What We Saw at E3

[Iamerror]

i don't think the whip is magical. i think that the blue glow on the end is for keeping track of the end, which is especially important for wiimotion plus

 

[jono000]

It will be great and in the conference i noticed that the artwork is sort-of inbetween realistic like tp and cell shaded like ww i also feel that the idea of it being cell shaded but of it also being an adult link

 

[Anemos]

Thank you for rounding that up. I'm especially excited for the "Beetle". It looks like an EPIC (not AWESOME, EPIC) combination of Hyoi pears and the Gale Boomerang, two very EPIC things. I think it takes place before the split timeline, as the Master Swordhas not been created yet. The Skyward Sword becomes the Master Sword

Fixed.

Anyway, you don't know that. It could be that the Master Sword is powerless, like the Four Sword in the Minish Cap, and you have to restore the Master Sword.

And we're still not sure if it will take place in Hyrule because Nintendo did not announce that yet. They kind of hinted, but we don't know for sure.

Kind of hinted?! Don't know for sure?!

They said it at E3!

"...you'll get a taste of what it's like to adventure in Hyrule yourselves."

*ahem*

I know what I'm doing when I theorize and make inferences. I was taught by the best, even if they didn't realize what they were doing.

If they wanted it in a place besides Hyrule, they wouldn't mention Hyrule.

 

[Phantom Zelda]

I agree with most of the people here because it is said its in Hyrule and I also think the game happens before the split because Link is in the clouds and then he has to get to Hyrule. I also doubt, but hope for, a new villain. Yes Ganon/dorf is awesome but I love all of the new villain ideas especially Majora and Vaati

 

[blubb]

OK, sorry for the late reply, but this thread somehow went under in the huge post-E3 thread flood here, so I totally forgot about it...

But that's exactly what they were doing; that was almost a year before the Cube was even released, and I'm pretty sure it was the first video of what the GCN could do. None of those scenes were used in a game. Nintendo did not announce they were working on a new Zelda until a year later. That video is irrelevant.

Well, I think we'll never be able to agree on that topic because there is a huge lack of sources - until Nintendo officialy confirms that they were working on the next Zelda back in 2000 we'll never know the truth. I personally do think that they were in development because 2 years isn't that much time. The fact that the GC wasn't released back then means nothing to me, because they were definitely developing (I hope we can agree at least there) Zelda 64 back in 1995, that is three years before the release of OoT and also one year before the release of the N64, as it can be seen in this video (which was also posted here at ZD a while ago):

.

Therefore, IMO the idea that "Zelda GC" was in actual development in 2000 can't be defied as odd.
But I can't exclude 100% that the video I posted earlier was a pure showoff of the GC's abilities, so let's settle it here.

[...] If you want insanely realistic graphics, buy a PS3. Play Elder Scrolls or Fallout, those are fantastic games with graphics as real as can be.

Some clarification: On the one hand I'm not someone who is all about the graphics. Gameplay is the most important factor for me. But on the other hand, graphics are one of the key elements of a video game. In numbers and for Zelda games specifically I'd say it's 50% gameplay, 20% gfx, 20% music and 10% story. Plus the graphics are technically the only thing we can discuss about after seeing E3, because music was quite absent, the story was not revealed and the gameplay can't really be judged until I have played the game myself. I actually think that the bit of gameplay that we saw was quite promising, actually and I hope it turns out well in the end (without interferences and with faster reaction ). But again, the graphics are what makes people buy the game because it's the only thing they can actually see well before getting the game.
I know that PS3/Xbox games are usually only FPS's and other, too "mature" (in the sense of bloody, violent etc) stuff in that direction, and that's not what I like. I still rely on the good old CS via LAN if it comes to that We once played CoD and BF at a "LAN party" with 8 people back in 2003, and it was totally boring because you had to walk around like 15 minutes on a huge-a** map only to snipe someone/get sniped by someone or getting familiar with the 80 menus and sub-menus and steering tanks/helicopters... too complicated and too boring for me (and the rest of us) so we reverted to CS and I never laid a finger upon these games thereafter.
Plus I'm bored with the flood of war games out there, to me they're all the same, I rather enjoy a fantasy game like Zelda or pre-VII FF.
I would definitely have gotten a Wii by now... but despite the fact that Nintendo really makes the best and most affectionate games, here the hardware is just way too weak. 729 MHz main processor? 88 MB RAM? And the worst: 640x480 max resolution, or if you live in Europe, analogue 576i with ugly interlacing artefacts? Are you kidding me? a standard PC had such specs in the late 90s (graphics: early 90s for PCs and late 60s for TV), and such graphics look really bad on a 120cm Full HD screen which is almost average nowadays. I'm not willing to pay €150 + €60 for the game + €50(?) for the Wii MotionPlus for such blatantly outdated hardware, sorry. I don't expect hyper-realistic gfx as they are seen on PS3/Xbox360, especially not if the gameplay is ignored by the developers, but come on, Nintendo could at least make their games, let's say in 720p.
Another thing is that there are still many visible polygons, as can be seen from the various trailers, and this shouldn't be the case anymore in 2010. Again, I don't expect hyper-realism, but IMO the technical level of the gfx of [noparse]LoZ:SS[/noparse] are the same as we had back in 2000 with FFIX, and that's a bit poor.

