Zelda Skyward Sword Collector's Edition announced

[Zeus]

First run gets the soundtrack included. For an extra $20, you get a kick-ass lookin' golden WiiMote Plus w/ the Zelda logo on it

http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1191301p1.html

Oh, this will be mine

[Blotus]

The Wii is cheap enough now that I've been thinking about picking one up for some games I've missed, but I've also been waiting for this.
It DOES come out in the wake of Skyrim though... so maybe closer to Xmas.

[Oracle]

It DOES come out in the wake of Skyrim though... so maybe closer to Xmas.

Skyrim is going to get me divorced...

[Anarky]

I watched the trailer for skyward sword and all I kept thinking was "Meh..."

[Eric]

I mean, it's a Zelda game, you know what to expect from it.

Little world exploration, dungeons with a new item, new item helps you clear the dungeon and kill the last boss, and probably helps you find the next dungeon, rinse and repeat.

It's not a BAD thing, because the experience is usually pretty refined/polished, but it might be a little stale to you aren't a Nintendo fanboy and you've played any of the previous Zelda games until now.

[Anarky]

Yahtzee did a good review of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D recently. I actually never loved it like most people did

[Kupek]

Twilight Princess was the first time I felt like a Zelda game was too much of "more of the same." I bought a PSP to play Tactics Ogre, so I'm not above buying a system for one game (now, that is), but I'm skeptical I'd get that much out of Skyward Sword. Although I would like to play both of the Mario Galaxies, and replaying Metroid Prime with the Wii controls could be fun. But, yes, overall, I have no reason to think Skyward Sword will be what I'm looking for.

[Zeus]

At this stage, you know what you're getting from your Zelda. Ain't no surprises anymore. For a lot of us (ie. Mega Man fans) that's a good thing, it's what we want

[Kupek]

I used to be one of those fans, but the experiences were still different enough. Wind Waker had plenty of unique traits in it. I even thought Minnish Cap was great. At first, I liked that Twilight Princess was similar to Ocarina, since I only played about half of Ocarina. But then it just started feeling reused, more of the same.

That Zelda games could be compared to the iterative rehashes that characterized much of Mega Man is, to me, sad. I played Zelda because each game elicited the same feeling of wonder and joy of exploration. That's what I expected. Part of that expectation is that they would be different enough to actually make me feel that. I doubt Skyward Sword will do so. That's also why I've passed on the DS games.

[Don]

I always thought Zelda was very repetitive in the sense you're always going to somewhere to pick up a tool that allows you to get past this dungeon and get to the next one and then repeat this until you're at the end. Sure there's a big world but all you can really do is note that you're supposed to come to this spot eventually when you've the item that gets past barrier X. I don't think the games themselves are supposed to offer surprises in terms of mechanics or story. It's sort of like how in Megaman you know there's always a fire-themed boss in a fire-themed stage, but the better Megaman games have stages/bosses actually worth playing as opposed to filler.

Diablo 3 is probably going to involve killing all kinds of demons and undead by clicking on buttons that do massive destruction, and it'll probably be a pretty successful game even though fundamentally the gameplay hasn't changed since Diablo 1 (click on stuff to kill them). It's a matter of how the concept is presented, rather than the concept itself.

[Zeus]

I used to be one of those fans, but the experiences were still different enough. Wind Waker had plenty of unique traits in it. I even thought Minnish Cap was great. At first, I liked that Twilight Princess was similar to Ocarina, since I only played about half of Ocarina. But then it just started feeling reused, more of the same.

That Zelda games could be compared to the iterative rehashes that characterized much of Mega Man is, to me, sad. I played Zelda because each game elicited the same feeling of wonder and joy of exploration. That's what I expected. Part of that expectation is that they would be different enough to actually make me feel that. I doubt Skyward Sword will do so. That's also why I've passed on the DS games.

We had Ocarina for the first 3D and the oddball Majora's Mask. Really, what more can be done with Zelda now without changing it so much it's hardly Zelda? I personally would just prefer a further refined version of what I love with some small additions than risk a weirdo game. Sure, Majora's was phenomenal. But at the same time, it was also the least successful console one if I'm not mistaken.

And if I had a choice between an excellent version of something I know and an OK version of something new, I'd take the former. I luvs new genres and styles, but there's something to be said for old reliable.

[Kupek]

I thought Wind Waker was great. I loved the art style, the playful tone it had, and the sense of exploration. I can still recall the music that played as the sail would unfurl. It was such a fantastic game, and while its coarse form was the same as previous Zeldas, it was a great riff on that tune. Twilight Princess was not. I see Skyward Sword being the same.

