Incline The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Wii U and Switch

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[DragoFireheart]

I mean this will all due respect but on this topic...... fuck your wife. Fuck people who think like her. You don't know how intolerant a world "people" like your wife are making for explorefags like myself.i

To be fair she wouldn't buy the game in the first place. She thought Skyward Sword was too hard.

This is more along the lines of "hey honey, wanna play this zelda game" while watching her struggle with the camera controls.

 

[Ivan]

lol @ friends who struggle with camera controls. I remember trying to get my gf into Portal. Either always looking at the roof or at her feet.

 

[TripJack]

nintendo trying to do something new after shitting out the same thing over and over since the n64 days sounds like to me

 

[Talby]

I appreciate that they seem to be genuinely trying to make Zelda a relevant series again, but I just see this as playing follow the leader. Open world games are in right now, so suddenly Zelda is one. It's another reactionary Zelda game - a lot of people didn't like Wind Waker because it was too cutesy and cartoony, so Twilight Princess was much more realistic and drab. A major (justified) complaint about Skyward Sword was that there is no real overworld and the wilderness areas just feel like stretched-out dungeons, so the new Zelda is a big open sandbox. While it's good that they're listening to feedback it also seems like they have no real direction for the series and are just going for the flavour of the month.

Meh, I am probably just being overly negative because I've been burned by the last few Zelda games and Nintendo games in general have been in decline for a while now. I'd like for it to be great.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

They should just stop listening to fans. It'a a terrible idea. People were outraged when the first screens of Wind Waker popped up, clamoring for Ocarina of Time 2 like that Gamecube tech demo. Then they made OoT2 and were accused of staying in their comfort zone.

 

[nihil]

bullet time, quest compass that kills exploration like Skyrim's, awesome button to prevent your horse from crashing into a tree

Bullet time as a one-time thing when you jump off the horse seems alright, if it's used interestingly. It's not a quest compass if you place the marker yourself. Auto-pilot horse seems alright since it opens up for the player to do more interesting actions while on the horseback. Again, if they use it well...

That said, the vast, empty spaces scare me. If they turn Zelda into hours of time just traversing a huge, boring world filled with procedural loot and collectibles, a la other open world games, I will be very sad. I was really hoping for a dense world with relatively small distances, and thoughtfully designed locations. And it seemed likely after the brilliant A Link Between Worlds. This seems to be the opposite.

 

[Avellion]

That said, the vast, empty spaces scare me. If they turn Zelda into hours of time just traversing a huge, boring world filled with procedural loot and collectibles, a la other open world games, I will be very sad. I was really hoping for a dense world with relatively small distances, and thoughtfully designed locations. And it seemed likely after the brilliant A Link Between Worlds. This seems to be the opposite.

And this is why I hate this huge open world trend we have been seeing for a while now. We keep seeing these pointlessly huge worlds with collectables scattered all over the place in the most uninteresting ways possible. The game's length gets padded out, but the it really achieves nothing but wasting the player's time.

I always liked how worlds in Zelda were not bigger than they needed to be. I think I remember most of Link's Awakening's or Alltp's overworld and how it was designed not because it was small enough to traverse it a few times, but because of how intelligently designed they were.

Now, this game still looks like incline from Call of Hyrule: Skyward Warfare Skyward sword, but A Link Between Worlds... that I doubt.

But alas, this seems to be what wins GOTYs these days

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

I'm fairly certain the voice is Bill Trinen, Miyamoto's official translator. While I would prefer subtitles, he's the only guy who should be remotely touching that kind of thing.

What's with the personality cult?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Probably because the official translator is less likely to fuck up.

I'm not worried about the open world by itself, but I fear they might make the dungeons more generic to make up for the fact you won't tackle them in an specific order and they won't know what sort of equipment you'll have when you enter.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm not worried about the open world by itself, but I fear they might make the dungeons more generic to make up for the fact you won't tackle them in an specific order and they won't know what sort of equipment you'll have when you enter.