But enough ranting for now, as I said in the beginning, if the gameplay makes up for it then I'm fine with it.

EDIT: I've got a theory about the reason of Nintendo's decision to use cel-shading here: The Wii MotionPlus implemention probably takes away a lot of the Wii's processing power, and therefore it was simply not possible to use TP graphics, so I'm assuming that this decision is a bad excuse for the low hardware specs...

 

[MoblinPiglet]

I'm just really glad with the graphics (except the fact there are giant mushrooms), it think its gunna be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! But i want it to be long, but with a deep story, kinda like TP.

UGH!!!!! Hurry up 2011, but go slow summer!!!

 

[The Light Arrow]

My guess is that the whip is again taken from an enemy. It has a skull on it, which implies it was held by an evil force.

 

[Master Link]

This Link sums up a lot of things: http://kotaku.com/5564576/live-from-nintendos-e3-briefing


Here's some interesting stuff:

- Skyward Sword will, they say, feature a new map, one that's a lot easier to follow than previous attempts. This should cut down on the amount of time you spend "lost", apparently.

I'm a huge fan of this idea and I hope that Nintendo lives up to this statement.

- Aonuma says that recent Zeldas have been focusing on things like story and dungeons. Skyward will instead focus on "fun".

To tell the truth I'm really not sure what to think of this...

- Aonuma says that the scene which concludes the trailer, in which Link leaps off a cliff into a sea of clouds, is an important story point. Instead of being raised in a village on the ground, he's been brought up in a town called Skyloft, which is a floating island.

Later they say that Hyrule is below this.

- Miyamoto jokes that if the game used Twilight Princess' art style, it "would have been done by now".

Good or bad? I don't know...

- Now back to Skyward Sword; Aonuma says that the final version of the game will ship with support for both MotionPlus and the sensor bar, so that things like archery can be as accurate as possible (similar to how Red Steel 2 was able to ensure the game never "lost you" if you stopped pointing the Wii Remote at the screen).

Its new to me that Motionplus doesn't use sensor bar

- The HUD we've seen in Skyward Swords can be switched off if you think it clutters things up too much.

Me likey

- Mario Galaxy 2 had a big, thunderous orchestral soundtrack. Will Skyward follow suit? Miyamoto says Nintendo couldn't do what it did with Galaxy 2 and not do the same with the next Zelda.

I can't wait to hear it!

- According to Miyamoto, the majority of the development team responsible for Spirit Tracks is now doing the heavy lifting on Skyward Sword.

Good or Bad? I have not played Spirit tracks...



And a little OoT 3DS Bonus.

- Aonuma is quickly back onto Ocarina on 3DS, saying that it should make some of the tougher parts of the game easier; the Water Temple, for example, because with the touch-screen things like changing boots are a lot quicker and easier.

Absolutely fine by me; as long as the "boots" thing if the only thing changed.

 

[Rofang]

Did anyone notice an instance of somebody using the sword to block an incoming attack? That would seem to be an important part of 1:1 swordfighting, but I've seen no mention of it yet.

 

[disturbed42]

Did anyone notice an instance of somebody using the sword to block an incoming attack? That would seem to be an important part of 1:1 swordfighting, but I've seen no mention of it yet.

My thoughts are that Nintendo just said, "That's what a shield is for" and didn't really expand on the idea of the sword blocking incoming attacks. However, I think it will be there to some degree, because I remember playing TP on the Wii and as I was "swinging" (pff, more like waggling) my sword, I had hit a fire arrow that was shot at me and it landed on the ground while I was completely unharmed.

 

[Ember Incubus]

Okay, so I really hate when people mix their facts with their opinoins. I definitly think this takes place in multiple countries. Skyloft is the only so far confirmed country in ZSS. According to the known facts, this game is a big black whole of fans. We'll have to wait until its done. In my own opinoin, the best part of a new game is the beta elements.