The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii-U, Switch) 2017

[Wraith]

I'm thinking Ganondorf wasted most of the guardians in his takeover and possesed the remaining ones. They seem to have this strange energy surrounding them. Might lead to an awesome moment toward the end where you free them and they fight by your side.

[The Deleter]

Good gravy, Zelda came and blew all my skepticism clean out of the water. At first I was afraid this was going to fall into the pitfalls of most open world games, with neat but overall superfluous natural environments and vast ranges, typical AAA tps gameplay or non-fitting base Zelda gameplay, and poor pacing due to the analog-ness of it all. Boy howdy, was I afraid of nothing...


The word design looks fantastically interesting and well thought out, with opportunities to use gameplay in certain ways clearly showing through, all while keeping the environments natural and appealing at the same time, as well! Every single moblin camp looked like it had the same amount of thought put into it as a single dungeon room, and that's awesome.

Even the simple act of getting items in the worlds over and over looks amazingly fun, as well, which really surprised me. Either climbing up a tree to pick apples, jumping to reach its branches, or outright chopping it down all look like really great and varied fun rather than just being generic item pickup points, and it extends to the rocks, food options, and practically everything else with the more gameplay elements you come across and add to your pockets.


The gameplay looks absolutely stellar, as well. Not only did they get the perfect blend of fitting third person gameplay and centric Zelda gameplay, but the raw amount of utter depth and opportunity with this new engine and style is spectacular. Tons of melee weapon types, multiple methods of traversal, (CLIMBING) the crazy tech that the tablet unlocks, and all the items that you can unlock in the demo which aren't even the tip of the iceberg itself are amazing on their own, but I especially love the mere physics and mechanics in this game. Shooting fire arrows at anything flammable lights it on fire, rolling bombs down a slope till they hit their target, felling trees to land on a specific target, the wind mechanics with fire, the updraft the fire creates for air traversal itself, snowboarding, sky-striking, item-throwing, explosion-making, bullet-timing, overall dynamic physics... it's all just SO fun looking, and I reeeally want to get my hands on it now. Some of the most interesting open world gameplay in the history of games, imo.

I mean seriously, look at this:

Grade A gameplay right there


And the pacing, wow, completely annihilated. Even though it's so open, it's designed so well around the center-to-outwards progression the player is obviously going to make from the start, and the more you unlock, the more you can unlock, as well. Outside of the already upgraded runs through the beginning of the sections, there was never a dull moment with the abilities you had, never thinking "oh man I wish I could have something that could do that" at any point because of how utterly overwhelming the amount of stuff opens up to you in the first place. And the inclusion of shrines should be very helpful once you start maxing out your item equips, considering how easy to locate they are and how they're designed to give you powerups no matter the order. It just makes it seem so rich and engaging, completely overriding the concern I had before.

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And overall the game looks really good as-is. The art style in motion is incredibly appealing, like a perfect combination of Ico, Wind Waker, and Skyward Sword; The environments look utterly perfect with just the right amount of natural appeal yet clear and visible gameplay direction in their "design"; The sound design is absolutely stellar and I'm surprised they went forward with such progressive design; Elements being unique to certain locations is interesting and I'm sure will play a huge roll when buying items and completing side quests. The amount of variety in a single speck on the map is incredible, the cyber influence is great fun, and from what we saw, dungeons will be incredibly varied and great, new fun with the new dynamic mechanics, almost like portal level. And there's over 100 of them already confirmed.... Wow.

Overall, it all comes together to create a world that just feels sooo appealing and immersive to me now. Like I could explore it for hours and never get bored, simply drinking in the experience... that's the kind of game I've always wanted in Zelda, (as long as it didn't do away with it's great gameplay that is) and it looks like we're finally getting it. Utterly fantastic.


This went from a "Keeping an eye out for" game to "Day 1 or bust" overnight for me. Definitely the highlight of E3 for me; wasn't expecting it to after the Ubisoft and Sony conferences, but good gravy did they blow all my expectations for this game out of the water. Props, Nintendo. *applauds*

[KHCast]

Can I just say Link here seems to be the most reactive and brought to life version of him since fucking Majora's Mask? Damn, the way he reacts to the world already puts him miles above almost every other version.

