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[PKrockin]

With a super fast intro, skippable cutscenes, and the open-ended gameplay, I can't wait to see a speed run of this game in SGDQ 2017 or AGDQ 2018. Watching WW, TP, and SS speed runs put me to sleep but BotW looks like it'll be a lot more fun for runners and viewers.

 

[phanphare]

Seems pretty clear to me that the actual shape of the model is a boar head, though there are a couple times the silhouette of the upper jaw looks a little like a person.

very cool

looks like depending on how it's formed the dots switch between eyes and nostrils

 

[Shaldome]

I could have sworn I saw a tip for fishing in the Treehouse demo during one of the load screens

Only about a day late, but I made a screen shot from the fishing tip in the loading screen. I found it in the Ninetdo Minute after the Day 2 Tree house stream, starting at around 7:50:00:

The other noteworthy Tip was this:

 

[mugwhump]

Does anyone know if you can end the slowmo for the flurry attack early? It seems to keep going even after the enemy is already dead or out of range. Will it end if you break the lock-on?

 

[kinaesthete]

Finally back from a crazy E3 week and was fortunate to have gotten my hands on the Zelda demo! I went straight for the Nintendo booth first thing Tuesday morning, which was a great decision since otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten a chance to do it again for the rest of the show, the lines filled up so much faster on days 2 and 3. After I think 3 and a half hours of waiting in line, our group finally got into the (insanely impressive) inner booth and assigned to a kiosk. Beforehand I had only seen the trailer on my phone, some snippets on twitter, and a bit from walking by Treehouse Live during Aonuma's section. Going in semi-fresh was clearly the best way to first experience it, I was able to independently discover a lot of the little tricks and interplay shown and it felt FANTASTIC, and seeing that I only scratched the surface with the things found in 35 minutes I had is incredible. And only a tiny tiny part of the whole game has been shown... A fella from Treehouse picked me out to interview after my session, he said there might be an impressions reel put together with interviews. Doubt he used mine though cause I was really babbly and incoherent for the whole thing lol.

I'll keep my hands-on impressions brief and limited to things that aren't clear just by watching the hours of footage. The controls are pretty good, they feel close to the last few 3D Zeldas with the exception of the lockon, which had trouble registering sometimes. I do like that locking on doesn't put you square behind Link and lets the camera float around a bit, something Skyward Sword couldn't do out of necessity but leads to more dynamic camera angles here. Gyro aiming is in but didn't feel great in most instances I used it, that kind of aiming really needs at least a steady 30FPS which the demo certainly never had, especially when enemies were active. It's good in the 3DS remakes so fixing the framerate should help with that. Melee combat also feels like an extention of what Twilight Princess had going on, lots of little moves and flourishes you can do. The trademark hitpause is weird in BotW, it's more of a hitslowdown, and just has the effect of making the animations look a bit off. Death/knockdown animations could also use some work, they're clearly hybrids of canned animation and ragdolling but they could stand to lean a bit towards the former, at least at the start. I ended up finding the Magnesis shrine during the first demo where it was already "cleared" (no monk at the end) and it was completely reset. Unsurprising, but good to know in case you want to go back and replay shrines using different techniques.

It's hard to not write some crazy sounding hyperbole about how good this game is going to be when what they've shown makes every suggestion that BotW is going to be The Best Game, the missing Link between finely tuned Japanese action adventure game design and the breadth of interplay and player creativity of western immersive sims we saw a little bit of in MGSV. Chances are it'll be the greatest meeting of eastern and western ideals and techniques since Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a marriage that many would scoff at but for me, it's the most logical direction for big action sandbox games to go. Ocarina of Time came out at just the right time for me (played when I was 10) and I naively assumed that Breath of the Wild is where the series would naturally go from there. Obviously the Zelda team thought different from me and the series was actually about solving bespoke puzzles and not going on a grand adventure of discovery through huge forests, fields, perilous temples. I like the post-N64 Zeldas but they never went in a direction I was satisfied with, that itch was scratched partially by games like Morrowind and later on the Souls series. It feels like that circle is finally closing, like Aonuma and co interviewed me specifically before starting production on this asking what it would take to get this series back on top and they listened to like 95% of what I said and knocked it out of the park. If Splatoon (best Nintendo game in like 15 years) and BotW are any indication of where this new Nintendo is going then the NX is going to have the best library of any console they've done so far.

