Wii Zelda Concept Art

[Hanyou]

First, the concept art:

http://kotaku.com/5279554/first-look-at ... oncept-art

Now, some speculation. The sidekick looks like the Master Sword, probably has something to do with it, this is an "adult" link, etc.

Now, some thoughts. To me, Zelda's never been about "darkness." I know this is an unpopular view, but A Link to the Past is one of my least favorite Zelda games at least in part because you spend most of your time in the patently uninteresting, depressing Dark World. Ocarina is my favorite (and yes, I realize it owes a debt to A Link to the Past) because it manages to balance Zelda's more lighthearted, adventurous tone with darkness almost perfectly. It's not Lord of the Rings, but it's not The Hobbit, either. It's more along the lines of Star Wars. Fun, epic, and, when necessary, fittingly dark.

I generally prefer to err on the side of lighthearted Zelda games. This is precisely because to me, the core of the Zelda experience is adventure. The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap, neither of which is particularly hard but both of which capture this atmosphere perfectly (Link's Awakening does this too, and was probably the first to perfect it) are good examples. I've always wanted them to try to revisit Ocarina's darker (but not too dark) tone, which is why I was hyped for Twilight Princess. But they fucked it up. It was linear, fronted by one of the worst, most overbearing sidekick characters I have ever seen in a video game, and completely lacking in the emotional involvement I experienced with the prior three 3D games. About 40 hours in to its monotonous shades of brown, plodding through yet another decent enough dungeon (most of them were passable), I realized this Zelda was royally lacking in any charm at all. I grudgingly finished it, clocking no less than 79 hours. Not even the music, apart from the awesome overworld theme, was memorable--after finishing it, I assumed Kondo simply lost his bearings, but Mario Galaxy (perhaps his best soundtrack) later proved me wrong. Ultimately, Okami turned out to be the Zelda game I'd been waiting for, and too many reviewers gave Twilight Princess, a mediocre game in its own right, the benefit of the doubt because it bore the Zelda label.

That's why I'm both excited and concerned about this next game. There's not much you can tell from the concept art, but it does look stylistically similar to Twilight Princess. Given that games's general lack of atmosphere, I'm afraid we can be expecting more of the same, and more mock "maturity" to go along with it. The aesthetic they're promoting with this little concept art is setting expectations. As far as characters are concerned, there are few overbearing sidekicks who interest me...Issun in Okami is about right, but Midna is a little too much. Such a prominently featured sidekick character (unless she isn't the sidekick...but somehow I doubt that) means the Midna curse might return. I hope not.

Since it's evident they've already chosen to take that darker direction, I only hope they do not purge this game of the spirit of adventure that was so well-realized in The Wind Waker. After a console release like that, Nintendo has some level of responsibility to its consumers--don't abandon what works. Build on it, but if anything, open the game world up and make it more spirited.

That's all I have for now...and sorry if that was a little rant-ish.

[G Wanderer]

Miyamoto said this new game won't be in the same time as Twilight Princess so it's a different Link. So that means no Midna. All I'm going to say for now is that I think it's pretty obvious that cel shaded Link will stay on the DS while the more mature, realistic type of Link will continue to be on consoles.

(P.S. I agree that Link's Awakening is awesome. And WW > TP.)

[scy]

WW without the tedious parts is a pretty good game; I can handle stupid shit in games but the sailing bits were annoying.

I said most my thoughts in regards to the meaning of the art in the E3 thread; as for game direction, I'm all for a darker Zelda game. Not the "lol mature means death" stuff but some more "mature" story elements would be great. I, for one, never saw A Link to the Past as a "dark" game. Sure, the Dark World was bleak but it was overly done. It was practically a joke. A 100% reversal of the normal world does not make for "dark" storytelling. That said, it has been years since I've played LttP so it could just be my memory of playing it as a child not recognizing things.

Edit: But, yeah, the Dark World, as a whole, was pretty uninteresting. Though, I'd say a lot of the environments and characters in that game were fairly uninteresting as well so it's not exactly saying much. There wasn't much personality in it.

Edit: Before I get killed for that~~~

I do agree that Twilight Princess is one of the weakest installments of the franchise, but I don't agree that the other games have a better "sense" of adventure. Then again, that isn't something I tend to look for in a game so my thoughts on that matter are pretty much irrelevant I'd wager. I'm more interested in how they play and every iteration since OoT has been dumbed down and overall a weaker game to me.

[spoiler]...40 hours? Took us an afternoon and a half to beat TP o.O[/spoiler]

I must say it's a bit too much thought based off a single piece of concept art. Though, I'd wager they're farther into development than "look, artwork!" but still. I have full faith in being underwhelmed by the game.

[Kinokokao]

Scy, you play games like I read books. We're fucking fast, in fact, I'd wager to say so fast that it almost ruins the experience, because we keep looking for longer and longer games/books to keep us enthralled. Pretty soon I'm reaching for War & Peace and you're... well, I don't know what game takes you more than 8 hours to beat. Maybe something with tons of cutscenes that forces you to slow down and enjoy the experience.

@Zelda

Goodness. I need to just buckle down and pay the stupid $30 to buy Twilight Princess.

[G Wanderer]

I played TP for 70 hours. ^_^

[Hanyou]

[scy]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[scy]

There wasn't a single mention of graphics. Zero. Art direction and graphics are different matters entirely.

And I disagree that Zelda games have ever had a compelling story; I'll give you puzzles but I disagree on their difficulty (but I'm a pretentious elitist jerk soooo). I covered my qualms with the story already though.

[spoiler]Fact of the matter is, I'm just "WOW"d by different things than the people here. Those moments you listed aren't anything special to me (and seriously, LA's "lol all a dream" was a stupid reveal and I wanted to punt my Gameboy across the room when I was 7).

These are just moments to me. Nothing I'll get giddy over.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]No offense, if you think these puzzles are hard I'd hate to know what you thought of Layton's puzzles or a puzzle-platformer like Braid >>.[/spoiler]

[Vapour Trail]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[noodles]

[Kinokokao]

[Twat]

[Rodger]

I've never played Twilight Princess. Or Wind Waker. These games existed in a dark time in my life, wherein if it wasn't Smash Brothers or a DS game with "Pokemon" or "Final Fantasy" in the title, chances are I wasn't interested. It took a Kamina-Punch from Atlus to break me free from those dark times...

It amuses me somewhat that Four Swords Adventure was the only Zelda game to not break a million. Didn't even come close.

As mentioned, its worth noting the number of GameCube's sold vs. Wii's. Specifically, the PS3 has surpassed/close to surpassing the GameCube's total sales. Of course, the XBox was in the same boat last gen. Also, I agree on LttP. Never played it much, only up to getting the Master Sword I think, but I do recall finding the dark world...bland? Boring? Didn't like travelling through it at any rate. It felt more worn out and old than actually dark or spooky.