• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Zelda Wii U - Recap of 5 hours gameplay stream

http://kotaku.com/fans-are-already-trying-to-place-breath-of-the-wild-on-1782089318

At a group Q&A with reporters on Sunday, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma was asked where the game fit into the franchise timeline. Aonuma said he didn’t want to say much about the story at the moment but said he’d stare a hint. He noted that that the t-shirt he was wearing showed the symbol for the Sheikah stones and that it was the same one from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. (In Breath of the Wild, the reawakened Link uses a high-tech item called the “Sheikah slate”). Aonuma also reminded people that, at the start of this game, Link is told he’s been asleep for 100 years. “He teased: “You can decide what this means.”

The Sheikah symbol has been in many games, so to specify OoT and the also mention Link has been asleep for 100 years as a hint when asked where in the timeline the game takes place seems like a strong indication that it's 100 years after OoT. The Hero of Time is famous for sleeping 7 years and getting defeated by Ganon in the Fallen Hero timeline would be good reason for his 100 year nap.

Thanks for the source. I do think it's likely that Breath of the Wild takes place 100 years after Ocarina of Time in the Fallen Hero timeline. Granted it's possible that Aonuma name dropped Ocarina of Time because it was the first game to feature the Shiekah Symbol.
 

RagnarokX

Member
Thanks for the source. I do think it's likely that Breath of the Wild takes place 100 years after Ocarina of Time in the Fallen Hero timeline. Granted it's possible that Aonuma name dropped Ocarina of Time because it was the first game to feature the Shiekah Symbol.

He mentioned it specifically as a hint to the timeline placement, though. That's what makes it more significant.
 

Kinokou

Member
With presumably a hundred sheikah monks residing in the shrines I would love to see a town populated with non monk Sheikah.
 

skypunch

Banned
I wonder which team started programming the physics engine? Zelda was delayed because they began implementing a physics engine. Perhaps it was Monolith Soft? I hope they use the physics engine for the next Xenoblade.
 

Bagu

Member
Open world wouldn't work for Metroid, at least not this sort of huge expansive open world.
The engine's level streaming tech can be used to in place of slow doors and transition halls from the old Prime games. Also sweet ass morph ball physics
 

TheMoon

Member
After watching live gameplay at the Nintendo world store today I can say it looks way better in person than on the streams and YouTube videos.

Why do we go through this cycle every E3.

Person watching stream: "ugh, looks washed out"
Person playing actual demo/watching first hand demo on TV: "whoa looks so much better!"

Every year, guys.
 

KingBroly

Banned
Why do we go through this cycle every E3.

Person watching stream: "ugh, looks washed out"
Person playing actual demo/watching first hand demo on TV: "whoa looks so much better!"

Every year, guys.

People at the show said it looked washed out


On Metroid: Open world is basically a giant fuck you to Metroid, since Metroid is all about its' level design.
 
Open world wouldn't work for Metroid, at least not this sort of huge expansive open world.
Metroid is an open world game with gated progression. Isn't it?

Samus with a basic set of abilities exploring an expansive area with no guidence, doesn't sound like a bad concept. Certainly a lot more interesting than aproximating the game to an FPS like Retro progressively did with the Prime series.

Emphasis on traversal, enviroment navigation and physic based puzzles. Some of the aspects that the Zelda team is pioritizing now, i think it could revitalize the Metroid series or at least a concept worth considering.
 

TheMoon

Member
Metroid is an open world game with gated progression. Isn't it?

Samus with a basic set of abilities exploring an expansive area with no guidence, doesn't sound like a bad concept. Certainly a lot more interesting than aproximating the game to an FPS like Retro progressively did with the Prime series.

Emphasis on traversal, enviroment navigation and physic based puzzles. Some of the aspects that the Zelda team is pioritizing now, i think it could revitalize the Metroid series or at least a concept worth considering.

