[Linkhero1]

Can you explain what you mean by this? Link's Awakening had quite a bit of story, handholding in the form of the owl, and IIRC it was somewhat linear (possibly moreso than OoT).

The game was in fact linear but it had little to no hand-holding from what I recall. It's what a linear Zelda game should be imo.

2015? I hope Wii U is cheap by then.

Kane has a Wii U. Now go buy one. :P

[The Boat]

They listened, made an amazing game that is the best selling one since OoT and now we are getting hopefully a new experience and a WW HD (Can't say I want it but I know others do) so it seems like listening proved a positive experience to me.

Oh to me too, I love TP, but the overwelming vocal response was that the game sucked. Keyword being vocal. If you listen to fans all you'll end up with is a generic open world RPG with some sort of fan fiction story. Them of course there's the mish mash of different opinions (which is normal), some want it to be like Zelda others like Zelda 2, some want cel shading, others realistic, motion, no motion, bla bla bla...

The thing is, it seems to me, a lot of people play a Zelda game while thinking and focusing on their wishlists instead of looking and fully experiencing what was actually done both well and not so well. Nintendo should (and does) listen to criticisms such as excessive handholding, but it's important to separate that from wishlists and fan fiction.

[jett]

since Wii U is basically Demon's souls the console, I reckon they will do something awesome with this. even just demon's souls style online would be amazing.

wat

[SuperFanboy]

Is it sad that I want this on PC? Not a Wii U hater, I just would love a Zelda game that works with mods and community of modders.

[TruePrime]

Oh to me too, I love TP, but the overwelming vocal response was that the game sucked. Keyword being vocal. If you listen to fans all you'll end up with is a generic open world RPG with some sort of fan fiction story. Them of course there's the mish mash of different opinions (which is normal), some want it to be like Zelda others like Zelda 2, some want cel shading, others realistic, motion, no motion, bla bla bla... The thing is, it seems to me, a lot of people play a Zelda game while thinking and focusing on their wishlists instead of looking and fully experiencing what was actually done both well and not so well. Nintendo should (and does) listen to criticisms such as excessive handholding, but it's important to separate that from wishlists and fan fiction.

Nah I can't agree with overwhelming.

It reviewed amazingly well, and it sold well and even The director talked positively about it afterwords. We had some very loud haters, but I don't think it was that bad.

Still I agree with your second bit.

[Linkhero1]

Oh to me too, I love TP, but the overwelming vocal response was that the game sucked. Keyword being vocal. If you listen to fans all you'll end up with is a generic open world RPG with some sort of fan fiction story. Them of course there's the mish mash of different opinions (which is normal), some want it to be like Zelda others like Zelda 2, some want cel shading, others realistic, motion, no motion, bla bla bla... The thing is, it seems to me, a lot of people play a Zelda game while thinking and focusing on their wishlists instead of looking and fully experiencing what was actually done both well and not so well. Nintendo should (and does) listen to criticisms such as excessive handholding, but it's important to separate that from wishlists and fan fiction.

It was GAF's game of the year in 2006. It's just the opinion of a minority.

[HolyBaikal]

Nintendo franchises are the last franchises that would or could ever see the light of PC.

Nintendo invented console dominance in Japan. And Nintendo going even just third party would be catastrophic for the console industry itself.

[Dynamite Ringo Matsuri]

I can't get hype over another Aonuma/EAD 3 Zelda. I just don't have it in me. I bet the trailers, art and gameplay are going to look impressive when we see it... but once we get the game in our hands we'll see all the baffling, awful ideas implemented once more. Fetch quests, forced tutorials, bloated opening, annoying partner character... give it to koizumi already

I share your overall cynicism but god damn it I wanna believe :/

[EmCeeGramr]

wat

Miiverse.

[amtentori]

Multiplayer - interesting

Less linear - Just what is needed! YES.

Hopefully this means making areas less accessible with difficulty overcome by items/upgrades just like the original.

[panda21]

wat

it has miiverse posts integrated into games (e.g nsmbu) in a similar way to demon's souls, but as a console wide service rather than a game specific thing. its like leaving messages in demon's souls except you can draw/write whatever you want.

also zombiu is a lot like demon's souls so theres that.

[VGChampion]

I salute you sir. We'll never get something as good as LA unfortunately. Seriously. I need it in my veins as soon as possible.

Never is a long time. If they get backlash over the new Zelda and it's similar to SS bloat I think they'll learn.

