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Zelda Wii U - Recap of 5 hours gameplay stream

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
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".

Unfortunately Hyrule Historia rather explicitly states that Link fell in the final battle against Ganon. They could always retcon it, but that's what the official canon says.

That said I don't think this is OoT Link, but LoZ/AoL Link. I'd also prefer it be set after those games rather than trying to smush in between existing ones. I want the series to stop trying to fill out the timeline and just continue things down the line and incorporate little nods to past games but not try to explicitly create some grand narrative.
 
watching more of the demos made me realize how good the great plateau area is for a tutorial area. It's not gigantic, it is fairly sized for you to start exploring. The biggest thing in this game is that there is a lot of verticality, so you don't run into the problem that somewhere in the demo it's a super tall mountain that you won't ever reach the top. it manages to highlight the thing that aonuma said of "pockets of emptiness". The game is filled with content to find and enemies to fight, but everything feels very cohesive. The world doesn't seems needlessly big, it feels just right for what they've shown.
 
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 believe in the Treehouse stream they mentioned that attacking the Rock miniboss
Steppe Talus
with a sword will both break that sword quickly and not be very effective, since you're trying to attack a rock with a blade. I believe they said that the iron sledgehammer would be a much more effective weapon against him.
 
Unfortunately Hyrule Historia rather explicitly states that Link fell in the final battle against Ganon. They could always retcon it, but that's what the official canon says.

That said I don't think this is OoT Link, but LoZ/AoL Link. I'd also prefer it be set after those games rather than trying to smush in between existing ones. I want the series to stop trying to fill out the timeline and just continue things down the line and incorporate little nods to past games but not try to explicitly create some grand narrative.

It could be one of those legends where the truth of it was lost in time. Maybe it was a rumor started to hide the fact that hero disappeared. Maybe it wasn't Link, but somoen else who took up his mantle who was actually defeated.

Interesting. But then shouldn't BotW begin w/ Link waking up in the Temple of Time?

Well technically he was held in the Sacred Realm. The Temple of Time was just an entrance to it
 

Eradicate

Member
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?"

Awesome impressions! You demoed nobly and tried to do all the different things you asked us about doing! I was the one that asked about climbing a tree with enemies around, so thank you for trying! It sounds like enemies are pretty smart and dangerous (though not hungry enough to eat before attempting to kill you; hilarious you tried though!), so I'm sure my stamina would be out all the time too!
 
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".

Actually this is some kind of a scenario i wrote in a FF 10 years ago. Link died in the battle against Ganandorf and Rauru ressurected the sould of Link which was banned in the Temple of Time and thought he was the true Link but he was just a copie. The title was Ressurection of Link and the story was...incredible bad. (And german...so no need to look for it!)

So I think they maybe really use this kind of idea of Link is being defeated and ressurect later to try it again. But on the other hand why should they do it? Every few years a new Link is born anyway so why "use" the old one? Or will we see more Links in this game?
 

Chaos17

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

Oh man, I didn't expected that we could die so easely so many time xD
I wonder if that choices system has an impact or not. I hope it will.
 

Kinokou

Member
I believe in the Treehouse stream they mentioned that attacking the Rock miniboss
Steppe Talus
with a sword will both break that sword quickly and not be very effective, since you're trying to attack a rock with a blade. I believe they said that the iron sledgehammer would be a much more effective weapon against him.

Nice catch. Looking forward to the game even more.
 

The Lamp

Member
It was days after being enchanted by this new Zelda gameplay that I finally realized "wait a second. We're back to button pressing for sword gameplay. Isn't that a step back?"

Wii Motion + was amazing for sword control. But then the irony is, is that really all Skyward Sword's legacy will be known for? Is it even an effective legacy when a demo for this game was revealed and not once in hours of watching did I remember that I was "supposed" to feel like the series regressed in combat, because everything else looked so amazing?

