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Zelda Wii U - Recap of 5 hours gameplay stream

Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
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Death Mountain "creature"
It would be cool if you had to sneak around the monster and find a way to kill it in order to get to other areas of Death Mountain, like in the original Half-Life.
 

jonno394

Member
Within the map itself are regions, separated by the light blue lines. It is currently unclear how Link traverses between these regions as they appear to be separated by mountains, bridges, or a river network of some kind

Hi, i've shied away from most information pertaining to this title, but I stumbled across this quote above. Are we thinking each area is self contained rather than a true seamless open world?
 

The Lamp

Member
I wish someone would ask about NPCs or quests in this game. Could I be asked to find a townsperson's daughter who disappeared into the mountains or something? Stuff like that.
 
Nintendo plays fast and loose with details. There's not enough time between OoT and TP for the geographical changes that happen between those games but they happened. The Temple of Time apparently likes to fly around and sit itself wherever the hell it feels like.

Just think of it like this: The stories are legends. There is a timeline and in general the progression from game to game makes sense. But details like geography and certain races aren't as concrete. Each legend is told with details missing or added. Locations move around and stuff.

The way Hyrule Historia tells it, Link fell in battle against Ganon and Zelda and the sages were able to seal Ganon in the Sacred Realm. Centuries passed and portals to the Sacred Realm began opening up. People started going through the portals to search for treasure and Ganon built up his forces. War broke out between Ganon's forces spilling out of the portals and the sages of that time managed to seal the portals.

This game could take place during the time when Zelda and the sages sealed Ganon after Link's defeat. Ganon got the complete triforce and made his wish, becoming the Calamity Ganon. Zelda and the sages just have enough power to keep Ganon at bay while Link recuperates in a healing chamber for 100 years. Link wakes up and helps Zelda seal Ganon and the triforce away in the Sacred Realm.


To give your theory further credence, the place the game starts at is called the site of "resurrection". Resurrection means to return from death. So it seems that something killed this Link in the past.
 
Yesterday in the treehouse thread, a rumor that there were no towns in the game were being spread. Just wanted to clear that up with this


I want to assure everyone there are towns in this game.

-Bill Trinen
There is an NPC that looks like a bear and that appears chopping wood in that section where you cut down a tree. He's missing from the demo so I imagine a couple of NPC will be around these areas
Hi, i've shied away from most information pertaining to this title, but I stumbled across this quote above. Are we thinking each area is self contained rather than a true seamless open world?
You need to find a way to get across via flying, swimming, sailing, etc
 

jonno394

Member
Or geographical borders just like countries.

Well, obviously on a map they can be read as geographical borders, but the fact you can't just walk off in to another section of the map makes me think it'll be more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you can only move around through pre-determined entry/exit points.
 

EVH

Member
It would be cool if you had to sneak around the monster and find a way to kill it in order to get to other areas of Death Mountain, like in the original Half-Life.

I was watching a video and just saw it, but it appeared at the other side of the mountain. I guess its the big goron?
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Just caught up reading the OP and fuck this game sounds glorious to a stodgy Zelda 1 fan like myself.

I need to find time to watch the stream footage soon!
 
Well, obviously on a map they can be read as geographical borders, but the fact you can't just walk off in to another section of the map makes me think it'll be more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you can only move around through pre-determined entry/exit points.

If you want to remain spoiler free all I can say is that's not the case. You can exit the first area in any direction you wish.
 

Pseudo_Sam

Survives without air, food, or water
Well, obviously on a map they can be read as geographical borders, but the fact you can't just walk off in to another section of the map makes me think it'll be more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you can only move around through pre-determined entry/exit points.

It's been explicitly mentioned that that's NOT the case. Total freedom of movement
 

The Lamp

Member
And the answer you would get is "We're not talking about that right now."

I wish I could know if it exists or not. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to launch this game without meaningful NPCs and sidequests as they got lost in the game design of the open world and shrines. I haven't really been engaged with NPCs lives since Wind Waker.

I mean, Im worried because they are prone to unspeakably bad design decisions when no one expects it. Like last time in SS they reminded us of each item we picked up the entire game. They make really weirdly horrible neglections in this series sometimes.
 
I wish I could know if it exists or not. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to launch this game without meaningful NPCs and sidequests as they got lost in the game design of the open world and shrines. I haven't really been engaged with NPCs lives since Wind Waker.

I mean, Im worried because they are prone to unspeakably bad design decisions when no one expects it. Like last time in SS they reminded us of each item we picked up the entire game. They make really weirdly horrible neglections in this series sometimes.