[Dark Schala]

Fuck, I should've cut class today. I wasn't feeling well in the first place.

I don't really mind who makes the new Zelda game, whether it's Aonuma or someone else (because I don't mind the Aonuma Zelda games at all), but I just hope it isn't as hand-holdy at the beginning. I didn't mind it so much in SS, but TP's pacing at the start was atrocious.

Whatever. I just want it to be fun. And I want them to try a new art direction. Loved watercolour in SS, loved cel-shading in WW... come at me with something cool.

Nintendo: Look at Zelda 2. Make it prettier with more mechanics and open world. You can send me the check later.

Lord-Audie

[Metalic]

Just make sure that exploring is more fun than skyward Sword and don't use motion controls gimmicks and I'll buy it.

[SoulPlaya]

Kane has a Wii U. Now go buy one. :P

He does? Well, now I've got to rethink this whole thing.

[I NEED SCISSORS]

This post is cancer. Play Dark Souls and get back to me on open world, Zelda could learn quite a few things from the brilliant design in Dark Souls.

Dark Souls is barely open world. It's a mostly linear experience with some backtracking and the odd bit of path divergence.

[AuthenticM]

Megaman-style boss order?

That would be pretty interesting. Instead of the dungeon special item being said dungeon's boss' weakness, it could be the weakness of another boss in another dungeon, and the player would have to figure out which.

Dark Souls is barely open world. It's a mostly linear experience with some backtracking and the odd bit of path divergence.

By this definition, every open-world game save Elder Scrolls is linear and "barely" open-world. I think your definition of "open-world" is flawed. It simply means one big connected world without levels or jarring loading screens. Dark Souls is open-world, Zelda is open-world, etc.

[Nocturnowl]

Kane has a Wii U. Now go buy one. :P

Of course Kane got one to play with grandkids on Christmas morning and brighten up their holidays, he ain't Good Guy Glenn for nothing!

He does? Well, now I've got to rethink this whole thing.

You know it makes sense.


Errr, on topic I find the idea of rethinking the dungeon structure interesting, i've been wanting the series to drop the plot progression process of "you need 3 macguffins so go to these three dungeons in order, then something big happens and you need 5 bits of something from 5 more dungeons", dungeons themselves are fine though.
Sounds like it could be quite distant in gameplay style from SS which was more directly task or puzzle focused even in overwold areas.
We really don't have much to go here...

[Forsaken82]

This thread depresses me; open world is the CANCER killing gaming. You can be non-linear without being open world.

You do realize that games like GTA 3 (or DMA's very own Body Harvest) Were inspired BY the 3D Zelda titles right? So it is ironic that you would consider Open world a cancer when Open world games today practically exist because some of the best of the genre used Ocarina of Time as inspiration.

[Hedja]

Is it sad that I want this on PC? Not a Wii U hater, I just would love a Zelda game that works with mods and community of modders.

I personally like my games self-contained. I want to sit down, play a game to the end, and think "yeah, that was a good game". I don't want to go back to it, find mods, buy DLC and all that. From experience, it hurts my overall impression of the game.

That's just me though.

[theangrypirate]

"Probably open world" Am I missing something? I havent played a Zelda since Ocarina, but hasn't Zelda always been open world?

[serplux]

The game was in fact linear but it had little to no hand-holding from what I recall. It's what a linear Zelda game should be imo.

Are you kidding? Link's Awakening had quite a bit of handholding, with the owl in the overworld and the dungeons, and a ton of outright "Hey go do this." It's still my favorite 2D Zelda after A Link to the Past and in my top 5 of Zelda games, but Nintendo has done this for a while.

[sappyday]

With this, Smash Bros, the new Mario, and Mario Kart the Wii-U will rise from the ashes.

[Linkhero1]

Are you kidding? Link's Awakening had quite a bit of handholding, with the owl in the overworld and the dungeons, and a ton of outright "Hey go do this." It's still my favorite 2D Zelda after A Link to the Past and in my top 5 of Zelda games, but Nintendo has done this for a while.

I don't remember any of this. Might have to go back and play it, but I remember running around in circles trying to figure things out.

[HolyBaikal]

"Probably open world" Am I missing something? I havent played a Zelda since Ocarina, but hasn't Zelda always been open world?

Probably more around Skyrim open-world, than Ocarina of Time, open-world.