I do have some small notes, gripes, and wishlist things, based on how much my expectations were shattered by this reveal most if it will probably make it in:

• Having to consume food from the pause menu sucks. Just about everything else in the game occurs as a real-time simulation, including crafting, and equippables can be changed from a quick-menu and have animations associated with them. Food should be on a quick-menu too and have an animation associated with it. I can see this getting really annoying and flow breaking during difficult fights where you might want to heal up but have go to into a full screen pause menu to do it.
• One thing I unconditionally love in the series Link's Awakening and on is the great cast of weirdo NPCs and their interactions. I would definitely miss their presence here, despite liking the feeling of being alone in a ruined and desolate Hyrule. Having small pockets of quirky NPCs dotted around would probably enhance that feeling, actually.
• They probably exist, but I really want to see some big underground areas! And I don't mean shrines and dungeons, but underground areas as an extention of the overworld like Goron City or just some no-load cavern systems around Death Mountain or something. Having areas with the same level of crazy interactivity but in tighter spaces sounds great. Also, Link can carry torches so make that shit dark too.
• Lots of the viral gifs and stuff are of Link doing psycho stuff like burning grass or punting dudes heads off of cliffs. It's good to see that the actions available to Link support the idea that some of his main personality traits are being an arsonist who has no regard for property (nicely written into Skyward Sword a bit), but removing the part of his personality where he's a complete idiot that needs to be led around by the nose all the time. He's basically a bishie Doomguy now, waking up from a long slumber in a coffin and all.

Thanks Chaos17 and MiamiWesker for the great OP and posts and thanks to everyone who made gifs so I can easily send them to someone if they wrongly say that this isn't going to be mankind's greatest achievement in the interactive mediums.

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

There's like 1-2 seconds in-between the light from the castle flaring up and him falling apart. Doesn't need to be simultaneous. Seems obviously related to me.

If the nostrils are the eyes, then he never changes, but he can still be both at the same time. A "demon" Ganon laying on his back (not saying phantom Ganon) and a "dragon" Ganon, you know, like the illusions where you see an old lady or a young woman at the same time. The eye placement on the nostrils seems a bit weird if it isn't to make a combination. Anyway, who knows, that's what it looks like to me.

Sorry, I didn't mean the light wasn't related. I misinterpreted what you were saying. I thought you were saying that the lower jaw disintegrates first, leaving the part people think looks human to disintegrate after.

Still don't think there's any actual human shape in there. I have a pretty good idea of the rough shape of the model due to how the silhouette changes. I'm almost tempted to draw it out at this point, lol.

I guess the summary of why I'm stuck on this is that the three-dimensional shape is very clearly a boar head, while the "human" shape comes exclusively from silhouette. One of those arguments is far stronger than the other, I think.

very cool

looks like depending on how it's formed the dots switch between eyes and nostrils

Nah, they're always eyes. There's a definite snout in front of them.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Only about a day late, but I made a screen shot from the fishing tip in the loading screen. I found it in the Ninetdo Minute after the Day 2 Tree house stream, starting at around 7:50:00:

The other noteworthy Tip was this:

Wow, thanks for posting these! I'm still learning new things about this game. Holy hell.

 

[Chopper]

Wow, thanks for posting these! I'm still learning new things about this game. Holy hell.

I get the feeling that we'll be learning things about this game months after release!