If the worry is you want to know this before dropping $60 on the game, I can bet you will know it before the game releases.

If not, you could always not buy it the first day it comes out. No one is forcing you to do so.
 

Not

Banned
Well, obviously on a map they can be read as geographical borders, but the fact you can't just walk off in to another section of the map makes me think it'll be more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you can only move around through pre-determined entry/exit points.

I was under the impression you might be able to glide over some of these borders? Would it still take you to a loading screen?
 
I wish I could know if it exists or not. I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to launch this game without meaningful NPCs and sidequests as they got lost in the game design of the open world and shrines. I haven't really been engaged with NPCs lives since Wind Waker.

I mean, Im worried because they are prone to unspeakably bad design decisions when no one expects it. Like last time in SS they reminded us of each item we picked up the entire game. They make really weirdly horrible neglections in this series sometimes.

I love how many times they stressed that items would only show their description once. How did that get by in the first place, and then AGAIN in SS?
 

doop_

Banned
Tim Gettys found the Fire Rod in his play through, it looks really nice. It can shoot bouncing fire balls.

I am so excited to learn about the story and I am especially intrigued by the calamity ganon.
 
Very true regarding the details about geography, etc. I agree that this would be the most interesting theory, but even placing it during that point in the timeline as you suggest, it would go against what has been established previously (i.e. the Imprisoning War mentioned in Link to the Past)

If this happens during that time, almost assuredly there'd need to be more people such as the Knights of Hyrule for the stories to make sense. (Maybe there will be. We haven't seen much.)

Of course, again, this could be chalked up to "details" again however and they could make it work, I suppose. But I feel like the story would then be about how a great hero returned to help Hyrule and not about how the sages and people of Hyrule were able to seal Ganon away.

Well, we haven't seen the hero's green tunic. Maybe no one knows he is the hero, and instead think he is a knight or just a person.
 

RagnarokX

Member
There's no way the Sheikah became an advanced civilization and died out while the Master Sword wore down that much in only 100 years after OoT.
Of course not. The Sheikah were advanced since before Skyward Sword. All of their tech is underground and the world above is medieval. This stuff just stayed unknown in OoT. The master sword got damaged when Ganon wrecked Link.
Very true regarding the details about geography, etc. I agree that this would be the most interesting theory, but even placing it during that point in the timeline as you suggest, it would go against what has been established previously (i.e. the Imprisoning War mentioned in Link to the Past)

If this happens during that time, almost assuredly there'd need to be more people such as the Knights of Hyrule for the stories to make sense. (Maybe there will be. We haven't seen much.)

Of course, again, this could be chalked up to "details" again however and they could make it work, I suppose. But I feel like the story would then be about how a great hero returned to help Hyrule and not about how the sages and people of Hyrule were able to seal Ganon away.
I'm not saying this is the imprisoning war, so it doesn't need to sweat those details. This happens between OoT and the imprisoning war, during the first attempt to seal Ganon following Link's defeat.
 

LoveCake

Member
What do you mean lack of full story? Where did you hear that? They said they were holding back a lot of story things from the E3 demo specifically, like towns and most NPCs

From paragraph 5 in the OP "Yeah sure it wont have a big story, who cares, I want to have interesting gameplay" I didn't know stuff had been missed out, the shows are on too early for us here in the UK (if you work normal hours) and I don't have time to watch hours on hours of footage of a game.
 
I love how many times they stressed that items would only show their description once. How did that get by in the first place, and then AGAIN in SS?

I honestly wish they didn't even do it the first time, since you can check every single item description in the inventory anyway. It'll make replays pretty annoying.
 

m3k

Member
thanks for the thread... right now it seems like nintendo did their best to give zelda fans what they wanted

i was not expecting and cant believe half the stuff i just read. I am most pleased about large world with lots of secrets, no tutorial like hand holding so far, enemy weapon pick ups and all the cooking stuff amongst others lol
 
Of course not. The Sheikah were advanced since before Skyward Sword. All of their tech is underground and the world above is medieval. This stuff just stayed unknown in OoT. The master sword got damaged when Ganon wrecked Link.

This is a bit of an ancillary point but I've always thought of the Sheikah as being a fourth wall breaking metaphor for the developers, ever since the original Sheikah Stones essentially giving you hints. The Sheikah monks sorta reaffirm that theory in my opinion.
 

Matbtz

Member
From paragraph 5 in the OP "Yeah sure it wont have a big story, who cares, I want to have interesting gameplay" I didn't know stuff had been missed out, the shows are on too early for us here in the UK (if you work normal hours) and I don't have time to watch hours on hours of footage of a game.