[QuantumEdge]

One other thing that makes me really pleased is just how positive darn near everyone is about it.  Seeing so many people practically fall in love with it on first sight like me makes me all the more happy that this game so much as exists.  I don't think I've seen a game get an almost unanimous approval and it feels really good.  Best part is I doubt there's any chance left that this could still disappoint.  It's showed enough to quell any fears and heighten the hype which is frankly astonishing in a day and age where loads of people debate about the decency of games, no matter how good they are.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

14 hours ago, Soniman said:

There's also Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess in that regard. 

[Radiant Hero Ike]

So.

You can beat this game without actually finishing the story!

Quote

“Users may not actually get the full story depending on how they play this game and how they strategize and solve puzzles,” Aonuma said. “Users are able to go to the very end goal without revealing why Link woke up the way he did and where he did. Whether you want to reveal the storyline and find out why Link woke up, or you want to just go straight to the goal, that’s an option totally up to the user.

“Anybody who can go straight to the goal without doing anything else — there’s two possibilities. Either they’re a really good gamer, or they could be somebody that’s a little bit crazy. But it’s not impossible. I created the game like that. Maybe it might be fun for fans to compete in a challenge for who can clear it first.”

[Indigo Rush]

...I can't believe the same Nintendo that made Skyward Sword is making that. 

[Spooky Mulder]

11 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

...I can't believe the same Nintendo that made Skyward Sword is making that. 

Right? This really serves as a reminder of how painfully dull I found Skyward Sword. I didn't make it very far in that game because I was just very underwhelmed.

[Indigo Rush]

Have 40 minutes of raw gameplay footage, courtesy of our friends at GameXPlain

 

[KHCast]

Hmmm, the description on the official trailer, makes me think this takes place closer to the end of one of the timelines, and isn't part of the WW one. (Unless this took place before Hyrule was flooded.)

"Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule."

So from the sound of it, Hyrule has been established for quite some time, so couldn't be after Skyward Sword, Hyrule was still fairly new by that point. I'm thinking it's either in the fallen hero timeline after Zelda II somewhere, or long after Twilight Princess in the child one.

[Marcello]

On the other hand, someone posted this screen as a joke about people being salty on NeoGAF, but it could give a bit of a hint:

I'm not sure where Link is in this screen, but I don't remember any gameplay near a sea, so this could hint at Hyrule rising from the ocean.

[KHCast]

"The ancient sea" hmm...could be referring to the Great Sea, yes, but isn't the Hyrule seen in Spirit Tracks called like "New Hyrule" or something? 

[Solly]

11 minutes ago, KHCast said:

"The ancient sea" hmm...could be referring to the Great Sea, yes, but isn't the Hyrule seen in Spirit Tracks called like "New Hyrule" or something? 

And this game can't take place there, can it? By the end of Wind Waker, the Master Sword was in 

Spoiler

Ganondorf's head, at the bottom of the ocean.

 

[Nepenthe]

The reason I'm sticking so close to this being around SS- namely the era of prosperity (there was a long period of time after SS that nothing really happened)- is because they're still talking about Hylia, a goddess that has for all intents and purposes been forgotten by the people through the rest of the timeline afterwards. Not only are the shrine elders her direct servants, but there's still existing statues of her that you can see in a few areas of the plateau around the Temple of Time, which are directly lifted from SS. On top of that, if previous legend is to be believed about how the Golden Goddesses created the world, Hyrule as a land was kind of a concept since the beginning of the world, and the Skyloft people are simply the result of Hylia taking a select group of Hylians threatened by Demise and throwing them into the sky to protect them a la Sonic's Angel Island.

Also, here's a few gifs for your pleasure:

Spoiler

IT'S TRICKY TO RO--

Bouncy fire balls!

The actual size of the map we'll be dealing with come March.

 

[Radiant Hero Ike]

TIME FOR THE HIDDEN 4TH SPLIT IN THE TIMELINEEEE

I'm terrible at these kinds of speculation but, hm... The Koroks are there. I feel like, because of that, it's related to Wind Waker. But then Phantom Hourglass had them looking for the new land, and then a hundred years later was Spirit Tracks. Unless some cataclysmic event happened after ST, I don't see how it could be part of that timeline.

I guess it's possible for the Koroks to exist in any other timeline after OoT as they were hinted to be the Kokiri, right?

Forgive me I actually haven't looked at the timeline in ages lel

EDIT: Oh yeah, completely forgot about how they're talking to Hylia, thanks Nep.

Also, there were some structures that resembled the Zelda logo (Loftwing with Triforce), but without the Triforce. Dunno if that has anything to do with anything, but, food for thought.

