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WiiU

New Footage of Legend of Zelda for Wii U Shown at the Video Game Awards

by Bryan Rose - December 5, 2014, 9:07 pm EST
Total comments: 21 Source: The Game Awards

Plus, an update on the upcoming Star Fox title!

New footage of the upcoming The Legend of Zelda Wii U title closed off The Game Awards tonight.

In it, Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated Link riding trusted steed Epona through a variety of situations. From what it appears, Anouma's promise of the upcoming Zelda title to be a open world experience looks to be accurate. They also demonstrated the map area detailed on the Wii U GamePad's screen.

While riding your horse, you seemingly can set auto-pilot and watch as your horse carries you to a destination. When that happens, you can use weapons and more while you ride. You can even vault off of the horse and fire off an arrow in mid-air in a bullet-time-like fashion. The demo also showed Link using the sail cloth, which was last seen in Skyward Sword.

Miyamoto also gave a brief update on the upcoming Star Fox title. Progress is good and they look to have it out next year, before the Legend of Zelda game also due out next year.

Images

Talkback

SorenDecember 06, 2014

I love how companies spend untold millions on shiny, epic, "cinematic" CG trailers and Nintendo's like, nah we're just going to have two dudes sitting here, playing the game. And you won't even get to see direct footage, it's all going to be a camera pointing at a monitor.


Nintendo also didn't buy ads during the "commercial breaks".

Luigi DudeDecember 06, 2014

Well I hope it comes out next Fall but I wouldn't be surprised if come E3.

"Please Understand"


Still, if development has been going smoothly it is possible.  Of course with that map showing the world is indeed going to be pretty huge, that kind of makes me worried.  With a Zelda game that big, the chances of something causing a delay only increase.

famicomplicatedJames Charlton, Associate Editor (Japan)December 06, 2014

"Haha, they'll probably just show Cranky Kong playable for Mario Kart 8!"


:cool; Zelda WiiU
:cool; Mario Maker
:cool; Starfox update


"Oh..."

broodwarsDecember 06, 2014

I dunno...I came out of that showing feeling rather mixed on the footage. On the one hand, I really like a lot of the little tweaks they've added, like Epona automatically trotting around trees and the game going into slow-motion when you leap off and draw your bow.  What you could see of the game looked good. On the flipside, some of it felt like classic, behind-the-times Nintendo, like when Miyamoto made a big deal out of the fact that they'd discovered...waypoints, something that's been a staple of the Open World genre for the better part of a decade now.  I'm not liking the tacked-on "please, the Gamepad isn't THAT useless!" Gamepad aiming stuff, either. My big issue, though, is that I really wanted to see the game, and Nintendo went out of their way to make sure their most exciting game was shown off in the most boring, unexciting way. I want to see direct feed of that footage to see what that game really looks like now.

shingi_70December 06, 2014

Quote from: Soren

I love how companies spend untold millions on shiny, epic, "cinematic" CG trailers and Nintendo's like, nah we're just going to have two dudes sitting here, playing the game. And you won't even get to see direct footage, it's all going to be a camera pointing at a monitor.


Nintendo also didn't buy ads during the "commercial breaks".

But everything shown was gameplay with the exception of Hazelight and Human element. The only difference was Nintendo went with off camera gameplay footage.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterDecember 06, 2014

Wow I'm digging these vast areas. That map looked absolutely massive. God hope Epona gets wings or something later on.


My biggest worry is that once again the field will be too barren and towns will have like 3 people who actually live there. I like the idea of long travel just please let there be some cool things to do along the way if you so choose to.

StogiDecember 06, 2014

First off...Did not expect a Zelda update this soon.

Secondly, there needs to be a show where Miyamoto and Aonuma simply talk. Those two are the best.

Thirdly, the update left me a bit mixed as well. I feel like making excuses, but in all honesty, I'm just hoping that this isn't the new Zelda, especially when I compare it to the E3 trailer. That video had random people working in the fields and herding sheep when a monster attacks. This video is completely barren of any life. That video had clouds casting shadows of a lake of green hues. And other than the sunset, this video lacked contrast.

I hope this video was purposely drab. I hope going from one point of the map to another some minutes away is a journey and not just travel. And I hope, I really sincerely hope that they bring the Wiimote+ gameplay. You can't put Pandora back in the box.

Shorty McNostrilDecember 06, 2014

If they want to add Wiimote+ controls that's fine.  But there had damn well better be a regular button control scheme for it.  If I never use motion controls for Zelda again it will be a day too soon.

EnnerDecember 06, 2014

Oh~ I'm in love.


While I would've liked a direct feed and that they didn't get so excited showing off a way point system, I'm really happy to see the game in motion and being played.

Triforce HermitDecember 06, 2014

Nice big world, I just hope isn't barren and empty. It actually kinda reminds me of the Shadow of the Colossus world actually. Work in progress still so I'll hold my venom.