Yes they have showed the beginning of the game to have a spoiler free live. I don't know why the OP said it won't have a great story. We don't know that and personally I'm really looking forward it
 

Glin

Member
I have found the first item description repeat useful during a long break of not playing SS so it can refresh your memory what to do with it. However on playing day by day it is annoying of course. Maybe they should set a time period on it when it should pop-up again.
 
I have found the first item description repeat useful during a long break of not playing SS so it can refresh your memory what to do with it. However on playing day by day it is annoying of course. Maybe they should set a time period on it when it should pop-up again.

I would guess it pops up once every time you play the game.
 

MajorMane

Member
Well, we haven't seen the hero's green tunic. Maybe no one knows he is the hero, and instead think he is a knight or just a person.

This is possible.

I'm not saying this is the imprisoning war, so it doesn't need to sweat those details. This happens between OoT and the imprisoning war, during the first attempt to seal Ganon following Link's defeat.

I suppose it's possible, but even still then, it might be a stretch. It's said the Sages sealed Ganon away in the Sacred Realm/Dark World whereas this version of Ganon (Calamity Ganon) is sealed at Hyrule Castle. Okay, so maybe they were wrong and the Sages in OoT actually sealed him at Hyrule Castle (even though it was Ganon Castle at that point) and then this Link comes along and helps push Ganon to the Dark World.

It's said Calamity Ganon "appeared suddenly", which you could technically work into the lore of OoT. Ganondorf takes over Hyrule, Hero of Time Link returns to take him down, but fails. In the process, we get Ganon, and the Sages seal him away. Over 100 years, the people forget about Ganondorf and see Ganon, thinking that the beast has always been like this. Along the way, Goddess Hylia saves Link via the Sheikah or her own means.

It takes some stretching, but it might work. Personally, I think it will be a Link that we have not necessarily seen before, but had his own adventure and was resurrected 100 years down the road (or woke up 100 years ago.)

I'm not really sure what timeline it will fall in. Maybe a timeline where Ganon has been absent for awhile, accounting for his quick and violent return. Or a timeline without a hero. (Alternatively, another timeline where a hero fails and is the same hero we get in this game.) I'm hesitant to say Wind Waker timeline because that heavily relies on the fact that the flood waters recede and we haven't necessarily seen any evidence this happened/will happen.
 

En-ou

Member
If they can revamp links animation that would be great. One the the things I love about horizon is how well the girl is animated in her walking/running movements.
 

Anbec7

Member
I wish they would tweak a little bit Link's model I think he should not be that scrawny, Sumo Link looked OK.
Other than that catching up and seeing everything this is the game.

Question, has it been confirmed if we could ramp up the difficulty? I saw some gifts of people dying on 1 hit and I kinda liked that challenge
 
whoa cool, also looks like there is a meteor that falls to the world around 16:30 and creates a huge impact and then a pillar of light. Any info on that?
Ah, shit, you're right, hadn't notice that. This game might be more full of little things than I expected...
 

Mael

Member
That's right.

Pretty sure, yeah

Correct.
Only the temple fell to the surface. The rest of Skyloft remained afloat.
Ok I don't know why I expected something different.
I guess it's been a while since I played SS....

Jesus, dude. IT'S NO COMPLAINT. I love Nintendo to death. SMG and SMG2 are my favorite games of last gen bar none.

It's just something I would like to see. Imagine, no tuned down textures, better IQ, more AI on the field. Just that. Just that.
I'm sorry I you felt my tone was aggressive, that wasn't how I intended.
I guess games can always look better but looking at what other games did and what this one does, you would gain marginal improvements.
I mean the limiting factor here is more time/money than hardware.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Thinking back, the 5+ hour stream was really the best way to unveil this game. Before the unveiling I was sceptical, because I doubted they could make a stream of one game interesting for that long, but turns out that was exactly what the game needed... without even touching story elements. I was not prepared for the scope of this game, I don't think anyone was.

It worked to an extent that just playing the trailer for friends doesn't really work to show this game off. You'd almost need a treehouse compilation to do so.

Before E3 we had this 'your worst fears' thread and mine was Zelda just being 'another Zelda'. They did pretty much everything opposite of that, I can't tell how excited I am for the new direction they've taken here. Just doing away with 20 useless rupee chests as an exploration reward is already exciting for me. It's pretty standard stuff in other games, but I'm glad they chose to have more rpg elements this time around.

All I'm hoping for now is an online element where you can compare progress/discoveries with friends/gaffers etc. If I got 100% in this game, I'd want to show it off :p
 
I wish they would tweak a little bit Link's model I think he should not be that scrawny, Sumo Link looked OK.
Other than that catching up and seeing everything this is the game.

