The Damned

To be fair, lots of the new elements in BotW aren't new. They've been done in earlier games from other series. Climbing giant monsters to attack their face is from Shadow of the Colossus, crafting is from any number of games like Minecraft and the like. Weapon durability is in so many games it's hard to even say where it's borrowed from. Big open world exploration could be traced to GTA, or even further back, to some of the old Sierra RPGs if you wanted to get technical. Yeah, a lot of what we're seeing isn't completely innovative and original, but the same great steak you've had before is still a great steak. This time, it just happens to be Zelda-seasoned.

Killer app status confirmed. Will catapult the game into legendary tier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch_i9ovV2KI

Yeah, those "missing" notes (hah, missingnos!) are there now. Must have been the file. I don't know... that part where Bianca has to face her father for running away to life her life her way, with arguably one of the best songs in the series, comes to mind. But that's just me. Your explanation does fit the composition, and I don't hate it, it just didn't spring to mind that's what you wanted to convey. Don't stop, of course, I'm always in favor of more pokémixes.

Wh... why are you people agreeing with me? Why are you liking my post? I said it was an unpopular opinion! You're supposed to hate me now!

I want to say that's sarcastic, but knowing your post history, I think it might be a serious statement.

Agreed. I know it's not a popular opinion (like.. anywhere Zelda is discussed), but I actually kinda maybe sorta really despise the whole timeline thing. I suspect some flack for it after this, but whatever. Opinions gotta opin.. ion. Opinionate. Opin-... Shit. Part of it is the fact that I have never seen any of the games as part of a continuous series. I always viewed them as stand alone games that shared certain elements and characters. So I find the timeline idea kind of pointless. I don't need to know any of it to enjoy any of the game. You can play them in any order and they still work, as a series and as individual games. The overly mixed-up branching timeline mess makes it even less helpful. None of it affects the ability to play the games in any way. And frankly, I find the notion that I have know about timeline to enjoy Zelda to be laughable at best, insulting to my intelligence at worst. Yes, there actually are some out there that honestly believe you can only truly appreciate Zelda is you embrace the timeline. If you don't, you're not truly a fan. Personally, that kind of elitist fanboy snobbery pisses me off the most. Like, more than people that don't use their signal lights when changing lanes. The other part of it is that I've found the timeline theorist subset of Zelda fandom to approach obsessive, and even cringe-levels of fanboyism. I've seen entire threads, 500 pages long or more, just yelling at each other over how everyone else is wrong and only their particular version works. Hell, even after Hyrule Historia came out and showed the official canon timeline, they still argued over it. "NINTENDO IS WRONG, HERE'S WHY!: A COMPREHENSIVE BREAKDOWN OF THE FIVE BRANCH TIMELINE!" wasn't unheard of for months afterwards. Yeah, I get it's fun to speculate and all that, but god damn, the vocal minority of them has ruined that whole thing for me. I can't stand reading timeline stuff even to this day. You guys aren't that bad, but I still avoid all timeline talk when I can. I don't even read any posts about it any more. So maybe news about the game goes here, and timeline stuff can go in its own thread. I'm here for news about the new game, maybe even updates on recent games. (braces for downvotes/thumbs down/wait do we even have anything like that here/minuses)

I heard someone said "Link's Awakening", and I came right over. Also, there's this whole Link's Awakening DLC for Hyrule Warriors, which is also awesome. In fact, can we make this the general Zelda thread as well?

So old...

Just a reminder: the 24th is the last day to get your free Manaphy from the Wi-Fi event. After that, you have to wait until July 1st (Canada Day, woo-who!) for Shaymin.

Yeeeah, it's sounding less awesome with more info. That's the opposite of what is supposed to happen.

4K res screencaps from Nintendo. https://imgur.com/a/O8UwK/ I'd suggest opening each one in it's own tab. The main gallery only lets you look at it in a lower magnification when you click on it, so it isn't doing the images justice.

There are a few times when the strings just drops out completely. For instance, at 0:27, 0:32, and 0:47, a single note seems to disappear entirely, which is jarring. As you're listening to it, you anticipate the note, but then it's not there. I'm not sure if it's the file not encoding them or if it's the composition. Either way, it's disruptive to the mood I was in while listening. The tone change from 2:30 on makes it feel sad and kind of depressing compared to the first half. That transition from 2:56 to 3:00 is kind of off-setting. The change feels like two different styles trying to merge. I think that the more upbeat and airy, bouncy style in the first few minutes and the last 30 or so seconds is where the song really shines. It's makes me imagine I'm watching the people go about their day during a beautiful summer morning. Compared to the previous versions, this is a step in the right direction. Keep going. I'm keeping an eye on this one.

The Sun/Moon (SuMo? SM? Is there a consensus on this gen's abbreviation?) QR Scanner feature has a new detail revealed... it's region-locked. http://nintendoeverything.com/pokemon-sunmoon-qr-code-event-distributions-to-be-region-locked/ Well, this isn't exactly a new thing. The current download code system is also partially region locked, and everything from Gen 4 on has done this. I'm guessing it will run similar to the current system, where the region needs to have the event active. When you go online with a code or jsut a download, it routes it to that region, checks to see if there is an event, and then begins the download. Still... region locked? We know from homebrewers that it's not hardware based, as you can set a hacked 3DS to any region, or even region-free. I just don't see the point these days.

