Yeah, the overworld in Wind Waker is amazing. It truly feels mysterious when you sail up to some eerie island, creeping around the shoreline. For instance, the first time I sailed up to the island that contains the Wind Temple, where on the beach is an opening into a cave where a swift gale rushes out of, making it impossible to walk into. Impossible that is, until you get the iron boots!
Wind Waker also does a great job of not abandoning items as you progress through the game. Some Zelda games, (looking at you Twilight Princess!) will give you cool items that you virtually never use outside of the dungeon you get it in. In Wind Waker, I constantly shift the items I carry to add variety to battles. I love running around with my rope and hook, spinning it around and using it to bop enemies on their heads!
...speaking on items, are me and my partner the only ones noticing that Link isn't holding up items found in treasure chests? I hope it's just because the animations aren't done...
Well, at the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda sends Link back in time so he can still have his childhood. This obviously creates a split, as we have the timeline where Ganon ruled Hyrule for seven years and he killed the old sages. (This is why Link has to awaken new ones as an adult.) That world is not erased when it Link goes back. But, when Link goes back, he warns Zelda and together they get the king of Hyrule to take the danger seriously. As a result, Ganon is defeated in battle and executed before he grabs the Triforce and rules for seven years. (We see this trial and execution of Ganon in a cutscene during Twilight Princess.)
Also of interest, the Ganon of Wind Waker has a slightly different personality from the Ganon of Twilight Princess. That is another discussion that I could spend paragraphs on. What I do want to say now is that the Ganon of Wind Waker is reflective and tragic. This Ganon ruled Hyrule for seven years (in Ocarina of Time), had it all, and then lost it. He is self-reflective and even capable of mercy. If you remember, Ganon tells Link at the end that he has no interest in killing him, he only wants the Triforce of Courage from him so that he can raise Hyrule from the ocean depths and make the world right again. His biggest flaw is that he is unable to accept the impermanence of things. In contrast, the Ganon of Twilight Princess was sentenced and stopped before he could ever rule. He is flush with power and rages into the abyss, eventually appearing before Zant as his god, inciting him to spread twilight, a twilight that Ganon plans to turn into true darkness. This Ganon is violent, angry, without mercy. He lacks the humbling experience of having achieved his dream and STILL losing it.
Oh, I don't deny the spit timeline. I just also have "alternate dimensions" for other games that I feel aren't terribly relevant lore-wise.
Plus, there's also the distinctive in-universe art style that got its start in Wind Waker and is getting fully standardized in more recent games. In archaeology, art is one of the primary ways that cultures are distinguished (as I understand it, anyway; I could be wrong.) I don't think I've ever seen that brought up in Timeline discussions (though I don't follow them as closely as I used to). Before Wind Waker, the art was pretty standard high fantasy fare. Starting with Wind Waker and getting more pronounced in subsequent games, the art became riddled with sharp-angled knotwork, right angles, and other square/rectangle motifs. I love this art direction, but it does affect my perception of pre-Wind Waker games in subtle ways. Such that I sort of regard Wind Waker as a pivot-point.
There are some theories that Link is dead in Majora's Mask, and the whole game is about death and apocalypse. Even at the end, Link's deeds remain forever unknown, and he resumes his search in the Lost Woods that we know, because of Twilight Princess, will turn him into a stalfos.
At the end of Wind Waker, the King even declares to Link and Tetra that they will find a new place to live. But it will not be Hyrule; "it will be YOUR land."
Symbolically, I take this to be an indication of the end of the Old Hyrule and the beginning of the New Hyrule. The in-universe timeline may go every whichaway, but each game does demonstrate a degree of progression. In Skyward Sword, there's even electronic devices that are already centuries older than the game's story.
To me, this indicates multiple dimensions in addition to the split timeline.
While watching more videos of Breath of the Wild yesterday, I saw that Koroks are present in it. That does mean this new game will be in the Wind Waker timeline as that is the one where the Kokiri evolved into the Koroks to travel the great ocean. It is interesting that the game starts with Link awakening in a weird room filled with sophisticated technology. From what little I have seen, this newest game will incorporate more tech than we have seen in a previous Zelda game.