Question, has it been confirmed if we could ramp up the difficulty? I saw some gifts of people dying on 1 hit and I kinda liked that challenge
It seems like you are going to find many powerful enemies, rpg style, so the difficulty is based around that. At some point in the stream they found a bokoblin with a huge hp bar, I'm sure that one alone may kill a beginner.
 
Thinking back, the 5+ hour stream was really the best way to unveil this game. Before the unveiling I was sceptical, because I doubted they could make a stream of one game interesting for that long, but turns out that was exactly what the game needed... without even touching story elements. I was not prepared for the scope of this game, I don't think anyone was.

It worked to an extent that just playing the trailer for friends doesn't really work to show this game off. You'd almost need a treehouse compilation to do so.

Before E3 we had this 'your worst fears' thread and mine was Zelda just being 'another Zelda'. They did pretty much everything opposite of that, I can't tell how excited I am for the new direction they've taken here. Just doing away with 20 useless rupee chests as an exploration reward is already exciting for me. It's pretty standard stuff in other games, but I'm glad they chose to have more rpg elements this time around.

All I'm hoping for now is an online element where you can compare progress/discoveries with friends/gaffers etc. If I got 100% in this game, I'd want to show it off :p

I wouldn't have mind another zelda game, but never expected to be this hyped for a new zelda game. I might actually get the NX just to play this one game.
 
Well, obviously on a map they can be read as geographical borders, but the fact you can't just walk off in to another section of the map makes me think it'll be more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where you can only move around through pre-determined entry/exit points.

They're blocked off in the demo, otherwise you'd get people going beyond the Plateau. They mentioned in the stream yesterday that you'd be able to go anywhere whenever you wanted.

Towards the end of the day yesterday they had a Beyond the Plateau feature where they traversed the borders of the E3 build. There were no lines, and they mentioned that you'd be able to jump straight off once you had the sail cloth.

But yeah, this specific E3 build is not the same as the shipping build. They've taken out a lot because they don't want to spoil story, and of course they want to give the folks at E3 some toys to play with. I wouldn't count on getting all of the Spirit Orb abilities so quickly in the final game.
 
To give your theory further credence, the place the game starts at is called the site of "resurrection". Resurrection means to return from death. So it seems that something killed this Link in the past.

What if
this is really set in the Wind Waker backstory where Ganondorf escaped and there was no hero to defeat him? Maybe the whole "Resurrection" thing is because the Sheikahs are trying to replicate the Hero of Time and his spirit, but since this "Link" is a copy/fake it doesn't count?
 

Mory Dunz

Member
So as of now, you can't go underwater right?

You'll probably get something for that like usual. I just wondered if the open world aspect would have you diving from the beginning
 

Anteo

Member
I'm watching projared play this game and, the ui shows how much noice you make when you move, crouching makes it so you make less noice and can sneak around enemies.
I missed that ui element when watching the treehouse stream.
 
I REALLY hope that Nintendo doesn't half-ass it for the NX version, and makes visual enhancements if possible. I want to play the very best possible version of this game, and if that means buying an NX, then so be it. This game needs to set a good example for the new console, and not just be a straight copy of the Wii U version. I'm talking doubling the frame rate, enhancing effects and animations, etc.
 

MajorMane

Member
I'm not really sure what timeline it will fall in. Maybe a timeline where Ganon has been absent for awhile, accounting for his quick and violent return. Or a timeline without a hero. (Alternatively, another timeline where a hero fails and is the same hero we get in this game.) I'm hesitant to say Wind Waker timeline because that heavily relies on the fact that the flood waters recede and we haven't necessarily seen any evidence this happened/will happen.

After some research (and specifically finding this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGdIQ26n1Bg), I'm going to backtrack on this and it almost jumps to my most likely timeline.

The appearance of the Korok in particular is interesting. Yes, they could have evolved in the other two timelines, but it seems specifically that this evolution was spurred on because of the great flood, making their appearance very telling.

It's been years since I played Wind Waker, so I forgot that the Koroks plant trees in hope of receding the flood waters. It's very likely that they were successful in this effort, revealing the land below. All the mountains could be explained as the islands in Wind Waker after the waters recede.

Ganondorf was still under the sea and it's possible the removal of the Master Sword (if this is the Wind Waker timeline, the sword would be in his head, not at the pedestal in the woods), then that would have let Calamity Ganon to emerge.

Of course, the problem with this is that there was a new Hyrule in Phantom Hourglass.
 
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