Topic: The Legend of Zelda Wii U

[Stogi]

Sounds like Adventure Time.

[Evan_B]

GLORIOUS! (stolen from somewhere)

I firmly believe this is the best grass I've ever seen in a video game.

[Mop it up]

It looks like they're already created a pretty big world for the game... How far along does this game look? It might actually have a chance of releasing in 2015 after all...

[Caterkiller]

So a common complaint is nothing to do in the over world. How do successful open world games tackle this kind of obstacle?

I like big stretches of land with some bare points but as long as there are plenty secret caves, ruins, animals, and puzzles in between I think I would be content.

[Evan_B]

I'm sure Nintendo is aware of the common complaints of open-world video games going into this. I can only hope that the mini-dungeon concept from A Link Between Worlds returns.

However, I almost wish they hadn't released anything at all, because now the community is acting like a bunch of whiny morons about this footage and the original reveal.

[Ian Sane]

Even if they don't put a puzzle in every square inch of the map they'll be fine as long as they put something interesting.  Even just interesting landmarks that serve no gameplay function can do a lot.  It's not just a game.  If it was why not just have a bunch of puzzle rooms?  Part of the appeal is offering a virtual world to explore.  Sometimes that might just be trappings.  A little pool and waterfall here, an interesting rock formation there.  Hyrule Field annoyed me mostly because it had very little of any interest at all.  It's just a big flat N64 texture.  I hated the ocean in Wind Waker because it was just blue!  Put something visually interesting everywhere and at least you've got something to make the empty spots noteworthy.  And with teleporting the player doesn't have to repeatedly go past the same landmarks they've lost interest in again and again.  The world feels large and grand without feeling empty and the player doesn't have to waste time travelling though areas they've gotten bored of.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Even though this game looks like a remake of the 1st Legend of Zelda I can't help but think in a game this big, by about halfway through you'll half to get like a loftwing and a boat judging by the size of the land.

[BranDonk Kong]

Legend of Zelda didn't have Epona, Bokoblins or Sail Cloth. It's a remake: confirmed.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Legend of Zelda didn't have Epona, Bokoblins or Sail Cloth. It's a remake: confirmed.

I know it's not a straight up remake but it's taking a lot of cues from the original game.

[Caterkiller]

Put something visually interesting everywhere and at least you've got something to make the empty spots noteworthy. 

Huh, I never really thought about but there were some things like that in Xenoblade. While there were probably many secrets I didn't find I did enjoy just going through or past those weird land formations and such. Luckily this game looks so vast there just may be some interesting land marks of note. On neogaf someone pointed out some kind of dragon winged structure off into the distance among other things.

I love ruins and lore. In the gameplay video Link passes by a few large rocks with interesting carvings on them as well as a water well. If there is lore to be learned from those strange rocks and small underground maze in the well that leads to something useful like a weapon that may not even be totally necessary to complete the game like Oot Ice Arrows I would be totally cool with things like that.

TP did has some fairly interesting landscape but in the end for me it was still to small with not enough secrets. I remember there was some strange rock out in the middle of no where beyond the edge of a cliff. You needed the double claw shot I think to get there and complete the puzzle for some lame rupees probably. I was really excited to see more things like that just littered about.

[Mop it up]

Most of the secrets in the original Zelda had rupees... though money was a lot more important in that game. Although it would be nice if there were a variety of things to discover, if it's mostly rupees then at least make them useful for something. Money hasn't been useful in most Zelda games for how abundant it's been.

[MagicCow64]

Yeah, if there's a developed enough in-game economy money can work as a minor-tier secret award. They were part of the way there in Skyward Sword if you were interested in buying out Beedle's stock and upgrading everything, but it stops mattering by the halfway point for the most part.


Mostly l would really like them to avoid non-unique loot chests. Nothing's a bigger buzzkill than opening a chest to find a stupid monster horn or whatever that drops all the time anyway. I did like item upgrades in SS, but I wouldn't be too upset if they threw that baby out with the material-collection bathwater. Though such a vast environment as appears to be in this game could make a material-tier of stuff-collection more interesting, just don't mix it up with puzzles/chests.

[Triforce Hermit]

I like Majora's Mask world. It wasn't exactly huge, but it was nice. There were little mini games and quests everywhere. Stuff like an invisible man, the guy in the tree, the bird who stole your stuff, the dancing guy, etc. Made it feel full of life. If they want to do a large scale world like that, then I'm completely in support of it.

Actually the talk of finding actual items in the open world sounds great. Like how Link Between Worlds worked except instead of buying/renting them, you did puzzles in the overworld to unlock them. Spend tons of rupees upgrading those items so you can get past other puzzles or something to that affect. That might be pure genius if they did something to that affect.

Hell, bring masks with affects back. Quests in the overworld involving that might be fun.

They have potential to do a lot of nice things to make the overworld full of life, I just think they won't do it, but we will see.