excellent Gamepad visuals. The Switch (dumb name) has NO LAUNCH LINEUP, so they needed to stab Wii U owners in the back and take what was supposed to be the definitive Wii U game and the definitive Gamepad game.

5. "Expansion pass"... just hearing that makes me cringe.

6. Link looks effeminate and malnourished.

7. The game designers clearly had much contempt for the Zelda series. Just give us Link to the Past in the Ocarina of Time engine and we're good! The only thing "Zelda" about this game is the word on the box. Not even the character on the box is from Zelda (blonde haired feminine boy holding a sword in his right hand when the REAL Zelda protagonist has brown hair, a green hat and tunic, and is BADA--).

[Saf]

I've been playing this for the past few days. It's a huge surprise after the shitfest that was Skyward Sword, and easily the best Zelda game so far, drawing elements from across the series and modern free roaming stuff. There's very little hand holding and you really can go off in pretty much any direction and do tasks in almost any order. It feels like since Skyward Sword, the design team sat down and played modern Western titles for the first time in their lives. They've even improved on some aspects of free roaming design compared to some of their competitors.

For example, you still have the Ubisoft towers which reveal a part of the map, but they don't reveal any "points of interest". You have to find them by looking around, with key places (shrines, towers and a couple of other things) glowing orange. Things that are meant to be hidden don't stick out until you start poking at the environment with your abilities. The game wants you to mark your map yourself when you see interesting shit. NPCs guide you on a pretty clear path through the main story, but they do so by giving you directions, and you can just ignore them and do things in a different order if you want (as recoil mentioned, you can even just make a beeline straight to the final area of the game as soon as you leave the tutorial area, though I haven't been there yet). You do get upgrades to let you track things with sound (they beep annoyingly as you get close to whatever you're tracking), but you can turn all of that off (as well as the minimap, which you should at the first opportunity).

The environments, besides being beautiful and distinct, are also surprisingly interactive. Trees, grass and wooden weapons catch fire, wind spreads it across fields. Random bouts of rain make cliffs slippery and difficult to climb. Snowy areas deplete your health unless you've got the right gear, or you're carrying torches. Exploding barrels are common. All mountains can be climbed and all waters can be crossed. The interactions between object and environment are delightful to discover, and the game gives you a lot of abilities at the start rather than doling them out through linearly-placed dungeons and quests. Unlike previous games, puzzles and enemy encounters you find don't limit you to a single solution. Here, you're just limited by your tools and perhaps stubbornness. This environmental interactivity is new to Zelda, and it comes together in a way that makes the game feel as dynamic as Just Cause, sometimes moreso.

For another example of interactivity and detail, instead of just being given a horse, you have to find 'em in the wild, sneak up behind them, grab hold and break them in. You can even name them and keep multiple in a stable. They're hard to control at first (reminiscent of the horse in Shadow of the Colossus), but as you increase their affection they'll even start moving semi-automatically if you let them, following the trail so you can focus on looking around. It was only by stumbling onto a group of wild horses while exploring that I figured this stuff out, and not until a fair bit later that I discovered the stables and NPCs that tell you about them.

Combat is fairly simple overall, but they've brought together all the combat elements of past Zelda games into this one, and with every action requiring stamina it does feel a bit like the Souls series. You can't just button mash like in previous titles. You've got stealth, there's a basic parry system, all the different weapons, powers and elemental effects, mounted combat etc. It gives you a lot of ways to approach encounters. Enemies also have cool, more reactive AI, using objects in the environment and sometimes adapting to your attacks. Once you're sufficiently strong, a lot of them do become trivial to deal with. That being said, with the openness of the map you can easily stumble onto more difficult enemy encounters while heading off towards more remote parts of the world. Though I've yet to explore much of it, things seem to get more dangerous the further out you go from the central starting point of the game.

The stamina system ties everything together, as well as your limited inventory. Shit breaks so easily, you can carry so few items at a time, and you tire so easily (be prepared to fall off cliffs or drown a lot at the start) that you're compelled to go out and look for upgrades, equipment and money. Basically, at least to some extent, they've made all the often pointless item collecting and side activities endemic to these kinds of games more fun and useful. There's no experience system so your strength is tied entirely to items and upgrades you find or buy. Skyward Sword had a stamina system, but it was utterly pointless and annoying. All it did was make you take longer to run places. In this game, stamina is vital.

The flaws start to become apparent past the first few hours. There is stuttering and slowdown in high density areas. The UI is a little cumbersome and makes you wish you had more buttons, as switching items and dealing with your inventory takes several steps and pauses the action. Also, despite limiting your weapons and shields, you can carry an unlimited amount of consumable items, and it becomes trivial to cook up food and elixirs that give you absurd amounts of health and stamina. While the elixirs give you cool buffs, I tend to avoid using items so it's not too easy, unless I'm outside of combat and near death (consumables are the main way to heal yourself, as towns between the wilds are usually very far apart). Besides that, it just feels off that you can only carry, say, seven swords, but hundreds of apples and mushrooms and shit. They should have gone the whole way and limited your entire inventory, though resource management on that level could have gotten annoying with the awkward UI.

