Looks like they mashed LoZ with the average overhyped open-world slog.

God... I hope it's not as big of a grind as Skyward Sword was.

Oh right. Now that a few posts have passed, I have a really long list of opinions on the things we know so far. You'll have to pardon the cynical tone, Nintendo has given me a complex about these things, especially when I bought the hype for Skyward Sword and it turned into a massive disappointment.

Based on the bullet points in a recap, here are my thoughts from what little we actually saw.

Great, I just wanted to see the Stamina mechanic return. No wait, why should my actions be arbitrarily limited by some stupid meter? I'm a magic elf, not a fleshly human. -3.

Dynamic Weather: Why do I get the feeling that it's literally going to be a roll of the die? Also, getting struck by lightning, silly. -1

Temperature Mechanics: Sounds fiddly. Maybe isn't. Probably going to be rendered pointless at some point. -0.

Crafting. -10. I've played enough games with crafting systems to be utterly tired of them, especially with the absurd upgrade systems and how items are only at best often tangentially related to what you're making.

Enemy Camps: Oh, good. Make up for the lack of local population by killing populations. -4.

Oh, wait there are towns and NPCs, they just wanted to confuse everyone by not showing them in the demo. +5, -5 to Nintendo for thinking that wasn't going to confuse impressions. I sarcastically clap at this choice.

The demo is 2% of the whole game. Bad sign. Gives feelings the world will be too big. -3.

Hidden Koroks: Eh. 0 These were my least favorite race out of the swathes of choices from Wind Waker. And yes, I did just rank the 4 or so gorons in the entire game above them.

Physics based world: I get this feeling that some of these things are going to be scripted. And hey, can I fix things if I say, go on a tree murder rampage? +/-0, depending on the way it works.

Fire is fire: No impression. 0

Hang Glider: Yeah, let's take everything and throw it at the wall to see what sticks. Who needs Epona now? No grade, but a question mark is given. Another 0, but it is interesting to observe a banana sticking to the wall.

Magnet: Why. Not exactly a bad why, but more of a, "what for" why.

Okay, I get it, they're really throwing every fucking thing at the wall, mechanically. Did we really need to freeze time too? Link's just a guy, not Superman. 0 due to the spaghetti flung at the wall to see what sticks.

Bombs are on a timer: So like every grenade attack in most open worlds. Eh. 0. The two bomb types seem a little pointless, but PHYSICS.

Water into ice. So why not just have the ice rod? Possibly useful. +0

Wind Waker/TP Combat: On one hand, yay, no more stupid waggle! On the other hand, boo! They could have made combat dynamic like Revengeance! +1

Weapons: Whatever. To be expected.

Skeletons being skeletons: Nothing new here. 0.

No Shield to start: Whatever, but combined with a previously mentioned mechanic and that some weapons are just going to break...-2.

Shield Sledding: I see limited, but neat applications for this. It does seem a bit bolted on, however. +

Enemy Health Scouting: Okay. +

Alert States: Oh no. We'd better not have another mandatory stealth section. -3.

Jumping shooting: So like certain other games, except with arrows. Meh. I see it being used once, and promptly discarded.

Horseback Combat: Hypothetically, I don't see this happening often, and it sounds like it'd be awkward. Depends how good the horse steering is, because horses in Zelda have never had good steering. Or point.

Taking arrows from enemy. I don't see individual arrow gathering as a good thing. -0.

Giant monsters: Oh, goodie gumdrops. I can't wait to spend 15 minutes stabbing a weakpoint. -5.

"Guardians" with lasers. Sounds annoying. -3.

Red and Blue like Zelda 1: So you couldn't just have ranked monsters? Like pawn, cronie, leader, general?

Gathering: Fuck. Now there's going to be pointless tedium because the game demands it. -10.

Cooking things does cooking things! W/E. More pointless clutter for a chart.

Making potions: So just look up a chart on GameFaqs, eh? -10 unless there's a way to learn combinations.

Animals: Not only are there bugs and such, but we've got boar too! My impressed face, it is the same as my "so what" face.


I get that Nintendo has poured a lot into the effort of their first open world game, but the trimmings have a lot of fat, and a lot of the trimmings should be in the trash. I'm skeptical, at best.

Oh, and Ganon is still the villain, it seems. YAWN. They could have at least put Vaati back on the table, or made it Dr. Wily. -10, for unoriginality.
I hope you're ready for Skyrim Sword. The worst of Zelda combined with the worst of Skyrim. :P

I'm all for having high standards but you can't expect third person games to have Platinum tier mechanics unless it's actually made by Platinum. What do you think we live in, some kind of gamer utopia?

At this point I'd wait for the NX (which will probably be backwards compatible) or at least a serious price drop on the wiiu.

As one of the suckers with a Wii U caked with dust sitting on my desk that's kind of how I feel. Maybe they'll pull it off, but honestly after all the fuckups in recent years I'm doubtful. They can't even handle a hardware announcement without fucking up (announcing the mysterious NX when the Wii U is treading water and then all but abandoning it????).

Fuck me that is so much better than when I jokingly called it the Legend of Skyrim to a friend.

I could at least expect them to shamelessly copy the twin analogue sword controls. :v

i am waiting for a price drop actually
i got quite a lot of virtual console games on my wii
and i would like to tie them to a nintendo account in case my wii conks out

i know for sure you can do that with the wii U
but so far we know zip about the NX

Well, announcing it would even be a step up. So far the best concept for the NX based on patents and rumors is a massive question mark. There isn't even Miyamoto style "throw together in 5 minutes" concept art for it.

Also, you're welcome for the laugh. I've never played Skyrim myself, but I'm deeply aware of the many issues it has.
Price Drop? From Nintendo, the company that sells Mario 64 DS at launch price to this very day?

Hey the 3ds proved they will price drop when they royally fuck up and need to salvage something.
That's kinda the point that mentioned it years ago with no info and it basically hammered the nails in the Wii U's coffin.

Anyone on the fence wasn't going to buy a system with a "mystery" around the corner.

price drop in the USED consoles
nintendo can get away with selling their shit at hugely inflated prices because they sell anyway

the wii U is beyond salvage thats why the NX already has a concrete release date
the wii U wil be left to rot its that much of a misfire

i merely want it because its most likely cheaper then the NX
and i know more about it then the NX

cause all i want is to be able to tie my virtual console purchases to a nintendo ID

It didn't have to be. Shit support, questionable game releases, Nintendo's usual localization/region-locking bullshit, and talking about the "mysterious" NX before the holidays just when the Wii U had gained a little bit of traction.

But hey it's not like Nintendo mishandling their shit is anything new. Paper Mario, F-Zero, Metroid, and etc. the list goes on and on.

Didn't the Region locking start with the 3ds and Wii U?

I liked Super Paper Mario.

yes and no
the consoles have always been region locked starting with the nes

the handhelds were region free untill the 3DS

Ah, didn't know the consoles were region locked.
Thanks. :)

nintendo have had their heads up their asses for years now
this is nothing new at all
the fact that they thought they could coast by on the wii name just shows how badly out of touch with reality they are
and the NX announcement basically killed the wii U

but instead of telling us anything about it they keep alid on it
seems they think rumors will equal hype wil equal interest
the only nintendo console not region locked is the toploader nes 2

Two words.

Sticker
Star
...Yep.

Funny thing is a lot of die-hard fans of their stuff that I know are getting extremely disillusioned with them to the point of apathy.