[Don]

It's pretty much inconceiveable that Zelda would veer off from its formula. I was under the impression that Wind Waker was more like a side game and it didn't feel like one of the *main* Zelda games so they're open to experiment stuff.

It'd be like making a Diablo game that doesn't focus around item acquisition. Sure it might turn out to be great but it's just not something you could gamble the IP around for. Big blockbuster games just aren't very original, because very original games usually don't succeed very well.

[Zeus]

I thought Wind Waker was great. I loved the art style, the playful tone it had, and the sense of exploration. I can still recall the music that played as the sail would unfurl. It was such a fantastic game, and while its coarse form was the same as previous Zeldas, it was a great riff on that tune. Twilight Princess was not. I see Skyward Sword being the same.

Have you seen the updated art style? It's actually a bit different than Twilight.

But I agree, I would expect the gameplay to be almost identical

[Lox]

There are plenty of ways to update Zelda and make it feel fresh without breaking what makes it a Zelda game.

For one, get rid of the way the world is always broken up into chunks. When I enter a dungeon, I don't want to walk into a black hole or open a door while it loads the next area. I want it to flow seamlessly like GTA does as you drive around. I want to be running into a dungeon and be able to turn around and see the area I just came from.

I think that would make the game feel totally different and "next gen" without sacrificing any of the Zelda qualities.

[Don]

Seamless world may have serious technological limitations that is not obvious to players. It's something people always talk about but Blizzard games, probably most notably known for such worlds, pay a lot of penalty to get it done.

[Zeus]

What I would like to see to improve Zelda:

1) For all that is good and holy in this world, don't make us start as kids with zero abilities anymore. Then we have to go get the sword and build ourselves up. It's tedious
2) Get rid of those stupid "tutorial quests" in the beginning. They're so annoying
3) Nintendo needs to learn that speech is good. Link doesn't have to speak, but everyone else should now.
4) Somehow change the key system, it's a bit archaic. Make the dungeons change or something to open up new areas. Collecting little keys all the time feels so 80s
5) More expansive cutscenes. Zelda is screaming for it. This goes hand in hand with 2
6) A greater variety of puzzles. Even though I like them, they've become pretty standard. I'd like to see them put more effort into the variety

Again, these are tweaks, not enormous changes. But they would help update the series enough without making significant changes

[Lox]

Seamless world may have serious technological limitations that is not obvious to players. It's something people always talk about but Blizzard games, probably most notably known for such worlds, pay a lot of penalty to get it done.

I know it's a lot more complicated than it seems (and more than most people probably realize), but Nintendo could do it if they wanted to. I just think it would be really cool. If it's not possible on the Wii, then I am sure it's possible on the WiiU.

[Don]

I'd assume the problem with seamless world still boils down to memory. In the end if you didn't disappear into a black hole when you enter a dungeon then that means all the assets outside the dungeon has to be in memory in some form.

A world like Diablo 2 or World of Warcraft is by design not meant to have many entities that can take considerable firepower to render on screen at the same time, otherwise it wouldn't work. Games like WoW or GTA just aren't very impressive graphically. While Nintendo doesn't particularly rely on graphics, they're clearly not at the bottom end of graphics either.

[Lox]

I don't think it's a matter of memory limitations as much as efficient and intelligent use of the memory that is available which is why I think it's probably doable. GTA4 looked pretty darn good graphically. It might not have looked as good as some games, but it looked better than any Zelda game in recent time. Of course, the difference between the 360/PS3 and the Wii accounts for that, too, but it's not like the next Zelda needs to look like Battlefield or anything.

[Don]

Usually game with seamless world are fairly strict about what can or cannot appear within a certain area. E.g. a bear and a wolf model would never be on screen at the same time. I mean seamless world isn't magic. You still got to have everything you need in memory. In some games you can be clever and get away with it, but there's a limit to how smart you can be and they still tend to be games that are lighter on graphical firepower. I'm not really convinced it is even a great thing in general.

[Zeus]

Right on cue, IGN does an article about how Zelda can be improved by lookin' at Elder Scrolls

http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1192308p1.html

[Flip]

All that article made me realize is how AWESOME Skyrim will be!!!

[Eric]

Right on cue, IGN does an article about how Zelda can be improved by lookin' at Elder Scrolls

http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1192308p1.html

You don't have to look any further then the comments to see why Zelda will probably never change.