The travel system just looks really boring. If you just set a waypoint and go with only random encounters and the slight occasional cave/hole in the ground, then the process will become repetitive.

Luigi DudeDecember 06, 2014

Considering this is a Zelda game, the final version will more then likely have some kind of teleportation feature to many of the various locations anyway.  So long traveling shouldn't be much of an issue in the final game.  Plus the part about Link being able to glide off that cliff also indicates to me that there will also be some kind of flying mechanics in the game as well.  So I'm sure there'll be ways of faster travel over the land as well.

Nile Boogie ReturnsDecember 06, 2014


    The lighting and the animation looks complete (or close to it) but the close up components look unfinished, thats possibly why no direct feed.  Also, the emptiness could be due to the era in which the game takes place. If its after SS but before Minish Cap that could explain the emptiness of the situation.  Sailcloth feeds the theory this is in "Era of Prosperity" of the timeline, which has a HUGE gap.


"We could be building Hyrule with stones from the ample bosom of Hylia herself!"





nickmitchDecember 06, 2014

I dunno.  I think the goal of the footage was to show off the size of the world and a few gameplay tweaks.  I wouldn't worry too much about what wasn't there.  The video just seems too deliberate.

NeoStar9XDecember 06, 2014

Want to see something wild!? This was posted by Vooks64 on twitter last night.


https://twitter.com/VOOK64/status/541133078437961728/photo/1



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4J9qZnCUAAUnXW.jpg

Nile Boogie ReturnsDecember 06, 2014


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4J9qZnCUAAUnXW.jpg












...and there's a New Challenger in my pants.

CyrianDecember 06, 2014

Did they make Link right handed again? =/

Ian SaneDecember 08, 2014

With the waypoint thing did Nintendo just "discover" this pre-existing idea themselves and are too ignorant to know that or do they just buy into that "no one else has good ideas but Nintendo" thing so well that they feel the need to try to make US think they just invented it?  Don't like Gamepad usage.  I'm rather sick of this annoying Nintendo dynamic where a great game is trapped behind stupid gimmicky control mechanics.  Yeah, I haven't played it but the track record from Nintendo on this stuff is so shitty that I have zero faith in any non-traditional controls from them.  And not offering some direct feed is pretty lame.  It still looked pretty good and this is alright for an award show but it would be nice to also throw a direct feed trailer on Youtube as well.  What fan doesn't want to see direct feed footage?

Now on the positive side, the footage got me excited!  That shot of Link looking over the cliffs is the sort of thing I've always dreamed of seeing in a Zelda game.  Everything in the trailer looked grand.  It impressed me.  If it wasn't Zelda maybe it wouldn't have impressed me as much but I like what I see.  A Wii U purchase will be hard to resist when this game comes out, assuming Nintendo hasn't moved it to a Wii U successor by then.  And good for Nintendo on learning what a lame dud the Cranky Kong thing was last year and showing this instead.  When I heard they were showing stuff again I assumed the worst and instead they delivered big time!

Nile Boogie ReturnsDecember 08, 2014

Welcome back to the fold Ian, you won't be disappointed.

Quote from: Ian

With the waypoint thing did Nintendo just "discover" this pre-existing idea themselves and are too ignorant to know that or do they just buy into that "no one else has good ideas but Nintendo" thing so well that they feel the need to try to make US think they just invented it?  Don't like Gamepad usage. 

I think using the Gamepad like it was google maps or a Garmin is quite smart in a game this large. Not too keen on the motion aiming but it's not a deal breaker.

Quote from: Ian

With the waypoint thing did Nintendo just "discover" this pre-existing idea themselves and are too ignorant to know that or do they just buy into that "no one else has good ideas but Nintendo" thing so well that they feel the need to try to make US think they just invented it? 


I took it more as them saying "Look, this game is so grand in size/scope that we need to utilize user-made waypoints".  That, or maybe it's an encouraging sign that the game is going to be pretty open-ended to where you could get lost if you don't have ways to do this.

SorenDecember 08, 2014

Quote from: Ian

With the waypoint thing did Nintendo just "discover" this pre-existing idea themselves and are too ignorant to know that or do they just buy into that "no one else has good ideas but Nintendo" thing so well that they feel the need to try to make US think they just invented it?  Don't like Gamepad usage.  I'm rather sick of this annoying Nintendo dynamic where a great game is trapped behind stupid gimmicky control mechanics.  Yeah, I haven't played it but the track record from Nintendo on this stuff is so shitty that I have zero faith in any non-traditional controls from them.  And not offering some direct feed is pretty lame.

1) Wind Waker and Skyward Sword already did waypoints, so no, Nintendo did not "just discover this pre-existing idea".
2) Good news is you'll still be able to aim the bow with conventional controls. Not that you'll notice, because we all know you won't actually play the game.

RedBlueDecember 09, 2014

A Link to the Past did it first with the flute (ocarina)

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