Exploring can also be a mixed bag. Finding shrines is fun and the main reward for exploring, as you get to do a little puzzle and get an item to upgrade your stamina (or health), but some of them are very simple and easy to solve. Due to being so short (they're usually just one room), they can't be very complex. Many of them are combat shrines, which so far are all pretty much the same. Also, due to the abundance of shrines and the size of the world, fully-fleshed dungeons are fewer in number and smaller than in past Zelda games. The actual story is simple and there's not too many cutscenes (a good thing overall as it frees you to explore). The game can potentially be completed in a short time if you ignore most of the side stuff, as the game gives you almost all the tools you need at the start. There isn't enough variety in enemies, as you'll be seeing the same three or four types quite often depending on where you are, albeit that's offset somewhat by the weapons they might carry and the environment they're in (as it might force you to approach them differently).

Not to mention the map is maybe too big. The pacing is often relaxed, and the "lonely wanderer" feel you get from wandering a ruined Hyrule bereft of much civilisation or other people is great. The combination of colourful cel-shading and a more realistic style (somewhere between Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword) gives the game a beautiful look despite being stuck on a crap system. Still, I have my doubts they'll be able to fill a map this big with enough unique content to make up for the amount of space.

With all that said the game is great and still full of surprises. I have yet to be tired of looking out into one of the beautiful vistas, picking an interesting point and heading there to see what I can find. Maybe the shine will wear off after more play, I don't know. There's a lot that's new here, at least for Nintendo, and I'm still processing it. So far, it's at least 4/5 if not 5/5.

[icycalm]

From everything I've heard the game sounds as a 5/5 for me. Maybe it isn't, but it will require better critique than yours to justify that. Don't get me wrong, your comments are very well-written and well-argued, and I will probably include them -- or at least parts of them -- in the game's review that's going up later today or tomorrow, but you need better argumentation than that to support a 4/5 score. More than likely you just don't realize that 5/5 is merely a strong recommendation as opposed to the "perfect, no negatives" meaning you have attached to it.

The very fact that the first "flaw" you speak of is the frame-rate shows your priorities are all screwed up, or you are fumbling for something negative to say to make your critique "balanced".

Anyway, thanks for your comments. The flaws I point out in your critique are common among first-time reviewers, so they are no big deal in the context of an impressions forum post. They are a huge deal, however, for anyone who wants his reviews to be taken seriously.

[Saf]

Thank you for the feedback, you're right of course. Frame-rate was the easiest thing to nitpick so it came to me first, but thinking on my experience it's barely affected my enthusiasm for the game. Same with the UI. From what I have played so far, it's a 5/5 review and game.

[icycalm]

Even this is too much for me:

it's barely affected my enthusiasm for the game

If it affected your enthusiasm AT ALL, it makes me sceptical about the value of your judgements. Operation Darkness has the worst camera in the history of videogame cameras -- especially in the Japanese version that I played -- to the point where the game is almost unplayable, and yet it is one of the best SRPGs I've ever played and Videogame Art, and the shitty camera did not dent my enthusiasm for the game one bit. Unless the stuttering makes the game completely unplayable, I don't see why it would affect anyone's enthusiasm at all unless the game was not worth being enthusiastic about in the first place.

[icycalm]

Worse example: Master of Magic in the early '90s. So many bugs you had to save every turn so as not to lose progress. But how does that make it not the best fantasy-themed grand strategy title ever? It still holds that title, after all these years, as far as I am concerned. What do bugs or frame-rate have to do with it?

[Saf]

Yeah I'm probably still trying to be "balanced" or "objective" by saying stuff like that, since it's such a positive review, but it's not honest with my experience. My bad. I don't think I even notice the slowdown when I'm playing 99% of the time, and the game is very smooth and bug-free otherwise. It should have been noted at the end of the paragraph instead, with the inventory stuff being the biggest "problem" in the game (and even that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm).

Funnily enough with Wii U emulation progressing the way it is, in a few months we might see the game in 4K 60fps lol, and I'd still rather continue playing it now.

[icycalm]

I doubt it would look good at 4K, but 1080p60 would be welcome.

[El Chaos]

"Making of" documentary:
The beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30jGWna4-Ns
Story and characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3CsGbtifZI
Open-air concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMGrmf4xaY

[icycalm]

Review: http://culture.vg/reviews/in-depth/zeld ... 17-sw.html

This is essentially Saf's earlier post, with added introductory and concluding remarks taken from these dudes:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-revi ... B01MS6MO77

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-revi ... B01MS6MO77

Read it over, Saf, and let me know if you don't agree with their comments and would like something to be edited or removed, or if you want to make any other changes to the text. Nice work.

[Adjudicator]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The Master Trials (first DLC)
http://www.businessinsider.sg/the-legen ... deo-2017-5

https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/1/155112 ... ter-trials

The Master Trials will bring a Hard Mode to the game. Hard Mode will mostly increase the difficulty of the enemies Link faces: Their ranks will be raised (for instance, Red Bokoblins will be Blue Bokoblins in this mode), and “players might even encounter higher-ranking enemies they wouldn’t find” in the current game, Nintendo said in a news release. In addition, Link will have a tougher time sneaking up on his foes because they’ll be able to detect him more easily, and during battle, they’ll slowly regenerate health.

The Master Trials will also introduce a third way to play Breath of the Wild: a challenge mode called Trial of the Sword, which was originally known as the Cave of Trials challenge. Link begins without any weapons or armor in a room full of enemies. If you can kill them all, you gain passage to the next area; in all, Trial of the Sword will offer approximately 45 rooms. The reward seems like it will be worth the effort: When you make it all the way through, “the true power of the Master Sword will awaken and always be in its glowing powered-up state,” says Nintendo.