I thought the new Zelda game for the 3DS had dungeons that you could tackle in any order you want and from my understanding the dungeon design didn't suffer at all for it. All it meant was that the important key items needed to access/navigate the dungeons were scattered in the world and not hidden in the dungeons. I guess they could also apply the open world theme into the dungeons and add multiple paths depending on what items you have. It worked for Deus Ex, didn't it? For every possibility for something to go wrong, there is also a way to make it right.

 

[Avellion]

I'm not worried about the open world by itself, but I fear they might make the dungeons more generic to make up for the fact you won't tackle them in an specific order and they won't know what sort of equipment you'll have when you enter.

I thought the new Zelda game for the 3DS had dungeons that you could tackle in any order you want and from my understanding the dungeon design didn't suffer at all for it. All it meant was that the important key items needed to access/navigate the dungeons were scattered in the world and not hidden in the dungeons. I guess they could also apply the open world theme into the dungeons and add multiple paths depending on what items you have. It worked for Deus Ex, didn't it? For every possibility for something to go wrong, there is also a way to make it right.

From what I have heard. This game will offer something like that with dungeons being non linear with multiple paths.

Assuming this is true, it would be a nice return to the NES Zelda. Afterall, Zelda 1 and 2 were like this to some extent.

 

[ghostdog]

Open world for the japanese = single-player MMO. Expect a shiton of repetitive generic mmo things to do.

 

[Talby]

I honestly hated A Link Between Worlds. The rehashed overworld and boring/easy dungeons killed it for me.

 

[DragoFireheart]

And this is why I hate this huge open world trend we have been seeing for a while now. We keep seeing these pointlessly huge worlds with collectables scattered all over the place in the most uninteresting ways possible. The game's length gets padded out, but the it really achieves nothing but wasting the player's time.

The hope is if enough devs make open world games someone will eventually get it right.

Then again everyone in my life tells me I'm wrong and it's my fault so there's a chance my theory is completely false.

 

[deuxhero]

I'm fairly certain the voice is Bill Trinen, Miyamoto's official translator. While I would prefer subtitles, he's the only guy who should be remotely touching that kind of thing.

What's with the personality cult?

Have you ever seen Miyamoto at a live event (like E3)? Bill speaking for him is "normal".

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I'm not worried about the open world by itself, but I fear they might make the dungeons more generic to make up for the fact you won't tackle them in an specific order and they won't know what sort of equipment you'll have when you enter.

I thought the new Zelda game for the 3DS had dungeons that you could tackle in any order you want and from my understanding the dungeon design didn't suffer at all for it.

Well, there were pros and cons to the 3DS's rent-an-item approach.

Yes, having access to all of the game's items from the beginning let you jump into dungeons in any order. But that also means that aside from the item needed to access the dungeon, there's really no telling what the player will have in their inventory. This means you only ever needed 1 specific item to access a dungeon, beat its puzzles and kill its boss. If you're in the Sand Dungeon, you're going to use the Wind Rod pretty much exclusively, same thing goes for the Ice Dungeon and the Fire Rod. And while the game was a blast throughout, most of the dungeons are pretty one-note when it comes to tackling its problems.

 

[Avellion]

There have been some disturbing calculations regarding the world size.

Since I saw how big the Zelda Wii U's world map looked like I wanted to know how big it was.

I made a quick image of the world map then I drew a black and white line between the green arrow and red cross. I copy pasted that line from east to west and north to south http://imgur.com/a/xnVc1

According to the pic, I was able to copy/paste 14 times horizontally and about 11.75 times vertically. I know the lines aren't straight, this is just an approximation.

According to the trailer, it would take about 4-5 minutes to go from one point to another. If I don't count the time they messed around and suppose there's no wall between Link and the waypoint, I'm going to calculate the take it takes by using a minimal time of 5 minutes.

After doing the calculations, I end up with ~70 minutes east to west and ~60 minutes north to south.

I google'd what was the average speed of a trotting and galloping horse.