 

[Smellycat]

Finally back from a crazy E3 week and was fortunate to have gotten my hands on the Zelda demo! I went straight for the Nintendo booth first thing Tuesday morning, which was a great decision since otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten a chance to do it again for the rest of the show, the lines filled up so much faster on days 2 and 3. After I think 3 and a half hours of waiting in line, our group finally got into the (insanely impressive) inner booth and assigned to a kiosk. Beforehand I had only seen the trailer on my phone, some snippets on twitter, and a bit from walking by Treehouse Live during Aonuma's section. Going in semi-fresh was clearly the best way to first experience it, I was able to independently discover a lot of the little tricks and interplay shown and it felt FANTASTIC, and seeing that I only scratched the surface with the things found in 35 minutes I had is incredible. And only a tiny tiny part of the whole game has been shown... A fella from Treehouse picked me out to interview after my session, he said there might be an impressions reel put together with interviews. Doubt he used mine though cause I was really babbly and incoherent for the whole thing lol.

I'll keep my hands-on impressions brief and limited to things that aren't clear just by watching the hours of footage. The controls are pretty good, they feel close to the last few 3D Zeldas with the exception of the lockon, which had trouble registering sometimes. I do like that locking on doesn't put you square behind Link and lets the camera float around a bit, something Skyward Sword couldn't do out of necessity but leads to more dynamic camera angles here. Gyro aiming is in but didn't feel great in most instances I used it, that kind of aiming really needs at least a steady 30FPS which the demo certainly never had, especially when enemies were active. It's good in the 3DS remakes so fixing the framerate should help with that. Melee combat also feels like an extention of what Twilight Princess had going on, lots of little moves and flourishes you can do. The trademark hitpause is weird in BotW, it's more of a hitslowdown, and just has the effect of making the animations look a bit off. Death/knockdown animations could also use some work, they're clearly hybrids of canned animation and ragdolling but they could stand to lean a bit towards the former, at least at the start. I ended up finding the Magnesis shrine during the first demo where it was already "cleared" (no monk at the end) and it was completely reset. Unsurprising, but good to know in case you want to go back and replay shrines using different techniques.

It's hard to not write some crazy sounding hyperbole about how good this game is going to be when what they've shown makes every suggestion that BotW is going to be The Best Game, the missing Link between finely tuned Japanese action adventure game design and the breadth of interplay and player creativity of western immersive sims we saw a little bit of in MGSV. Chances are it'll be the greatest meeting of eastern and western ideals and techniques since Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a marriage that many would scoff at but for me, it's the most logical direction for big action sandbox games to go. Ocarina of Time came out at just the right time for me (played when I was 10) and I naively assumed that Breath of the Wild is where the series would naturally go from there. Obviously the Zelda team thought different from me and the series was actually about solving bespoke puzzles and not going on a grand adventure of discovery through huge forests, fields, perilous temples. I like the post-N64 Zeldas but they never went in a direction I was satisfied with, that itch was scratched partially by games like Morrowind and later on the Souls series. It feels like that circle is finally closing, like Aonuma and co interviewed me specifically before starting production on this asking what it would take to get this series back on top and they listened to like 95% of what I said and knocked it out of the park. If Splatoon (best Nintendo game in like 15 years) and BotW are any indication of where this new Nintendo is going then the NX is going to have the best library of any console they've done so far.

I do have some small notes, gripes, and wishlist things, based on how much my expectations were shattered by this reveal most if it will probably make it in:

• Having to consume food from the pause menu sucks. Just about everything else in the game occurs as a real-time simulation, including crafting, and equippables can be changed from a quick-menu and have animations associated with them. Food should be on a quick-menu too and have an animation associated with it. I can see this getting really annoying and flow breaking during difficult fights where you might want to heal up but have go to into a full screen pause menu to do it.
• One thing I unconditionally love in the series Link's Awakening and on is the great cast of weirdo NPCs and their interactions. I would definitely miss their presence here, despite liking the feeling of being alone in a ruined and desolate Hyrule. Having small pockets of quirky NPCs dotted around would probably enhance that feeling, actually.
• They probably exist, but I really want to see some big underground areas! And I don't mean shrines and dungeons, but underground areas as an extention of the overworld like Goron City or just some no-load cavern systems around Death Mountain or something. Having areas with the same level of crazy interactivity but in tighter spaces sounds great. Also, Link can carry torches so make that shit dark too.
• Lots of the viral gifs and stuff are of Link doing psycho stuff like burning grass or punting dudes heads off of cliffs. It's good to see that the actions available to Link support the idea that some of his main personality traits are being an arsonist who has no regard for property (nicely written into Skyward Sword a bit), but removing the part of his personality where he's a complete idiot that needs to be led around by the nose all the time. He's basically a bishie Doomguy now, waking up from a long slumber in a coffin and all.

