PH is better than Spirit Tracks but IMO that isn’t saying much. I wasn’t a big fan of the DS Zelda games. Exploration is a big part of Zelda games.
Aonuma had an interview with US Gamer that I posted in the VG General thread
provides some further insight into the development of WWHD, how busy Aonuma has been lately, as well as a slight backtrack on his comment about Zelda Wii U taking influences from Skyrim
Someone also pointed out that it seems Nintendo may have remastered the OST a bit
the quality is definitely higher
Actually after going through the thread a bit more here’s some obvious proof that they messed with the music.
Japanese website
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/bczj/
click on sound 3 in the upper right corner andcompare
It seems people are starting to get their review copies of this game in. Vids are starting to get posted.
Spoiler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fJgRlDEgihw
One of the things Aonuma talked about was how they changed the amount of time it took to get treasure chests. You can actually see the improved time in this gameplay vid @ 1:03
6 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9G3OAMQGD4&feature=player_embedded
Title screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEMZvEoRP5M&feature=youtu.be&a&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DaXGZz1k84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26rFm3UMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdX3GgxF6-8&feature
Dat Windfall Island music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNAluvgQoqM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dERxAAP4Ybo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDZxNskPFJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyIbzVk172Q
This vid turned off most of the HUD
It’s seriously amazing how this game’s graphics has a debate with Zelda fans between GC and Wii U. For every 3-4 posts I see complaining about the game using too much bloom and how Nintendo should have just upresed the game and pulled a Dolphin, I see posts saying how the colors are far more vibrant now and they can’t even look at the GC version anymore.
Gifs from the Gaf thread
Spoiler
http://abload.de/img/wwhdcomprlsm2.gif
http://abload.de/img/wwhdcomp2bwxsm.gif
http://i.minus.com/iLbQ8MGia1z95.gif
http://i.minus.com/i5zsdLOFx3cBI.gif
http://i.minus.com/iUn9I2siCRgC5.gif
http://i.minus.com/izvJdmbg4NN2C.gif
http://i.minus.com/ibtKnqPcI4HGQZ.gif
http://i.minus.com/iG50cYF8YqhbB.gif
http://i.minus.com/ipum5oYGvp2Qz.gif
http://i.minus.com/ij0gxENkfFxGG.gif
http://i.minus.com/ibqK0bmLiOiAHr.gif
Opening prologue of the game is skippable
Looks like a filter my ass, it’s so sharp and vibrant.
I want soooo bad.
That interview sparked an idea: I’d love to see an entirely first person Zelda someday. I think it could work, I’d imagine it would play like Mirror’s Edge meets Portal 2 with the classic Zelda items and an open world design. We already know what first person arrows, boomerang, and hook shoot look like.
Club Nintendo in Japan is giving the soundtrack away if they register their copy of WWHD within the timeframe. Im gonna need NoA to step their game up. I want that OST dammit.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/bczj/soundtrack/index.html
Iwata Asks: Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/wind-waker/0/0
summarization from Gaf
[/quote]
- Were well aware of the divisive opinions between Zelda fans for the original Wind Waker graphics.
- Also aware that as time passed more people began to like Toon Link.
- They’re aware of the “Zelda Cycle” with fans, no thanks to Bill Trinen, where negative opinions of a Zelda game slowly turn into positive ones in a year or two.
- At the time of the original release and development cycle, there was talk that the first half of the game was “divine” and the latter half not so much.
- “Zelda HD Experience”, the original Wii U tech demo, was made at Nintendo by EAD.
- Tinkered with data from other Zelda games, plugging them into Wii U to see how they’d look. Using similar shaders, they felt Wind Waker stood out the most.
- Very small team at Nintendo handled design, while high resolution assets were outsourced to external designers.
- Built software to help them convert GameCube model data to Wii U, so they didn’t have to mess around with the 3D models.
[/quote]
pulled funny moment from Iwata Asks
If they ever decided to revisit TP in the future and put the same amount of work into it that they did WW, I wouldn’t mind that. Since a small team was in charge of this project that probably didn’t effect Zelda Wii U’s dev time much which would explain why they said they were further along than they thought. The fact that Nintendo is aware of the ‘Zelda Cycle’ is interesting.