Is this a sign of how weak the legacy of motion controls really is? Because I loved Skyward Swords one-of-a-kind motion control puzzles and gameplay. But it's seemingly and clearly not the pinnacle of Zelda design, because of what BotW is now doing, which is an interesting thought to me. Just really interesting thoughts.
 

Majukun

Member
It was days after being enchanted by this new Zelda gameplay that I finally realized "wait a second. We're back to button pressing for sword gameplay. Isn't that a step back?"

Wii Motion + was amazing for sword control. But then the irony is, is that really all Skyward Sword's legacy will be known for? Is it even an effective legacy when a demo for this game was revealed and not once in hours of watching did I remember that I was "supposed" to feel like the series regressed in combat, because everything else looked so amazing?

Is this a sign of how weak the legacy of motion controls really is? Because I loved Skyward Swords one-of-a-kind motion control puzzles and gameplay. But it's seemingly and clearly not the pinnacle of Zelda design, because of what BotW is now doing, which is an interesting thought to me. Just really interesting thoughts.

i think in the end was so underused in skyward sword that personally i will not miss the wiimote...the enemies that forced you to deal precise strikes were few and far between,and had the tendency of telegraph their attacks or defense way too much,while the "normal" kind of enemies were quickly defeating by just wiggling randomly the wiimote because the Ai wasn't able to handle sudden change of direction in the attack,so the enemies usually parried on one side and got hit in the other..past the first half of the game,most of the enemy encounters were trivial and usually i didn't even stop for them.
 
I believe in the Treehouse stream they mentioned that attacking the Rock miniboss
Steppe Talus
with a sword will both break that sword quickly and not be very effective, since you're trying to attack a rock with a blade. I believe they said that the iron sledgehammer would be a much more effective weapon against him.
Fuck that, I'm using the tree branch on him for maximum humiliation.
 

Eradicate

Member
eea52bb089103283a51d31f50b8e72ea.png


oh my god

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Squirrel

People are all ready to eat everything in the game, but I wonder if you can grab it and keep it as inventory like the bugs. Maybe you can tame squirrels like horses; you could chuck it into hard to reach places to open doors and things!

I look forward to the Disney moments with Link walking around accompanied by birds, squirrels, deer, and rabbits fluttering all about. Maybe Link's very first spoken words will be a song at just such a moment?

Fuck that, I'm using the tree branch on him for maximum humiliation.

Haha! Paper covers rock, so it just might work!
 

mr.beers

Member
Were there any thunderstorms/rain in any of the videos uploaded? I saw some in the trailer but that's it. Just hoping someone filmed it.
 

atbigelow

Member
It was days after being enchanted by this new Zelda gameplay that I finally realized "wait a second. We're back to button pressing for sword gameplay. Isn't that a step back?"

Wii Motion + was amazing for sword control. But then the irony is, is that really all Skyward Sword's legacy will be known for? Is it even an effective legacy when a demo for this game was revealed and not once in hours of watching did I remember that I was "supposed" to feel like the series regressed in combat, because everything else looked so amazing?

Is this a sign of how weak the legacy of motion controls really is? Because I loved Skyward Swords one-of-a-kind motion control puzzles and gameplay. But it's seemingly and clearly not the pinnacle of Zelda design, because of what BotW is now doing, which is an interesting thought to me. Just really interesting thoughts.

I really dislike SS's controls. Having to constantly calibrate the M+ was a hand-holding chore. I don't see returning to button presses as a regression.

Also SS's combat had to be slowed down to compensate for it.
 

PKrockin

Member
It was days after being enchanted by this new Zelda gameplay that I finally realized "wait a second. We're back to button pressing for sword gameplay. Isn't that a step back?"

Wii Motion + was amazing for sword control. But then the irony is, is that really all Skyward Sword's legacy will be known for? Is it even an effective legacy when a demo for this game was revealed and not once in hours of watching did I remember that I was "supposed" to feel like the series regressed in combat, because everything else looked so amazing?