• Average trotting speed : 13 - 19 km/h -> 16 km/h
• Average galloping speed : 40 - 48 km/h -> 44 km/h

Then we do:

• 16 km/h*70 min = ~18.7 km
• 16 km/h*60 min = ~16 km
  
  
• 18.7 km * 16 km = ~300 km2

If we use the galloping speed.

• 44 km/h*70 min = ~51.3 km
• 44 km/h*60 min = ~44km
• 51.3 km * 44 km = ~2260 km2

So means Zelda Wii U could be probably between 300 km2 ( 116mi2) and 2260 km2 ( 873 mi2). This is just a wild speculation on how big the world map could be. There's nothing telling us that game is filled with invisible walls or not. Don't forget I was calculating for 5 minutes we don't know how long they traveled before they said it would take them 5 minutes

TL:DR; Zelda Wii U's world map could be really huge.

Edit: Fixed some bulletpoint format. Don't forget I was calculating for 5 minutes we don't know how long they traveled before they said it would take them 5 minutes.

I really hope these calculations are fundamenally off. That world is going to be so stretched out, if they try to aim for that size.

 

[taxalot]

So, they replaced the sea with grass, and the boat with a horse. Big deal.

 

[Avellion]

So, they replaced the sea with grass, and the boat with a horse. Big deal.

Well, the grassy plains looks better than the bland environments in DAI, though that really isnt saying a lot.

And can clearly handle more horses on the screen too.

 

[DragoFireheart]

So, they replaced the sea with grass, and the boat with a horse. Big deal.

Vertical depth is just as important as horizontal depth. You couldn't explore underwater in Wind Waker: it may be possible to scale mountains and such in a meaningful manner.

 

[Athelas]

They're gonna have to come up with some enjoyable activities to fill this open world with. Rupee bag upgrades and bits of heart containers aren't exactly exciting finds. If they were smart, they'd implement a freeform mechanic like the hookshot from Just Cause 2 (heck, the Zelda series has always had a hookshot).

 

[nihil]

If they were smart, they'd implement a freeform mechanic like the hookshot from Just Cause 2 (heck, the Zelda series has always had a hookshot).

Wouldn't that just be another way to traverse a still empty world?

But yeah, I'm hoping they have some ace up their sleeve regarding the purpose of the huge world.

Maybe if they really make use of the scouting thing, where you have to spot things yourself and place the markers, the vastness would serve a purpose in making it impossible to just systematically scan the whole world. No automatic quest markers in the whole game. That I could get behind. Still, you would have to bounce into interesting things during travel.

 

[Athelas]

Wouldn't that just be another way to traverse a still empty world?

The hookshot in Just Cause 2 serves a bigger purpose than that. It also lets you pull stuff and enemies. It's as useful in combat as it is for exploration.

The tools in Zelda games have always had very narrow purposes. It's pretty silly how the Wind Waker had both a grappling hook and a hookshot when they did almost the same thing, and the only difference seemed to be what arbitrarily-labeled surface they let you grapple/hook onto.

 

[nihil]

The hookshot in Just Cause 2 serves a bigger purpose than that. It also lets you pull stuff and enemies. It's as useful in combat as it is for exploration.

Ok, cool. That's actually exactly what I like in the (good) Zelda games. Bombs, hookshot, boomerang, bow and other items are used continuously in both puzzle solving and combat...

The tools in Zelda games have always had very narrow purposes. It's pretty silly how the Wind Waker had both a grappling hook and a hookshot when they did almost the same thing, and the only difference seemed to be what arbitrarily-labeled surface they let you grapple/hook onto.

...but some Zeldas are worse than others in that regard, and generally the 2D games work better than the 3D ones. If I'm not mistaken, though, the hookshot can be used in combat in WW, only the controls and context switch are cumbersome.

I feel A Link Between Worlds was a return to form (most items can be used throughout the game in various ways), so I have some hope we'll see more of that in the Wii U Zelda. There is the possibility that ALBW is only good because it builds on the LttP formula, but the new additions are good enough to instil hope.