Thanks Chaos17 and MiamiWesker for the great OP and posts and thanks to everyone who made gifs so I can easily send them to someone if they wrongly say that this isn't going to be mankind's greatest achievement in the interactive mediums.

Thanks for the write up!!! Glad you enjoyed the game

 

[Springfoot]

Seems pretty clear to me that the actual shape of the model is a boar head, though there are a couple times the silhouette of the upper jaw looks a little like a person.

Great paintover, I had seen stills and thought the glowing dots were Phantom Ganon eyes, but it's pretty clear they're positioned almost like nostrils (or tiny close-set eyes?) on the top of the boar/snake/dragon head. If they were Phantom Ganon's eyes, then there are parts where he's moving backwards and lying down in bizarre ways.

I don't. It looks like a fairly simple rendering, actually, of a single, relatively static model (outside of the jaw hinge) with a surface shader, obscured by particle effects (or whatever you do clouds with). Zelda does a ton of its magic effects this way if you watch closely.

Agreed, it's artistically terrific but the tech behind the effect is likely very straightforward using a mixture of ribbon planes with scrolling textures along with a healthy dose of additional particles to break up the silhouette and add flyaway details.

For anyone who's interested, here's a page from a site that examines various videogame effects that goes over a very similar technique used in Diablo 3 for the angel wings.

 

[Choppasmith]

Can't wait to see actual characters in this game. Your new friends, foes, Ganon... ZELDA. I'm sure she will look majestic here!

Agreed, you also have to wonder what they'll SOUND like given the addition of voice acting.

Also, hopefully we'll get to see finally see the Zelda characters in Smash updated with these new designs. Wonder if they'll be just model updates, or if we'll get to see updated movesets to reflect this game. Kinda off topic there sorry. But yeah, I'm excited to see the big three all together.

 

[MajorMane]

Agreed, you also have to wonder what they'll SOUND like given the addition of voice acting.

The voice we hear in the trailer is Zelda's. Or at least that's my bet.

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

The voice we hear in the trailer is Zelda's. Or at least that's my bet.

Virtually guaranteed. There's direct feed of the cutscene atop Resurrection Tower out there, and if you listen closely, there's a subtle use of Zelda's Lullaby after she finishes speaking.

 

[Luigiv]

The voice we hear in the trailer is Zelda's. Or at least that's my bet.

Yeah, but she won't be the only one in the final game. Major characters will all be voiced.

 

[MajorMane]

Virtually guaranteed. There's direct feed of the cutscene atop Resurrection Tower out there, and if you listen closely, there's a subtle use of Zelda's Lullaby after she finishes speaking.

Now the real questions is WHICH Zelda is it? But I'll leave that for another thread...

Yeah, but she won't be the only one in the final game. Major characters will all be voiced.

Right, I was only commenting on the voice of Zelda. If that is any indication though, I'm expecting good voice acting.

 

[Luigiv]

I know it's Zelda so a few goofy character designs are expected but I'm hoping casual villagers/friends aren't as absurd as Skyward Sword designs

I hope that they are. Skyward Sword has some crazy cool NPC designs (though it is a little inconsistent at times).

Right, I was only commenting on the voice of Zelda. If that is any indication though, I'm expecting good voice acting.

Fair enough.

 

[chadboban]

Woah, got mixed up with this thread and the other one. May as well post my gifs here too

Some pitchfork action.

Also, I love how the club misses but the fire still touches the shield and it catches fire in this one.

 

[Choppasmith]

The voice we hear in the trailer is Zelda's. Or at least that's my bet.

Yeah, that's my bet too, I mostly mean when the final game comes out and we hear (at least Ganon and Zelda) together.