Is this a sign of how weak the legacy of motion controls really is? Because I loved Skyward Swords one-of-a-kind motion control puzzles and gameplay. But it's seemingly and clearly not the pinnacle of Zelda design, because of what BotW is now doing, which is an interesting thought to me. Just really interesting thoughts.
I was a bit disappointed by that. The combat was great in SS, though not as flashy sometimes as the Gamecube games'. In BotW the final hits of the combo weren't as nice and meaty as TP, and there are no flashy moves as part of the B button combos like WW. Just press B to swing horizontally, a jump attack, and an underwhelming power attack. BotW made up for it by introducing other ways to deal with enemies, but the swordplay looks the least fun since OoT/MM. They did at least keep the shield parry, which was one of my favorite new features, so that's good. It always annoyed me how you could hold R and essentially be instantly invincible until you took your finger off the button.
 
Were there any thunderstorms/rain in any of the videos uploaded? I saw some in the trailer but that's it. Just hoping someone filmed it.

In the Treehouse stream they said something like "good thing it's sunny, otherwise the view we're showing off for the first time would suck" but then every single other video that came out of E3 was sunny. I have a feeling this "dynamic weather" system they're touting was taken out of the E3 demo to better show off the visuals.
 

The Lamp

Member
I really dislike SS's controls. Having to constantly calibrate the M+ was a hand-holding chore. I don't see returning to button presses as a regression.

Also SS's combat had to be slowed down to compensate for it.

If you had to "constantly calibrate," your gaming setup must be messed up with lighting or IR sources or something because you shouldn't have to do that. I rarely ever calibrated and I assume game was designed to account for the majority of set ups.
 

wrowa

Member
Will likely have a chance to play the demo in the upcoming days and I have no idea if I should watch some gameplay videos beforehand to get the most out of the demo or if I should go into it blind. Hm.
 

Chaos17

Member
Played for almost one hour. Pretty much my gots as well, even if this is just learning a lot of mechanics and scratching the surface. My preview:

http://www.gamereactor.eu/previews/431743/The+Legend+of+Zelda+Breath+of+the+Wild+Hands-On/

legendzelda_1800593_670x320.png

Reading it now...

The second was story-driven, dropping some clues on setting, characters, points of interest and the potential timeline, and at the same time suggesting a couple of the main objectives that'll be in there on top of the free-roaming experience.

Did you not gave any more details about the storyline that you saw because you were asked to ? We kinda just know that Link just slept for 100 years and that it...

There are distractions galore, and on several occasions during the demo we ended up leaving one task incomplete when something else captured our attention.

Then what will you reply to people who said that the world look "blend" ? That's what of the most complain.
or taming wild animals (as Epona is no longer your only or main means of transport).
Did you see Link tame other animals than just horses ?
We've seen occasional rain, wind and storms (and we were told that the weather can change randomly), and conditions are impacted by both the day/night cycle (one minute of play is one hour in-game) and sudden environmental changes caused by the player, enemies, or even third-parties.

Could you give us more details about this because we've only saw "sunny" videos.

Building on the upgradable weapon and item system that debuted in Skyward Sword,

That's a good thing to hear! A lot of people are on the fence about tiems durability.

there's going to be a trade system in place so that you can get rupees after selling the most valuable objects.

That will reassure people, the lack of rupees icon on the main screen worried some.

Thanks for the review :)
 

RagnarokX

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.



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.

The best bet is 100 years after OoT. Hyrule Historia states that following the Hero of Time's defeat Zelda and the sages sealed Ganon and the complete triforce as a last resort. It doesn't say how long this took. If BotW takes place here it simply adds details like "Sealing Ganon took 100 years and the Hero of Time was revived to help." No real retcons.

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.

Why create a 4th timeline when the fallen hero timeline we already have is basically the same thing as what you want and doesn't have a game explaining it yet?