Re: that bit about the conversion tool, I wonder if they could use that to port other games, or if they designed it specifically for WW. It would be a waste if they only made it for the latter.
Wind Waker HD - Launch Trailer
Vid that shows the different expressions Link can have when taking selfies
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIUzgAnWmjY-8
Edit:
Also differences between playing the game using the pro controller and the Wii U pad
Game looks brighter. That’s about it.
Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD - Island Tour
KABOOOOM!!!
People are having a field day with the camera
Spoiler
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIVRhQUJlOQao
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIiY-MCgkymjT
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIUPNUHVCmhnU
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIccpokrhdARy
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIaXms_HiG8D2
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIWxHMKXAHkOb
https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzRIUH8MC31Q6yN
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAABAABnUgHq-CmR2w
last 2 actually weren’t taken with the picto box.
someone took it a step further and made a twitter account with Link that’s mildly entertaining. I did lol at the ‘getting stabbed and didn’t feel a thing’ tweet
https://twitter.com/linkstagram
Self bump. Anyone else think a first person zelda U could be good? Not sure it would incorporate the touch screen without feeling gimmicky though.
I’d probably rather not have a first person Zelda. I think part of the charm is seeing Link interact with the world around him. I’ll admit Retro did a good job with Metroid, but Samus is better fitted for first person with her different beams, and third person morph ball was awesome. But it was a little awkward with grapple beam and space jump. I generally don’t like first person as much as third person, but that’s just a personal preference. Maybe Nintendo could get creative with Zelda, but I say leave it third person and spend more time making a bad ass environment to explore.
Aonuma posted this on Miiverse today
Majora’s Mask spotted hanging on a wall in someone’s house in Link Between Two Worlds.
It could work certainly…but I will admit to having 0 interest at all in a FPS Zelda game.
Whoever wrote this might be a little confused…
I’ve been playing the remake of Wind Waker so far and really enjoying the small changes they’ve made here and there. The only nitpick I can have is the cel shaded style definitely breaks when Link is getting an item out of chest, otherwise it looks great to me. Playing this game on Hero Mode is far more difficult than I initially thought it would be…Getting hit is even more a no go since there won’t be any hearts to replenish you at any point. Any damage you take will stay with you unless you find a fairy or have potion on you and careless hits from enemies will add up quickly. Once I have access to the fairy fountains I’m sure it’ll be a bit easier but right now it’s a lesson in pain. I’ve never before been so afraid of a Moblin waking up with an uppercut after knocking him down. They better make sure to have Hero Mode available from the beginning for Zelda Wii U.
The increased draw distance in this game is nice too. You can pretty much be on any island in the game and survey the surrounding ocean and be able to spot the nearby islands in the distance. There’s a small bit of noticable pop in because of the draw distance now. The enemy posts that litter the area you’ll see appear out of thin air even if they’re way far away.
Anyone else enjoying sailing on the HD seas?
That he is…and apparently nobody has corrected him since I see an article on the left side that states again the 3DS game as a Wii U game.
It could be worse though…he could state that Zelda is classist, sexist, and racist
only read if you want to ‘not live on this planet anymore’. or if you want to read it without giving them clicks then
Spoiler
“The Legend of Zelda” is classist, sexist and racist
The beloved game takes a dim view of workers, people of color and women
By Jon Hochschartner
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the release of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” Critics frequently laud the Nintendo 64 title as the greatest video game ever. And yet the ways it deals with class, race, gender and animal rights are all deeply problematic.
Some readers may take criticism of “Ocarina” as dismissal of the game. But this isn’t the case. As Feminist Frequency blogger Anita Sarkeesian says, “Remember that it’s both possible and even necessary to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.”
Because games’ technological capabilities have increased so rapidly since “Ocarina” was released, I suspect the title’s reputation is somewhat inflated due to nostalgia of critics of a certain age. But it’s a nostalgia I share. There is no game with which I have more fond memories. So criticism here should be interpreted as loyal opposition.
The game’s perspective on class issues can best be seen in its portrayal of the Kakariko carpenters and the wealthy family in the House of Skulltulla.