Yup, it would make perfect sense. Though obviously it would have to be a vertical mostly interior open world, not a largely horizontal landscape.
 

khaaan

Member
I'm telling you guys...Ocarina Of Time Link pulls the Master Sword and instead of waking up after 7 years by Rauru, something happened and that's why he ends up waking up 100 years later.
 

Majukun

Member
http://kotaku.com/fans-are-already-trying-to-place-breath-of-the-wild-on-1782089318

At a group Q&A with reporters on Sunday, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma was asked where the game fit into the franchise timeline. Aonuma said he didn’t want to say much about the story at the moment but said he’d stare a hint. He noted that that the t-shirt he was wearing showed the symbol for the Sheikah stones and that it was the same one from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. (In Breath of the Wild, the reawakened Link uses a high-tech item called the “Sheikah slate”). Aonuma also reminded people that, at the start of this game, Link is told he’s been asleep for 100 years. “He teased: “You can decide what this means.”

The Sheikah symbol has been in many games, so to specify OoT and the also mention Link has been asleep for 100 years as a hint when asked where in the timeline the game takes place seems like a strong indication that it's 100 years after OoT. The Hero of Time is famous for sleeping 7 years and getting defeated by Ganon in the Fallen Hero timeline would be good reason for his 100 year nap.

well,the timeline split starts with ocarina,so it being past ocarina fdoesn't change match..even the 100 year limit doesn't say much since we have no time reference for the other chapters of the series
 

KingBroly

Banned
Kinda wonder what'd happen if you led an enemy or two over to the Old Man.

Would he cower in fear or would he beat the living hell out of them?
 

TheMoon

Member
Kinda wonder what'd happen if you led an enemy or two over to the Old Man.

Would he cower in fear or would he beat the living hell out of them?

He spends his day gliding around the plateau and chopping trees, what do you think he'll do with that axe Link steals? He's gonna fuck shit up. That Steppe Talus fucker? Guess why he's hiding.
 
The genre for this game is Open-Air Adventure. I think that's a new one. It speaks to the gliding around the game a lot and I could see you having a way to eventually fly around the map.
 

Caelus

Member
100 years have passed and Zelda is beginning to lose the battle. Link is awoken from his slumber and sets out on a quest to activate Sheikah technology that can be used to weaken Ganon and allow him to be sealed completely

Will they explain how he became right-handed? Or was the Hero of Time always ambidextrous :p
 

RagnarokX

Member
I'm telling you guys...Ocarina Of Time Link pulls the Master Sword and instead of waking up after 7 years by Rauru, something happened and that's why he ends up waking up 100 years later.
Ganon has to defeat Link, though. He has to take the triforce of courage from him.

well,the timeline split starts with ocarina,so it being past ocarina fdoesn't change match..even the 100 year limit doesn't say much since we have no time reference for the other chapters of the series
It wouldn't make sense to say "This symbol is from OoT and btw Link has been asleep for 100 years, make of that what you will" as hint if those things didn't go together. Saying the sheikah symbol is from OoT by itself is no hint and saying Link was asleep is no hint.

Will they explain how he became right-handed? Or was the Hero of Time always ambidextrous :p

Aomuma was asked why Link is right handed in BotW and he said it was purely a gameplay decision.

Link has been ambidextrous before, though. He switches hands in LoZ, AoL, ALttP, etc depending on the direction he's facing.
 

Hobbun

Member
http://kotaku.com/fans-are-already-trying-to-place-breath-of-the-wild-on-1782089318

At a group Q&A with reporters on Sunday, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma was asked where the game fit into the franchise timeline. Aonuma said he didn’t want to say much about the story at the moment but said he’d stare a hint. He noted that that the t-shirt he was wearing showed the symbol for the Sheikah stones and that it was the same one from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. (In Breath of the Wild, the reawakened Link uses a high-tech item called the “Sheikah slate”). Aonuma also reminded people that, at the start of this game, Link is told he’s been asleep for 100 years. “He teased: “You can decide what this means.”