I've said elsewhere, but man assuming that is Zelda (again, I'm SURE it is but when I showed my sister the trailer she said "What if it's Navi?"), they really picked a great voice actress. The accent gives her a nice mix of regal and a sort of other worldly fantasy vibe to it. Of course, hard to judge when we've only heard so little.

 

[skypunch]

Now the real questions is WHICH Zelda is it? But I'll leave that for another thread...



Right, I was only commenting on the voice of Zelda. If that is any indication though, I'm expecting good voice acting.

What I heard sounds really good. The fact that it is British voice acting makes me really, really happy.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Only about a day late, but I made a screen shot from the fishing tip in the loading screen. I found it in the Ninetdo Minute after the Day 2 Tree house stream, starting at around 7:50:00:

The other noteworthy Tip was this:

Man, this really is just Wind Waker on land. Lol

 

[Zombegoast]

Only about a day late, but I made a screen shot from the fishing tip in the loading screen. I found it in the Ninetdo Minute after the Day 2 Tree house stream, starting at around 7:50:00:

https://abload.de/img/zelda_notw_fishing_tizeudi.jpg[IMG]

[/QUOTE]

You're telling me this game has fish AI?

 

[skypunch]

Yeah, that's my bet too, I mostly mean when the final game comes out and we hear (at least Ganon and Zelda) together.

I've said elsewhere, but man assuming that is Zelda (again, I'm SURE it is but when I showed my sister the trailer she said "What if it's Navi?"), they really picked a great voice actress. The accent gives her a nice mix of regal and a sort of other worldly fantasy vibe to it. Of course, hard to judge when we've only heard so little.

It's dat British voice magic. I'm so glad Nintendo went with a British voice actress.

 

[RK9039]

Man, this really is just Wind Waker on land. Lol

Yeah sounds awesome.

They need to release a demo of this game. I can't wait anymore.

 

[BY2K]

Only about a day late, but I made a screen shot from the fishing tip in the loading screen. I found it in the Ninetdo Minute after the Day 2 Tree house stream, starting at around 7:50:00:

The other noteworthy Tip was this:

Man, I hope it's not bird shit...

 

[zeldablue]

Death/knockdown animations could also use some work, they're clearly hybrids of canned animation and ragdolling but they could stand to lean a bit towards the former, at least at the start.

Lol...It's very jarring to see Link ragdoll after he dies. Oof. It's a very strange mix of hilarious and heart-breaking.

 

[SweetDonuts]

Are we assuming everything Zelda/Ganon says will be fully voice acted? and not just bits and pieces?. I was against VA at first but Zelda sounds awesome, so I hope it's more than just a few words here and there.

 

[Übermatik]

It's dat British voice magic. I'm so glad Nintendo went with a British voice actress.

Likewise. I hope the other voice sin game follow suite, either British or European. Heck, just not American... sorry!

 

[gamerMan]

Likewise. I hope the other voice sin game follow suite, either British or European. Heck, just not American... sorry!

I totally forgot about the voice acting. It's so natural that you don't even notice it. It's perfect. I wonder if there is any facial animation in the game.

 

[BY2K]

British feels more appropriate for a fantasy setting.

 

[watershed]

I'm sure this has been discussed already but on this gameexplain video we can clearly hear some music for this fight (I assume it's some kind of min-boss theme). Gives a better idea for the kind of music we can expect in game. This particular piece of music seems to have a sense of fun to it. And the piano is still very present.

https://youtu.be/jPgtJKZS0cM?t=2m58s

 

[KingBroly]

Man, I hope it's not bird shit...

That Bird Shit has awakened AN ANCIENT EVIL!!!


I'm fine with a British/Royal sounding Zelda voice. It also makes sense because of Game of Thrones being popular.

 

[Choppasmith]

It's dat British voice magic. I'm so glad Nintendo went with a British voice actress.

I'm really hoping they go with SIDE (Dragon Quest games, the first Xenoblade game) they'd be a great mix of talent, unique and not instantly recognizable, and should be easy to reprise for games like Smash or even Hyrule Warriors. When it's come to voice acting in a Zelda game, it's always been my dream choice.

 

[zeldablue]

This is the most ridiculous death I've seen so far.