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.



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!
It wouldn't be difficult at all. They just tell how Link was defeated and call it a day. It would be easier than creating a completely new backstory for Link when they can just use OoT with added details as his backstory. Heck, they can even just refer to him as the Hero of Time and let players figure out the details.

Temple of Time still existing makes it pre-ALttP.

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".
People aren't assuming anything. Hyrule Historia explicitly says that Ganon defeated Link and took the triforce of courage from him and the triforce of wisdom from Zelda and used the complete triforce to become the demon king.
 

Crayolan

Member
It wouldn't be difficult at all. They just tell how Link was defeated and call it a day. It would be easier than creating a completely new backstory for Link when they can just use OoT with added details as his backstory. Heck, they can even just refer to him as the Hero of Time and let players figure out the details.

Temple of Time still existing makes it pre-ALttP.

I would be very surprised if this game doesn't have some sort of time travel back 100 years, or at the very least some way to glimpse into that past, especially because of some of the things Link has been told about him "remembering" what happened. If they show anything from that 100 years ago past, and it is related to the downfall in OoT that would be a very strange story for the majority of gamers who don't really take note of the timeline. If they all of a sudden see the final fight of OoT where Link loses, that would make no sesne to them. I really doubt they will directly tie it to OoT like this, when typically 3D Zelda games have been much more loose in their connections (besides MM).

The Temple of Time could for sure exist after ALttP or even AoL. The Old Man even says that the great plateau is sacred, and it's the place where Hyrule itself began (probably Skyloft), so it could very well be that this great plateau was inaccessible in ALttP and Zelda1+2, which is why we don't see it there. Obviously the Master Sword isn't located in the Temple of Time in BotW, so I don't really see anything which means it can't be post ALttP.

In general most Zelda games don't directly connect to each other, and I really can't see this one directly connecting to the "downfall" event, as that was jarring enough to see even in the official timeline. Who knows though, I could easily be wrong.
 
It worries me a little. This means that there will be no plot twist, since the final boss is always at the same spot. So far, this is the only thing that I don't like about this game at this standpoint.

At the same time, it could build anticipation, I love final goals always being in sight and getting stronger and smarter to eventually conquer that final goal. I'm honestly expecting the final area to be among the hardest final areas in a Zelda game if we expect the same ramp up from the shrines.
 
I would be very surprised if this game doesn't have some sort of time travel back 100 years, or at the very least some way to glimpse into that past, especially because of some of the things Link has been told about him "remembering" what happened. If they show anything from that 100 years ago past, and it is related to the downfall in OoT that would be a very strange story for the majority of gamers who don't really take note of the timeline. If they all of a sudden see the final fight of OoT where Link loses, that would make no sesne to them. I really doubt they will directly tie it to OoT like this, when typically 3D Zelda games have been much more loose in their connections (besides MM).

The Temple of Time could for sure exist after ALttP or even AoL. The Old Man even says that the great plateau is sacred, and it's the place where Hyrule itself began (probably Skyloft), so it could very well be that this great plateau was inaccessible in ALttP and Zelda1+2, which is why we don't see it there. Obviously the Master Sword isn't located in the Temple of Time in BotW, so I don't really see anything which means it can't be post ALttP.

In general most Zelda games don't directly connect to each other, and I really can't see this one directly connecting to the "downfall" event, as that was jarring enough to see even in the official timeline. Who knows though, I could easily be wrong.
WW and TP do exactly the same thing story wise as what people are suggesting with BotW. Both WW and TP tell OoT's plot and explains what happened in between.

Also with a world this large, I wouldn't expect some sort of other world.
 

3phemeral

Member
Because it plays so slowly, it's a very small detail easy to miss, you can only really hear it by speeding up the game to 4x.

Ah, okay. I thought it might have been something else. Maybe it's played slow and "broken" as a thematic reference to the current in-game world state?
 
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