The Sheikah symbol has been in many games, so to specify OoT and the also mention Link has been asleep for 100 years as a hint when asked where in the timeline the game takes place seems like a strong indication that it's 100 years after OoT. The Hero of Time is famous for sleeping 7 years and getting defeated by Ganon in the Fallen Hero timeline would be good reason for his 100 year nap.

It’s been awhile since I’ve played OoT. But when was the Fallen Hero timeline established?

I thought Link was put into stasis for 7 years as he was too young to defeat Ganon. But while he was gone, Ganon conquered Hyrule. But now with Link grown up, after waking out of his stasis, he defeats Ganon and Zelda and the six sages sealed him back in the Sacred Realm.

When did Link fall? To set up this 100 year sleep?
 

Yonafunu

Member
It’s been awhile since I’ve played OoT. But when was the Fallen Hero timeline established?

I thought Link was put into stasis for 7 years as he was too young to defeat Ganon. But while he was gone, Ganon conquered Hyrule. But now with Link grown up, after waking out of his stasis, he defeats Ganon and Zelda and the six sages sealed him back in the Sacred Realm.

When did Link fall? To set up this 100 year sleep?

The Fallen Hero Timeline was established in Hyrule Historia.

18j0yyebco7eqjpg.jpg
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
I liked 90% of what I played at E3 and am looking forward to the game, but I do have one issue. Unlike in previous Zelda games, where you gain an important item after beating a dungeon or major boss or whatever, in BotW, you can just simply roam around the world and find these things. I do understand that if you have an open world Zelda, where you can do anything you want in pretty much any order, that this is the only logical way to make such a game work. But by doing so, it takes away the sense of accomplishment one gets from overcoming a major challenge. This is probably my biggest complaint with the game.

Anyone else feel the same way?
 

Hobbun

Member
Ahh, I haven’t seen that book. So that’s why I didn’t know about it.

Thanks.

So on that Fallen Timeline (where Link is deafeated), where are we thinking Breath of the Wild falls at? Aonuma is hinting 100 years, but there is no passage of years indicated on the timeline.

I liked 90% of what I played at E3 and am looking forward to the game, but I do have one issue. Unlike in previous Zelda games, where you gain an important item after beating a dungeon or major boss or whatever, in BotW, you can just simply roam around the world and find these things. I do understand that if you have an open world Zelda, where you can do anything you want in pretty much any order, that this is the only logical way to make such a game work. But by doing so, it takes away the sense of accomplishment one gets from overcoming a major challenge. This is probably my biggest complaint with the game.

Anyone else feel the same way?

A full dungeon hasn’t been playable yet, correct? I am truly asking, as I am not sure.

But my point is we don’t know yet if we still don’t get an item. At the very least, I am guessing we will still get a heart container.
 

Yonafunu

Member
I liked 90% of what I played at E3 and am looking forward to the game, but I do have one issue. Unlike in previous Zelda games, where you gain an important item after beating a dungeon or major boss or whatever, in BotW, you can just simply roam around the world and find these things. I do understand that if you have an open world Zelda, where you can do anything you want in pretty much any order, that this is the only logical way to make such a game work. But by doing so, it takes away the sense of accomplishment one gets from overcoming a major challenge. This is probably my biggest complaint with the game.

Anyone else feel the same way?

I think that sense of accomplishment of getting a major item will come from upgrading your items and eventually getting to unbreakable weapons. Aonuma did say upgrading will be very "Zelda-like".
 

TannerDemoz

Member
I liked 90% of what I played at E3 and am looking forward to the game, but I do have one issue. Unlike in previous Zelda games, where you gain an important item after beating a dungeon or major boss or whatever, in BotW, you can just simply roam around the world and find these things. I do understand that if you have an open world Zelda, where you can do anything you want in pretty much any order, that this is the only logical way to make such a game work. But by doing so, it takes away the sense of accomplishment one gets from overcoming a major challenge. This is probably my biggest complaint with the game.

Anyone else feel the same way?

Won't some of the dungeons only be accessible from main-line unlockables?

If ALL of the item dungeons are fully accessible from the start of the game, I get where you're coming from.
 