[SteeloDMZ]

Yep, make it like the OG Zelda and make it have the same style as the tech demo and the new Zelda will be the greatest game of all time.

[The Boat]

Nah I can't agree with overwhelming. It reviewed amazingly well, and it sold well and even The director talked positively about it afterwords. We had some very loud haters, but I don't think it was that bad. Still I agree with your second bit.

It was GAF's game of the year in 2006. It's just the opinion of a minority.

There's a reason shy I emphasized "vocal" :p

[Farrow]

In one day they managed to make Wind Waker look ugly and then tell us that they are changing all that I love about Zelda games....

Should have stayed in bed today.

[Andrew.]

I wonder if they would add actual voiceovers this time. What does GAF think about Link finally being able to speak? Does that go way against a staple of the series or would it be acceptable?

[Ingueferroque]

I wonder if they would add actual voiceovers this time. What does GAF think about Link finally being able to speak? Does that go way against a staple of the series or would it be acceptable?

It would further alienate me from the series.

Unless they speak a gibberish language such as in Animal Crossing, that would be perfect.

I need more adventure and wonder in my Zelda games, and less cinematic stuff.

[TruePrime]

I wonder if they would add actual voiceovers this time. What does GAF think about Link finally being able to speak? Does that go way against a staple of the series or would it be acceptable?

Frankly it will be the only way to get me to buy another at this point.

[Tookay]

Oh to me too, I love TP, but the overwelming vocal response was that the game sucked. Keyword being vocal. If you listen to fans all you'll end up with is a generic open world RPG with some sort of fan fiction story. Them of course there's the mish mash of different opinions (which is normal), some want it to be like Zelda others like Zelda 2, some want cel shading, others realistic, motion, no motion, bla bla bla...

No, it wasn't.

It really wasn't.

It won GOTY here for Christ's sake. That's much more vocal than anything a bunch of riled up fans on a message board can say.

[Quackula]

It would further alienate me from the series. Unless they speak a gibberish language such as in Animal Crossing, that would be perfect. I need more adventure and wonder in my Zelda games, and less cinematic stuff.

Frankly it will be the only way to get me to buy another at this point.

Zelda fans will never agree on the voice acting bit.

I'm leaning towards the "no" side but I think a good middle ground option would be to go ahead and add voices, but keep Link himself silent.

[The Boat]

No, it wasn't. It really wasn't. It won GOTY here for Christ's sake. That's much more vocal than anything a bunch of riled up fans on a message board can say.

If I go to a Zelda thread an 8/10 posters are saying it sucked, that sticks out much more a gaf GOTY award.

[Andrew.]

It would further alienate me from the series. Unless they speak a gibberish language such as in Animal Crossing, that would be perfect. I need more adventure and wonder in my Zelda games, and less cinematic stuff.

They already do speak a gibberish language basically. They could still make it less cinematic and provide voice actors, preferably good unknowns. I don't need Troy Baker voicing Link.

[Syrinx]

Right now these statements are just too vague for me to really get excited about anything. I suppose my ideal Zelda would be something like a 3D overworld similar to A Link to the Past, but with the fantastic dungeon design of games like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword, which is why I'm weary of the "do the dungeons in any order" philosophy, though I suppose they could try what duckroll is proposing. But that would be quite the undertaking.

For now, I'll stay excited for X, and will wait with baited breath for 3D Mario at E3.

[antitrop]

It seems people can be skeptical about anything. I've seen some throwing around the term "Open world Zelda".

I don't think they're going to turn it into GTA or Skyrim, and I think there's a lot of room for them to do something interesting and new on the new hardware here.

Skyward Sword is the first main-line Zelda game that I've never purchased or owned since I've been old enough to buy my own games or ask my parents for them, so at least I'm trying to be optimistic after that.

[TruePrime]

Zelda fans will never agree on the voice acting bit. I'm leaning towards the "no" side but I think a good middle ground option would be to go ahead and add voices, but keep Link himself silent.

Hey I don't mind really, I don't really need Zelda in my life and after Skyward Sword I'm okay with letting Zelda fans have it, I got Twilight and I'm okay with that.

Thing is I hate silence in games and I hate silent leads, to me it's a boring and la e way to do things and I want a character that properly reacts to what is going on around him/her. If Nintendo tries it I will come back, if not cool I will look at it like I do Wind Waker HD and happily skip it and leave it to those who want it.