They straight up threw a giant explosive barrel at Link. Point blank.

 

[skypunch]

I'm really hoping they go with SIDE (Dragon Quest games, the first Xenoblade game) they'd be a great mix of talent, unique and not instantly recognizable, and should be easy to reprise for games like Smash or even Hyrule Warriors. When it's come to voice acting in a Zelda game, it's always been my dream choice.

Hell yeah, SIDE UK are awesome. They're my favourite localisation team.

 

[Zekes!]

I wondered this in another thread but watching some gameplay I notice that Link just does the same horizontal slashes repeatedly so I wonder if you're still able to change the direction he slashes/stabs in by tilting the analog stick?

 

[klov]

This is the most ridiculous death I've seen so far.

They straight up threw a giant explosive barrel at Link. Point blank.

I want this game in me now.

 

[menacin]

slight ragdoll effect on link is cool

 

[mStudios]

MIYAGOD AONUGOD

Bless the team who built the physic engine.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Likewise. I hope the other voice sin game follow suite, either British or European. Heck, just not American... sorry!

Fantasy fans are the biggest Anglophiles out there for some reason. I could do without british accents for everything

 

[OricWindstar]

Is TGS the next time we're probably going to hear more about this?

 

[DeviousAngel]

There's something just so relaxing and magical about the intro to the game... that scene where

Spoiler

Link wakes up to the voice in the resurrection chamber and finds his way out to an amazing vista

; or the one where

Spoiler

the towers rise and then the voice speaks to you atop the starting tower

. It gives me chills... it's so well-constructed. And it feels so different from Zelda yet so... familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZj8q9PqzzY

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Is TGS the next time we're probably going to hear more about this?

Probably whenever Nintendo reveals the NX. They don't attend TGS.

 

[tareqsalah1]

This game single handedly made me decide to purchase the nx on release day. If this is the first game on the nx i cant wait to see nx mario, kirby, splatoon, smash and donkey kong.

Nintendo u had me as a child and will always do untill i die.

 

[OricWindstar]

Probably whenever Nintendo reveals the NX. They don't attend TGS.

I thought I had heard they were this year, possibly for the NX, but I must have misheard.

 

[skypunch]

This game single handedly made me decide to purchase the nx on release day. If this is the first game on the nx i cant wait to see nx mario, kirby, splatoon, smash and donkey kong.

Nintendo u had me as a child and will always do untill i die.

And NX Xenoblade.

 

[TheCongressman1]

The more I think about the slowmo flurry attack prompt, the more I think that I should just try not to dodge anything. It's going to get old very fast, I can feel it. They need to make it a normal prompt without the slowdown.

 

[Omega Kirby]

This is the most ridiculous death I've seen so far.

They straight up threw a giant explosive barrel at Link. Point blank.

Jesus, this zelda might not be a cakewalk like the previous ones after all

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Jesus, this zelda might not be a cakewalk like the previous ones after all

Definitely not.

 

[Deleted member 465307]

Also, I love how the club misses but the fire still touches the shield and it catches fire in this one.

I don't think you can see it well in this gif, but my favorite aspect of the scene that gif was made from (I think it was that scene) is that each time the Bokoblin swings, it melts the bit of snow that the club came closest to.

 

[Piscus]

Definitely not.

You remember this gif where Chiko throws the sword and then picks it up with the magnet move and tries to hit the guardian with it?

My friend and I had beaten the rock golem the day before, so we wanted to get to this area to defeat a guardian. I found the place, but regardless of how many arrows and weapons I had, I couldn't seem to do enough damage and knew I wouldn't be able to beat it before the time ran out. My friend decided to go explore the area in his game, and he found a giant metal door down in a ditch near the end of the plateau. Using the magnet move, he picked it up, hauled it over to the guardian, and, hiding behind the wall, bashed it over the guardian's head over and over until it died. I followed suit, opting to whack the door horizontally back and forth into the guardian (it kinda ended up looking like that middle finger gif that swirls around the guy's face). I wish we had gotten footage of it. It was hilarious. And awesome!