The Fallen Hero Timeline was established in Hyrule Historia.

I'm thinking it's definitely Fallen Hero Timeline 100 years after OoT. Before The Sealing War.

They would need to sort of retcon the bit about the seven sages and Zelda sealing Ganon shortly after Link's defeat, but since that tidbit only appears in a couple sentences of HH, that is probably one of the easiest parts of the timeline to modify. They already kinda rewrote the intro of ALTTP for OoT, so a few lines in HH are nothing.
 

khaaan

Member
Ganon has to defeat Link, though. He has to take the triforce of courage from him.

Yeah, but that's acting under the assumption that it's part of the fallen hero timeline. Link can't be defeated if he never awoke for the challenge so it was up to the Sheikah to go against Ganon in an entirely new timeline.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
A full dungeon hasn’t been playable yet, correct? I am truly asking, as I am not sure.

But my point is we don’t know yet if we still don’t get an item. At the very least, I am guessing we will still get a heart container.

Well, Aonuma said that you could beat Ganon right from the start of the game if you chose to and that there would only be 4 main dungeons just like in MM.
 

Hobbun

Member
Well, Aonuma said that you could beat Ganon right from the start of the game if you chose to and that there would only be 4 main dungeons just like in MM.

So it was clarified eventually with only 4 main dungeons? I heard originally it was 4, but then follow-up posts indicating there was no information saying it was only four. And I thought I had seen in another informational post that there were just as many dungeons as prior entries (not referring to MM).
 

Meesh

Member
Ok maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I was just pondering the shield boarding mechanic...
What if they take that a step further and there's a boss at the ocean segment that requires you to wake board or shield board across the water? Maybe the boss is dragging you around everywhere?(RE4 anyone?) Could be cool. Heck you should be able to surf with Zoras damnit!!!
 

zeldablue

Member
Hey I played the demo!

It was a lot of fun, but it was way too short. I wish I could've just taken the demo home to play it endlessly.

First things first, the controls. They were really confusing for me and the HUD doesn't show what Link has on him...you actually have to look at what's on his person instead. What is on his back, what is in his hand and what's in his quiver is your only indication of what button does what. It's going to take a lot of time for me to get used to that.

Hilariously...I didn't know how to take out my sword and ended up bombing myself twice and dying. But after that mishap I found the sword button and was on my way. Oh...and I figured out how to Shield Surf. I didn't try the bomb shield thing because at that point I was deathly afraid of the bombs in my inventory. Explosives are no joke kids.

I killed a lot of animals. Birds give you bird meat, boars give you steak and squirrels give you...acorns. I then went on to destroy the forest. Really, I'm a bigger menace than the monsters. Someone here asked me to try cutting a really big tree and you can't. The ax just phases through the giant trees. I hope they add some sort of indication that the tree is too thick for Link. Everything is so interactive, so the tree phasing thing took me out of the experience a little.

Next I fought some enemies. Arrows have a very strong arch so it's harder to get a solid hit on things. The fighting is just like any other 3D Zelda...closest to Twilight Princess, I'd say. The targeting is a lot less lenient, not sure why. The fights felt tense, because I just knew something crazy could happen at any moment. The enemies have a lot more going on this time around. They're smart. And if you run away they're still on your a**. Someone here asked me to climb a tree and see what they would do...I couldn't do that because I never had the stamina to get out of a bad situation. lol.

I managed to kill a Bokoblin that had 73 health (The others have 13 health) and it was glorious. If he had hit me just once, I would have died. He gave me the best weapon in the demo, so that was fun.

The demo ended and then went into a different demo...where you start from the Tower of Resurrection. I talked to the old man without any clothes on and when you pass by he asks if you're chilly. Haha. I then ran over to him and attempted to beat him up with a tree branch. I thought if I did it enough times he'd try to kill me. Instead he just dodges. He's a cool character, I can tell I'm going to like Old Man a lot.