Also of interest, the Ganon of Wind Waker has a slightly different personality from the Ganon of Twilight Princess. That is another discussion that I could spend paragraphs on. What I do want to say now is that the Ganon of Wind Waker is reflective and tragic. This Ganon ruled Hyrule for seven years (in Ocarina of Time), had it all, and then lost it. He is self-reflective and even capable of mercy. If you remember, Ganon tells Link at the end that he has no interest in killing him, he only wants the Triforce of Courage from him so that he can raise Hyrule from the ocean depths and make the world right again. His biggest flaw is that he is unable to accept the impermanence of things. In contrast, the Ganon of Twilight Princess was sentenced and stopped before he could ever rule. He is flush with power and rages into the abyss, eventually appearing before Zant as his god, inciting him to spread twilight, a twilight that Ganon plans to turn into true darkness. This Ganon is violent, angry, without mercy. He lacks the humbling experience of having achieved his dream and STILL losing it.
Twilight Princess Ganon is easily my favorite Ganon. I never thought the character was interesting until Ocarina, but he still lacked any real depth or substance. But in Twilight he is a straight up evil bad ***.
But, just because it is a Zelda game, I need to get as soon as it's out along with Hyrule Warriors that way once I do eventually get a WiiU I'll have them and won't be paying more for them used than they cost new.
There are some theories that Link is dead in Majora's Mask, and the whole game is about death and apocalypse. Even at the end, Link's deeds remain forever unknown, and he resumes his search in the Lost Woods that we know, because of Twilight Princess, will turn him into a stalfos.
At the end of Wind Waker, the King even declares to Link and Tetra that they will find a new place to live. But it will not be Hyrule; "it will be YOUR land."
Symbolically, I take this to be an indication of the end of the Old Hyrule and the beginning of the New Hyrule. The in-universe timeline may go every whichaway, but each game does demonstrate a degree of progression. In Skyward Sword, there's even electronic devices that are already centuries older than the game's story.
To me, this indicates multiple dimensions in addition to the split timeline.
At times I think they are more interested in telling a good story with interesting characters than a larger overlapping story arc. There is even a theory that each game (this one being before Skyward Sword) is a retelling of the same story, just with different details - no different than we find in our own real life stories that often have the same general idea but the details may greatly vary. I've seen the story get changed so many times (such as how Ocarina was the "first" in the story when it first came out), that I haven't put much time into trying to piece them together. It's about as futile as trying to piece together when all the Castlevania games happened. It may just be that the Hero of Time was a story piece to try and establish some sort of larger story arc for the series, and to retroactively explain why he isn't mentioned in the early games, as according to the official time line those games happen in the line where the Hero of Time is defeated.
And, personally, I'm just fine if the Capcom Zelda's are omitted.
There are some theories that Link is dead in Majora's Mask, and the whole game is about death and apocalypse. Even at the end, Link's deeds remain forever unknown, and he resumes his search in the Lost Woods that we know, because of Twilight Princess, will turn him into a stalfos.
At the end of Wind Waker, the King even declares to Link and Tetra that they will find a new place to live. But it will not be Hyrule; "it will be YOUR land."
Symbolically, I take this to be an indication of the end of the Old Hyrule and the beginning of the New Hyrule. The in-universe timeline may go every whichaway, but each game does demonstrate a degree of progression. In Skyward Sword, there's even electronic devices that are already centuries older than the game's story.
To me, this indicates multiple dimensions in addition to the split timeline.
I can't believe that theory is still going around! One thing they got right though, it is about mourning. From the people of Termina, to Link himself, having lost Navi (this is the reason he leaves after OoT, to look for her). Termina is regarded as a parallel world. In TP, you can actually (sort of) know what happened of Link after MM.
The Hero's shade, the one that teaches you the different sword attacks, is the Hero of Time. He lamented the fact that he was not remembered as a hero (since he is child Link, so technically, he only informed the royal family about Ganondorf's evil plot from this timeline's perspective). So this is why he passes down his techniques to the current Link incarnation. This is hinted in the game itself but also further confirmed in Hyrule Historia, which I have.
And about Wind Waker, yes, and this is what you see when you play Spirit Tracks. It is the New Hyrule.
And Skyward Sword is the very first Zelda. It's impossible to put it elsewhere, because of the ending.