Anyone remember the details behind the early version of the first Zelda game? Originally, it was going to be set in the future, and the Tri-Force was actually a series of circuit boards/microchips. Some other sci-fi elements here and there. Look it up if you don't believe me. Seeing all the glowy magic-tech stuff in this game makes me think of that. This is the modern alpha-build of the first game.

What quotes? There are no games that have those lines of dialog in them. Such things do not exist. What? An invitation to Lake Laogai? I am honored to accept his invitation.

In case anyone was wondering how the internet is receiving the new Zelda game: Not exactly solid proof of anything, but that's some interesting stats nonetheless.

Slightly off-topic: did anyone else find that part during the Treehouse stream where the group of women playing through the game with a shirtless Link in the snowy area kind of... sexist? Skip to about 2:55 for the beginning of multiple sexist comments. @ 3:00: "I don't know why Link has his shirt on right now" (removes shirt from LInk) "Yaaay" "It's not OK, it's really not OK, but we fixed the situation" @ 3:15: "His wrestling name is Hylian Heat, little known fact" (laughter) @ 3:45: "I don't want to just see a hot Link by a hot fire, [...]" @ 8:31: (opening menu to show shirtless Link) "That's all I wanted to show, I had nothing new to add to that" @ 8:36: " [...] and unfortunately get a shirt for Link, we'll see what happens" @ 10:10: "Thanks for the shirt, dude, I'll totally keep wearing it this whole time... not" (enters menu to remove clothing from Link) (Group giggles and laughs) "There we go, now we're back" @13:20: "But we wouldn't have known about his red skin if he had his stupid shirt on" "Yeah, exactly, we needed to show the world what happens when he's not wearing his shirt" "It's very manly" (giggling) I'm not even remotely near a bullshit SWJ-cliche. but this is just fucking stupid. If the genders were reversed, there would have been outrage from lots of people. What's with the double-standard hypocrisy? On-topic: this game is making me glad I didn't give away my Wii U... assuming there will be a Wii U version for it. And that said version will be as good as the NX version (which I still assume is coming out at the same time).

Despite the sheer amount of footage and discussion that have come out, I feel like that a 43 minute long interview was the wrong way to go. They could have had a 20 minute Direct video like before, covered everything just as well (if not better; no people talking over the footage) and left it at that. In stead we get 43 minutes of talking, talking, talking, more talking, while the game is blocked out or shrunk down. It was hard to keep watching after the ten minute mark, and it was just depleting to complete. I actually lost interest and don't feel like I saw anything worth while. People talking for 45 minutes isn't showcasing the game. It's just 45 minutes of people talking.

Minecraft: they just announced cross-platform multiplayer during the conference. They had someone with an iPad and someone with a Windows tablet playing on the same map. So it's unlikely they will announce a sequel any time soon. Besides, the game is constantly getting updates and mods, and it has no story, so a sequel wouldn't really even offer anything.

You never know... They might have something during their Direct video. The odds are 3,720 to 1, but they still could. I was hoping for some TellTale Games info, but it seems those already leaked/were shown before. There's a third season of The Walking Dead, with Clementine returning, and now she's about 14 or 15. She looks older, and a little tougher than when we saw her last. What are they going to put her through this time? And the TellTale Batman game has some pics out, and it's looking pretty good.

Welp, people like Iwanko. Not even 24 hours and fans are making high quality plushies of it. This is one of the times when the fandom is pretty cool and alright.

Shiny Mewtwos... if you're signed up for the right stuff. But to top that off, we got some new CoroCoro leaks! It's a koloa pokémon! It seems to be called Nekkoala, the Half Awake Pokémon. It is a Normal-type with the ability Definite Sleep which prevents it being afflicted with a status other than sleep. Next, we have Iwanko. It is a Rock-type Pokémon. It's abilities are Keen Eye or Vital Spirit. Another picture of it. EDIT: And that weird humanoid Zygarde from the anime is now official in Sun/Moon. Lots of news this last day or so.

http://www.pokemon-sunmoon.com/en-us/discover-pokemon-using-the-qr-scanner/ Details about the QR Code reader in the game. Basically, it just uses your PokéDex to show you the location of the pokémon you scanned. It doesn't download anything, it doesn't unlock any secrets, it doesn't do anything except point you to the place you can find the scanned pokémon in your game. I like this idea. It's simple and stays away from any kind of locked-away/transaction-ish/secret bullshit. It just... tells you where to find a pokémon if you haven't seen it yet.

Well... uh... you see, the thing about that is... uhh. (uses PokéDoll to escape)

In case anyone wants a ridiculously high res copy of the overworld for Sun/Moon: http://www.pidgi.net/wiki/File:Alola_region_map_-_Pokemon_Sun_and_Moon.jpg It's 14,192 × 10,032 and is just over 20 megabytes