EDIT 2: By the way, apparently the game was developed by a younger team!

[KHCast]

Maybe Hyrule Warriors is actually canon and just threw a bunch of shit from all the timelines together in one of the existing ones, and Lana was like "fuck it, I've cleaned up enough of that shit, Link can deal with it"

[Celestia]

I'm still fairly confident this is in the Wind Waker timeline, perhaps long after Spirit Tracks. However, the Master Sword being in it's usual pedestal does seem like fairly conclusive evidence that this isn't the case...maybe something has happened within that time that thesword was removed from Ganon's  head?

(Spoilers in here based on what little we know of BOTW's story:) 

Spoiler

Maybe that's why he seems to be this eldritch abomination type thing that's been sealed in Hyrule Castle?? Apparently the Old Man even refers to Ganon as "it", implying he's not even sentient anymore.

Or here's a new split in the timeline, somewhere?? Like, the good guys lost in Wind Waker and the Master Sword fell into the ocean, and when the water finally receded--I guess the goddesess were like "welp, that Link failed, but we might as well undo this whole mess haha silly mortals am I right"--someone(???) found the sword and maybe put it back. I dunno, just spitballing here.

Either way, being in the ocean a LONG time would potentially explain the rust(?) on the Master Sword. That and it being so late in the timeline that it's lost it's powers.

[KHCast]

Wasn't the master sword within Hyrule Castle though in WW? 

but yeah, the water would explain the rust. (Though not the only explanation mind you) Unless there's another event we don't know about in one of the other timelines that had a great sea situation, it could perhaps be the WW timeline. Though who knew the exact location of Ganondorf outside Link and Zelda, swam down to the bottom of the sea, and removed the sword then? That just seems unlikely imo.

Another split would be such bs to be honest though. At the moment, it could really be just about anywhere with what we know. 

I do wonder if the Master Sword is even essential this time around or important. Could further support the "loss of power" theory of it isn't.

[Indigo Rush]

https://mynintendonews.com/2016/06/15/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-was-developed-by-a-younger-development-team/

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But then these new, younger developers had no clue about how past Zeldas had been created. The group of new staff actually would ask us, like ‘Well I know that it’s been done, traditionally, in other Zelda titles, but why does it have to be that way?’ And among those questions there were some I just couldn’t answer, that I didn’t know the answer to myself. That was because I just took those things on as a tradition, and I didn’t really know why the tradition existed.

When you think about it, maybe those things really didn’t need to be there in the modern world, those traditions. So I started destroying these traditions I’d inherited in the series one by one. But it’s a process that takes a lot of time. And because we were destroying everything we’d done in the past, and rebuild new ideas from the ground up, that was the hardest thing, and it’s really taken a long time to create the thing I most wanted to create.

 

[KHCast]

That sounds so evil for some reason haha the way he says it haha. 

[Celestia]

I wonder if the fact that they even considered fem Link was because of the younger devs challenging the series' traditions. Gives me hope for the future, and not just for this franchise.

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Another split would be such bs to be honest though. At the moment, it could really be just about anywhere with what we know. 

Eh, it wouldn't bother me. Or surprise me for that matter, considering it turned out there were three splits when IIRC fans thought there were only two, lol.

Quote

I do wonder if the Master Sword is even essential this time around or important. Could further support the "loss of power" theory.

It'd actually be kind of interesting if it didn't really play much of a role. Like, there's a fake out in the mid-game where you find it, but it's useless.

Though you can apparently challenge the final boss right from the beginning...so either you don't need the Master Sword, or you can get to it very early on and it doesn't take much to restore it. Maybe the rust doesn't even indicate that its lost power!

...

It's so nice to have new stuff to speculate on with this game, haha.

[Nepenthe]

Considering you can beat the game literally after getting out of the cave, the Master Sword isn't technically essential to gameplay, but it's probably going to be central to the narrative and I feel that's what counts the most.

[KHCast]

Wonder if that would extend to the green tunic of the hero. Like, not essential outside perhaps the story. I don't know, if this does takes place after SS, I'd assume that bit wouldn't be just ignored. 

[Nepenthe]

The green tunic in SS was only for graduates in Link's class, a class which wasn't even as well trained as the Big Boy Knights who actually went on rescue missions and prevented rookies from flying their Loftwings at night. It didn't have any real special significance outside of that. xP

[KHCast]

Wait, so how the hell did it start up as tradition then haha? So then that tradition starts with Minish Cap then?