Zelda Wii U's World Evolves on Player Decisions

What I personally am worried about is that the game will feel too much like modern western games like dragon age and ESV: Skyrim. There is a reason why I close to solely only play Japanese games on my freetime. The concern is that this will feel too much like an Elder Scrolls title and that does not tempt me at all.

I do trust Nintendo though, they have succeeded to take concepts from western gaming before, but yet make it feel inspired and not just boring, gritty and overly realistic as most AAA western games tend to do today. For example Metroid Prime where they succeeded with an almost impossible feat and created an actually fun FPS title.

If it truly will feel like Zelda I all over again, but in 3D, I am sold on it as that is my favorite Zelda title, if it turns out to be more like The Elder Scrolls, then idk what I will think about this.

Thing is by "earlier" it doesn't necessarily mean Zelda 1 as such as pretty much all the Zelda games have been just as open world as eachother except some recent ones (Spirit Tracks was totally linear, Skyward Sword was open....ish....but less so the TP or OoT).

I freaking love big open worlds, so thats fine by me.
My worry is that they might take inspiration from the last 3DS one. I really didnt like the rental system. I want a Metroivania progression darnit. Make me feel like I have discovered, earnt, and get to keep a new ability - not just pay for it!

( Edited 20.12.2014 15:01 by Darkflame )

Andre Eriksson said:
What I personally am worried about is that the game will feel too much like modern western games like dragon age and ESV: Skyrim. There is a reason why I close to solely only play Japanese games on my freetime. The concern is that this will feel too much like an Elder Scrolls title and that does not tempt me at all.

I do trust Nintendo though, they have succeeded to take concepts from western gaming before, but yet make it feel inspired and not just boring, gritty and overly realistic as most AAA western games tend to do today. For example Metroid Prime where they succeeded with an almost impossible feat and created an actually fun FPS title.

If it truly will feel like Zelda I all over again, but in 3D, I am sold on it as that is my favorite Zelda title, if it turns out to be more like The Elder Scrolls, then idk what I will think about this.

+1

So far the game looks far closer to something like Shadow of the Colossus than Skyrim.

justonesp00lturn said:
So far the game looks far closer to something like Shadow of the Colossus than Skyrim.

Andre Eriksson said:

Yes, the traveling strongly resembles SotC, that I can not disagree with. But from what is explained about the gameplay in the text it sounds nothing like SotC and more like modern WRPGs.

Maybe, but I think it's too early to tell. All he really said is "as you play, the world will change and be affected by what you choose to do." This doesn't really mean anything; that happens in every Zelda game. You can choose to open portals in Hyrule Field in Twilight Princess, for example, and do things like repair bridges and make your trips shorter. You can discover islands in Wind Waker that affect other parts of the game world. You can do things that affect other people's stories; Majora's Mask had an entire notebook devoted to keeping track of this.

I think it's probably referring to more aesthetic things like that. Maybe burning down a forest causes the trees to all be charred and barren on later revisits, that kind of thing. Who knows? I can't wait to learn more.

Needs NPCs, sub towns, more things to do. Dungeons are usually solid, but overworlds and NPCs have been so 1980s since day one, really. Dialogue is so limiting it's hard to connect to these characters (bar MM to an extent)

justonesp00lturn said:

Andre Eriksson said:

Yes, the traveling strongly resembles SotC, that I can not disagree with. But from what is explained about the gameplay in the text it sounds nothing like SotC and more like modern WRPGs.

Maybe, but I think it's too early to tell. All he really said is "as you play, the world will change and be affected by what you choose to do." This doesn't really mean anything; that happens in every Zelda game. You can choose to open portals in Hyrule Field in Twilight Princess, for example, and do things like repair bridges and make your trips shorter. You can discover islands in Wind Waker that affect other parts of the game world. You can do things that affect other people's stories; Majora's Mask had an entire notebook devoted to keeping track of this.