The relationship between the self-described “boss” of the carpenters and those he calls “my workers,” appears to be one of a guild member and apprentices or journeymen. The boss refers to himself as a master craftsman, and says the workers were hired by the royal family to improve the village. Karl Marx described this relationship as one of “oppressor and oppressed,” comparing it to that of “freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, (and) lord and serf.”
“Ocarina” portrays the apprentices or journeymen as lazy and shiftless, and the boss as the only one willing to work. “Young men these days don’t have any ambition,” the boss says. “Do you know what I mean, kid? My workers are just running aimlessly around the village, and they’re not making any progress at all … Even my own son doesn’t have a job, and he just wanders around all day! They’re all worthless, I tell you!”
Some may interpret the fate of the wealthy family, who are transformed into spiderlike creatures, in the House of Skulltulla as a condemnation of an exploitive class system, but that would be a mistake.
“Folks around here tell of a fabulously rich family that once lived in one of the houses in this village,” an elderly character in Kakariko confides. “But they say that the entire family was cursed due to their greed! Who knows what might happen to those who are consumed by greed.”
By focusing on the greed of individuals, the game ignores how private property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior. And with this moralizing focus comes a belief that society’s economic ills are intractable because of humanity’s flawed nature.
The racial, ethnic and religious traits of the “good characters” and the “bad characters” within the game also demonstrate a certain xenophobia. All of the good characters, such as the Hylians and Kokiri, are white. In contrast, all of the bad characters, such as the thieving Gerudo and their king, Ganondorf, have brown skin. The Gerudo live in the desert, and in case it wasn’t clear what real-life group of people they are based on, the original Gerudo symbol is strongly reminiscent of the Islamic star and crescent.
The title’s perspective on sex is arguably summarized in an advertisement for “Ocarina,” which asks, “Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?” The game utilizes a damsel-in-distress trope that suggests women are weak and in need of male protection. Just like in every other game in the series, Princess Zelda is incapacitated and in need of rescue from the central character, Link. The repeated use of this sexist cliché helps to, as Sarkeesian says, “normalize extremely toxic, patronizing, and paternalistic attitudes.”
For a portion of the game’s plot, Zelda is represented as an imposing warrior. But, as Sarkeesian points out, she is only able to achieve this disguised as a man and she’s kidnapped within minutes of revealing her true identity.
Sure, Link is also at times injured or captured. At one point, for instance, he’s locked in a Gerudo jail cell. But, as Sarkeesian says, Link, and male protagonists in general, usually get themselves out of the situation. And that ability to overcome obstacles is integral to their development as heroic characters.
Link also rescues other female characters who arguably fall into damsel trope, such as Saria, a friend from his Kokiri childhood, and Ruto, princess of the aquatic Zoras.
The game’s representation of animals is best displayed in the idyllic Lon Lon Ranch, a small farm operated by a human father-daughter duo. Entering the location, “Epona’s Song,” a tranquil and nostalgic piece by composer Koji Kondo, plays in the background. The wistful choice in music isn’t surprising, given widespread yearning by industrialized human populations for a recently abandoned, romanticized pastoralism.
From the perspective of domesticated animals, agriculture of the past was a gentler prospect than the modern, factory-farm system. But for non-humans the pre-industrial farm, as symbolized by Lon Lon Ranch, was still a place of exploitation and violence, where their lives, in general, would be significantly shorter and more circumscribed than those of their nearest, wild cousins.
But in the game, domestication is portrayed as a mutually beneficial, voluntary arrangement. The anthropomorphized cows of Hyrule speak to Link, literally saying, “Have some of my refreshing and nutritious milk!” Of course depicting a relationship as anything like symbiotic when one party kills and eats the other, as well as the latter’s children, would be laughable if it weren’t so appalling.
On this 15th anniversary of the game’s release, I encourage readers to dust off their Nintendo 64 and return to Hyrule. Hike up Death Mountain. Swim in Lake Hylia. Explore the Lost Woods. “Ocarina” is a fantastic piece of art we can enjoy while being aware that, like so much other art, it has a lot of problems.
Good Lord! That’s just ludicrous!