[Meelow]

I want the open ended lost feeling of this: Mixed with this:

100% this.

[Tookay]

I wonder if they would add actual voiceovers this time. What does GAF think about Link finally being able to speak? Does that go way against a staple of the series or would it be acceptable?

They need to do it. It's 2013. We can do this right.

Nintendo can do this right.

The possibility of failure shouldn't be enough to outweigh the benefits it provides.

[Freshmaker]

Voice overs would add NOTHING to the game.

So since nobody made a more general thread yet, I will try! The Legend of Zelda WiiU Still in conceptual development phase Development Mission: "Rethink the conventions of Zelda" Probably some kind of multiplayer, co-op Probably Open-world, less linear

Nothing in that two point list suggests open world.

Rethinking Zelda probably just means they're working on how to cram some wonky new control scheme into the mix yet again.

Hopefully there's no garbage touchscreen controls.

[brandonh83]

It seems people can be skeptical about anything. I've seen some throwing around the term "Open world Zelda". I don't think they're going to turn it into GTA or Skyrim, and I think there's a lot of room for them to do something interesting and new on the new hardware here. Skyward Sword is the first main-line Zelda game that I've never purchased or owned since I've been old enough to buy my own games or ask my parents for them, so at least I'm trying to be optimistic after that.

When I was younger and trying to imagine bigger Zelda games on future consoles, I would always simply think about a larger Hyrule, where you could go anywhere-- no boundaries. When I got Ocarina of Time, I loved it, but I hated how restricted it felt. You had a big, pretty empty Hyrule Field, there was no wide open forest you could actually explore, just a series of logs and square rooms interconnected by said logs, Lake Hylia was a giant pond instead of a large network of streams and larger, uneven bodies of water, etc. Great game, but the environments, outside of the great dungeons, were pretty limited in scope. It disappointed me in that way.

I don't like the type of open world games like GTA and inFamous, I just find them exceedingly boring, but it's the way that they're set up, the way that goals are given to you and how you have to travel to waypoints and shit. A bigger Hyrule without boundaries and dynamic environments wouldn't necessarily be the same thing-- and honestly-- it would probably be fucking god-like.

[Oni Link 666]

When I read the SS Iwata Asks, I imagined a Zelda game where I would have to go back into old dungeons with new items and dungeons that had multiple parts spread out across the area. What I got was more like doing a dungeon before entering the dungeon and then coming back later to do a collectathon. I hope they deliver this less linear Zelda this time. That was one of the cool things about the first Zelda, you didn't have to do the dungeons in order and it wasn't that hard to break sequence either.

The you don't have to play by yourself comment is interesting. It could mean a lot of things. It could mean co-op, 3DS connectivity, Miiverse integration, online, or something like Four Swords. Personally, I would like to see a 2 player mode that's really integrated into the story. Like maybe Sheik and Link together for the whole game.

[Dennis]

Probably Open-world, less linear

[Andrew.]

Voice overs would add NOTHING to the game.

Well they certainly wouldn't take anything away from it.

[antitrop]

When I was younger and trying to imagine bigger Zelda games on future consoles, I would always simply think about a larger Hyrule, where you could go anywhere-- no boundaries. When I got Ocarina of Time, I loved it, but I hated how restricted it felt. You had a big, pretty empty Hyrule Field, there was no wide open forest you could actually explore, just a series of logs and square rooms interconnected by said logs, Lake Hylia was a giant pond instead of a large network of streams and larger, uneven bodies of water, etc. Great game, but the environments, outside of the great dungeons, were pretty limited in scope. It disappointed me in that way. I don't like the type of open world games like GTA and inFamous, I just find them exceedingly boring, but it's the way that they're set up, the way that goals are given to you and how you have to travel to waypoints and shit. A bigger Hyrule without boundaries and dynamic environments wouldn't necessarily be the same thing-- and honestly-- it would probably be fucking god-like.

We share a lot in common in thought.

[bdizzle]

Since my message wasn't clear enough the last time, I guess I have to make an example of how unacceptable it is to try and derail a thread this way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Freshmaker]

Well they certainly wouldn't take anything away from it.

Yes they would. VO's aren't useful in 90% of games that have them as is.

[ForeverZero]

Link seriously needs to be by himself this time around. No more Fi. No more Navi.

Ever.

[Andrew.]

Yes they would. VO's aren't useful in 90% of games that have them as is.

You're wrong. I say about 73.4%