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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild


DarkeSword
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Well that was just lovely, wasn't it? Like a mashup of traditional Zelda, Monster Hunter, a smattering of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and a bit of sandboxing thrown in. All washed in a lovely hi-res semi-cell shaded art approach. I was ready to bail on the big N after all these long patient and forgiving years, but now I'm absolutely hyped.

 

 

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Was about to say exactly what Odai said.  While it does seem to be influenced by Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus (or perhaps Assassin's Creed), and perhaps Okami, I wouldn't call those "modern trends."  These are ideas 10 years old at the least.  What is interesting is that they're not trying to go out of the box to do things that hadn't really been done before, like most Zelda games have done.  Nothing novel here, but it does look like a fun combination of things that hadn't been combined.  I've always wanted to get into Monster Hunter but was turned off by its seeming lack of directed progression, and Zelda could be an ideal solution for that.

What I didn't see a lot of was... well, Zelda.  Other than the doodad that creates objects, the art style, and the name Link, this could have been a trailer for a new Monster Hunter game.  And the doodad is only semi-Zelda-ish; it seems to be equal parts Zelda, Okami, and Minecraft.  The hands-on reports do say that it has dungeons of some sort, though there's disagreement as to how those work.  Edit: I'm watching the Treehouse now, and the gameplay is much more Zelda-ish once you get into the shrines (mini-dungeons).  But the items (runes) you get from them are much more useful than the typical Zelda items.  You can be a lot more creative with them.

Also interesting is that the game can be played with the Pro Controller.  Not surprising that there are no Wii U gimmicks, since it'll be on NX as well, but I would have expected there to be some elements implemented differently in both.  For instance, object creation and placement with the touchpad or whatever analog controls the NX has.

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20 minutes ago, jnWake said:

It has to be before/after Wind Waker since Koroks appear. People also noted that the Old Man resembled the King of Hyrule from WW but that's probably coincidental.

Not necessarily.  The Koroks are descended from the Kokiri from Ocarina of Time, and that's the canonical nexus of the divergent storylines.  The Zelda team seems to subscribe to a sort of convergent evolution--multiple paths of events leading to the same endpoint.  So the Kokiri could have become Koroks in a different timeline.

It looks and sounds a lot like a retelling of the original Zelda so far, although with the magitech from Twilight Princess.  Since there doesn't seem to be any reason to think the Twilight Realm would involved again, my best guess would be that this is the far future of one of the original timeline, after the people of Hyrule invented magitech on their own, and later disappeared for some reason.

Also, if I recall correctly, Ganondorf never became Ganon in any timeline other than that one, and he's very clearly the "Calamity Ganon" in BotW.

Of course, the Zelda team has always been in the habit of designing a game first and maybe shoehorning it into the overall timeline later, if they feel like it.

Sidenote: I haven't played Skyward Sword yet (never picked up a Motion Plus controller), but is this the first game in which Link is actually "Link" in the game?  In every other game, you could choose his name.

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In Skyward Sword we are given the option to change Link's name, just like before. I assume it will be the same here....

I'm super curious about the soundtrack. They didn't talk about it much during E3 and it didn't have a huge presence in the demos. I heard Koji Kondo isn't currently working on it, which makes me wonder what they have planned. Anyway I'm super hyped for December 20th =D

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Dropping a previous rant of mine:

I'm really miffed that people are comparing the new Zelda game to Elder Scrolls and Fallout because... open world? That's it? It's like people think they invented the concept of open world play or something. There are virtually NO similarities. Gameplay, narrative, aesthetic. Nothing is even remotely similar except for the land being large and you can explore it. Weak.

For an actual comparison that draws a real parallel, Breath of the Wild looks a lot like Shadow of Mordor. It's very similar in terms of how you explore; you can navigate these big sectors of the world and come upon enemy encampments. You can mark your enemies, plan your attack, parkour around and climb to get to vantage points, survey the landscape to plan your next route, etc.

There are also other elements of action RPG, a bit like Dark Souls. You have weapons, durability, dodges, counters, etc. Besides that it's also still Zelda with things like flying with the leaf. 

There is a comparison that actually makes sense and isn't just "omg open world it's Skyrim"

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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? :roll:

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).

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11 hours ago, TCHLE said:

In Skyward Sword we are given the option to change Link's name, just like before. I assume it will be the same here....

I'm super curious about the soundtrack. They didn't talk about it much during E3 and it didn't have a huge presence in the demos. I heard Koji Kondo isn't currently working on it, which makes me wonder what they have planned. Anyway I'm super hyped for December 20th =D

The voice acting specifically calls Link "Link." I don't think the option to name your character will be available here.

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14 hours ago, TCHLE said:

I'm super curious about the soundtrack. They didn't talk about it much during E3 and it didn't have a huge presence in the demos. I heard Koji Kondo isn't currently working on it, which makes me wonder what they have planned. Anyway I'm super hyped for December 20th =D

They did talk about it a little.  It's very ambient and minimalist.  Definitely nothing like the huge anthems Kondo is known for.  I'm not surprised he's not involved.

13 hours ago, Neblix said:

Dropping a previous rant of mine:

I'm really miffed that people are comparing the new Zelda game to Elder Scrolls and Fallout because... open world? That's it? It's like people think they invented the concept of open world play or something. There are virtually NO similarities. Gameplay, narrative, aesthetic. Nothing is even remotely similar except for the land being large and you can explore it. Weak.

For an actual comparison that draws a real parallel, Breath of the Wild looks a lot like Shadow of Mordor. It's very similar in terms of how you explore; you can navigate these big sectors of the world and come upon enemy encampments. You can mark your enemies, plan your attack, parkour around and climb to get to vantage points, survey the landscape to plan your next route, etc.

There are also other elements of action RPG, a bit like Dark Souls. You have weapons, durability, dodges, counters, etc. Besides that it's also still Zelda with things like flying with the leaf. 

There is a comparison that actually makes sense and isn't just "omg open world it's Skyrim"

It does have several other similarities to Elder Scrolls games: Equipment with varying stats and durability, foraging for random fruit and junk everywhere you go, crafting, a slew of random minor dungeons.  The combat system is very Zelda-ish, as are the "items" like the runes and the paraglider/leaf.  No word on character advancement, but Link doesn't seem to have stats other than hearts and equipment, so that's more like Zelda so far.  I haven't played Shadow of Mordor yet, but certainly the exploration mechanics and world layout are unlike Elder Scrolls.

3 hours ago, The Damned said:

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).

They've made it absolutely clear it will be out on Wii U.  They were demoing it on one.  I imagine the graphics quality will be different, but no word on controls.  But the Sheikah Slate sure seems like it was designed more for the Wii U than for whatever the NX will have.

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7 hours ago, Odai said:

Don't mean to rock the boat (see what I did there?) but Wind Waker to me was the most disappointing of Zelda games. And aside from the cell shading I see little similarity. Hope it stays that way too. Sorry for the controversy. Carry on!

You're the most disappointing poster on this thread.

Just kidding. :P 

I thought Skyward Sword was the most disappointing Zelda game, personally. Music was weird and whimsical, world felt really empty (I get it was pre-Hyrule history, but like... come on, there's gotta be stuff in there still). I was not very taken with the personalized goal of the game being between Link and Zelda... kind of made saving the world feel like an afterthought. It was different, sure, but it's hard to get captivated by something that's a hybrid between old save world from Ganon formula and new love story with Zelda, especially with a silent protagonist.

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