I swam through the water, but "dashed" too many times and then drowned. Then I found more enemies and decided to put all the food I had in my arms and throw it at them. They were not interested in the food and nearly killed me while I was doing this. The guy watching me play was laughing and asked "Was that a peace offering?"

I then went to the objective that Zelda...er, mysterious voice asked me to go to. I knew how to fall down from the tower without dying...I made it half way down safely and then slipped off and died. I would have survived if I had eaten my food...but I threw the food at the Bokoblins earlier so...yeah.

I talked to the Old Man again and when he asked if I recognized the voice I said "..." And his response to that is that he thinks that I don't trust him. Hmmmm...maybe I don't Old Man...maybe I don't.

I then sprinted to the nearest shrine but alas, my time was up. I feel like I didn't get to do as much as I wished I had. Watching treehouse made me think I could freakin' do it all. but two 20 minute demos was not enough. It should've been one 40 minute demo. :S

Either way I had a lot of fun. I kind of froze up because I wanted to do everything but quickly realized I couldn't. My biggest gripe is the stamina meter returning from SS. It makes sense to have stamina for climbing and fighting...but is it really necessary for swimming and running? It was really getting in the way of me just...going somewhere. I'm so focused on where I want to go that I never look at Link's stamina. Link was constantly out of breathe.

Also the anti-aliasing was kinda eehhhh...Hopefully they can iron that out. Other than that...yeah. That's all I have to say. I played Twilight Princess later that day and was just like "Man...why can't this be Breathe of the Wild right now?" I don't think much is going to hold me over from this game. :S
 
I actually kind of hope that this game isn't set 100 years after OoT in the Hero's Downfall line... it would be very difficult for them to give backstory on how exactly the hero failed, when pretty much everyone who plays this knows the story of OoT, and many have played it. It would be a jarring experience to explain how, oh wait a minute, you didn't beat Ganon back then, you actually failed! Sorry!

I think, like most Zelda games, this will have a fairly loose connection with the other games. I'm sure there will be callbacks to previous games and there will be a clear sense of where this game winds up in the timeline, but I really doubt it will be a direct sequel or prequel to anything else.

I personally like the idea of post AoL, with the 8 towns returning but that's just me.

Birds give you bird meat, boars give you steak and squirrels give you...acorns.

Great post, glad you enjoyed the game! This part made me laugh quite a bit, thank you!

I'm a little disappointed that you can't chop down the wider trees but that was a bit of an unrealistic expectation on my part. Overall, feeling you haven't had enough time with a demo is usually a good thing, so this game will be something special!
 

Kinokou

Member
Did anyone with sharp eyes notice if combat items take damage differently from different materials? Like a sword breaking faster than the wood cutter axe if used only on trees. Or swords breaking faster if used on boulders than the hammer would?

It would be a neat little feature if they had it. Imagine going for full efficiency and using one weapon to smash up some enemy armor and then using a different weapon to take advantage of the damages, or having to chose the better suited weapon for plate or ring mail armor.

I actually kind of hope that this game isn't set 100 years after OoT in the Hero's Downfall line...

This, I hope it isn't 100 years after any game really.
 

zeldablue

Member
Did anyone with sharp eyes notice if combat items take damage differently from different materials? Like a sword breaking faster than the wood cutter axe if used only on trees. Or swords breaking faster if used on boulders than the hammer would?

It would be a neat little feature if they had it. Imagine going for full efficiency and using one weapon to smash up some enemy armor and then using a different weapon to take advantage of the damages, or having to chose the better suited weapon for plate or ring mail armor.



This, I hope it isn't 100 years after any game really.

I think this is definitely true. You should use weapons for their intended use. Chopping a tree with a sword will damage it almost immediately.
 
I'm telling you guys...Ocarina Of Time Link pulls the Master Sword and instead of waking up after 7 years by Rauru, something happened and that's why he ends up waking up 100 years later.

I like this theory. Many people assume "Fallen Link" means he literally lost the fight against Ganon, it's possible he was just unable to be revived or reached and was lost in time/history and considered "fallen".
 
Top Bottom