I think it's probably referring to more aesthetic things like that. Maybe burning down a forest causes the trees to all be charred and barren on later revisits, that kind of thing. Who knows? I can't wait to learn more.

jb said:
Needs NPCs, sub towns, more things to do. Dungeons are usually solid, but overworlds and NPCs have been so 1980s since day one, really. Dialogue is so limiting it's hard to connect to these characters (bar MM to an extent)

Interested about what you mean with sub towns! I personally would love to see more unique towns that offers nice story arcs to weave out without feeling forced. What is important though is to understand that more is not always better. No one really likes Goldshires and "fetch 20 bear rumps" missions. I think it is important to keep focus on where the fun is.

Repetition and putting the player in "loops" is sadly quite common in games but (so far) the Zelda series has done well to avoid it.

Regarding NCPs in Zelda;

Hasn't it been getting better and better?  MM certainly had you effect the world the most, and had everyone on a 3 day cycle of their lives making it feel more alive.
But TP had rather superb direction in general, and some NCPs that story wise were helping out near the end. They wernt all oblivious to the worlds problems like in most games. Interaction in towns could have been better, but story construction overall was much stronger.
SS continued this trend a bit with, again, a lot of NCPs clearly having their own agency. Interaction with them was still poor (or even worse) but definitely more attention spent on characterization.

Andre Eriksson said:

justonesp00lturn said:
So far the game looks far closer to something like Shadow of the Colossus than Skyrim.

Yes, the traveling strongly resembles SotC, that I can not disagree with. But from what is explained about the gameplay in the text it sounds nothing like SotC and more like modern WRPGs.

It sounds a little what some WRPGs are marketed as but none of them you really change the world. (hell, Mario World lets you change the world more then those games )

But then, it pretty much describes most RPGs these days, W or J. And a lot of other games in general too.

For me, NPCs have character - but it stops after your initial interaction with them. in TP, SS and most Zeldas (MM was an exception), they're pretty much all in the same place - come back, they're there (unless there's a significant landscape change). Dialogue is still limited, and they feel - to me - like simple signs that have been enclosed in an avatar.

I really do hope they address that, make these characters travel, explore, live their lives.

Sidequests in SS were severely lacking - I mean, fly over and give potion to girl on island. Yawn. Help weedy bloke buff up. Amusing, but hardly a side quest.

Defo think there sound be missions, even DLC or simply churned out my Nintendo over the net.

I can agree when it comes to NPCs. Nintendo has done a fantastic job animating most NPCs, but they soon grow stale, standing in one spot with the same words and movements, no matter how charming, gets old. Compare that to what they did with Kafei and Anju in Majora's Mask, where it was this extremely complex, sprawling, and heartbreaking story, or Groose in Skyward Sword where you see him evolve from this gruntish oaf to a true hero and friend, and I think there's a lot of potential for NPCs in a Zelda game. Not every NPC needs to be of that magnitude, of course, but they could at least all be their own characters, like they were in Majora's Mask.

I guess in a lot of ways I'm hoping this game will be like a cross between the first game and MM. Majora's Mask probably had the best storytelling of the entire series, both in plot and NPCs, but it was so tiny game-wise, you were mostly relegated to a handful of areas. I'm hoping the next game has that same depth to other people, where your quests are less about "get this item so you can finally get up this ledge" and more about finding out how people interact with each other and solving puzzles to help everyone, but with a much larger playground or even sandbox-type gameplay underlying it.

I'm probably hoping for too much, lol.

Andre Eriksson said:
If it truly will feel like Zelda I all over again, but in 3D, I am sold on it as that is my favorite Zelda title, if it turns out to be more like The Elder Scrolls, then idk what I will think about this.

I'm with you on this one. I have a feeling that this won't be Elder Scroll's-ish. Judging by the gameplay shown it might be a bit more like shadow of the colossus, which would be cool, but with a bit more direction and things to do in the overworld. My worry is that they don't give the game enough structure.

Hopefully it will be a bit like ALBW for the 3ds and tell you what to do all the time but let you pick where to start.

edit: Maybe I should have read all of the comments first! So many mentions of Shadow of the Colossus!

( Edited 22.12.2014 09:37 by Sandy Wilson )