Demise's curse, this is what creates the cycle of reincarnation between Ganon(dorf), Link and Zelda (Hylia). Without this, there's no reason for those three to reincarnate in the other games.
I love the story in Skyward Sword but the controls and the Trials of the Goddesses... *Shudders*. If the controls were on a plain old controller, this would significantly make me want to replay it more. As it is though, I feel one play through is enough. Maybe there could be a remake in the future which would correct things that were bothersome with it.
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Ok, sorry this is such a huge post! I don't want to double post though...
About the new game, my first reaction is "WOW!" I really think Nintendo probably just made a really great game here. I am so looking forward to playing it!
Fortunately, I have gathered some info about it, both having watched the full Day 1 presentation and mining information online. (I've also looked up where people are thinking it's on the timeline, cause I'm a total geek.) I'm probably forgetting some details here, but I'm going by memory because I don't remember ALL of the websites I saw these pieces of information at.
- It's played on the Wii U remote, so no motion controls. Instead, the Wii U controller serves as an extra screen which could display items and maps (as it did in WW HD and TP HD). But you can play it on the Pro Controller if you have it! It would be more comfortable, imo. But we have yet to see what Nintendo's NX console is, since the game is going to be on that too! So depending on that, I MIGHT get the NX version, if the console is tempting enough.
- No difference in gameplay between the Wii U version and NX but improved visuals on the latter. Makes sense, as the console is rumoured to be more powerful.
- There are several departures in this game:
1. Link, as always, has hearts but one departure from the series is that you don't seem to have hearts around. Instead you hunt and/or gather food and cook. Depending on the ingredients, you have several effects and even the amount that they heal you is different. They have assured players that you don't need to hunt to get effective food and potions.
2. Food is not the only thing you gather, there are minerals too. It's unclear what they are for at this point, but I read somewhere you can get rupees for them. I speculate that as in SS, you might be able to make or modify your equipment.
3. Lots of different weapons and equipment which can be found all over. All of which have stats! In chests, in the field or even steal them from enemies! Some examples are; bows, spears, axes, one handed swords to use with a shield, two handed swords, clubs and even a wiggling stalfos arm (eww)! There's LOTS different tops and trousers, some of which protects against cold or heat. There was even a full suit of armour in the trailer! Or if you want to, you could beat the game in underwear!
4. Speaking of cold and heat, it isn't unusual in a Zelda game, we even had different tunics... But in this case, you can't walk in a region which is too cold or hot without some measure of preparation. Either you find and put on new clothes which protect you or you cook food which gives you a limited amount of time. You lose hearts if you don't do either of those. There's also day/night cycle and weather. Watch out if there's a thunderstorm, if you have metal equipped, it can strike you!
5. Link can climb just about anything, he can chop trees with the axe (and collect wood to make fire) and there's a jump button! The only thing to watch out for is the stamina gauge, so if it runs out while you climb a mountain hope that you don't fall down too far! Fall a long way down, you get a game over screen!
- Extremely large open world, free to explore and play as one likes. The huge area you see in the demo is only a TINY part of the map! The game is not linear, so from the plateau you can head wherever you want.
-There is a story but you could, technically speaking, skip it and head for the last boss of the game from the beginning. But probably only crazy hardcore players who want a massive challenge and speedrunners would want to do that.
- Over 100 Shrines (mini puzzle dungeons) are scattered in the world. There will be normal dungeons as well, but we don't know how many yet. My guess is perhaps around one per region? I wonder what their purpose is and what we can find in those dungeons.
- There are no towns in the E3 demo, but that is done solely for the demo version. There will be people in the full game.
- A lot of similarities for each timeline... AT - After WW: There's abundant water, Koroks and the Master Sword appears to be rusty, hmm. CT - After TP: There's buildings which wouldn't exist in any other timelines, the courtyard from OoT, where you meet Zelda the first time in Hyrule Castle! DT - After AoL: There's landmarks from LoZ, there's the old man from LoZ, Hyrule is in a state of decline... I am honestly perplexed to where this game fits in the timeline, you can support it being in any of them. We are probably missing too much information at this point.
*Warning* Some story bits, all were shown in the trailer and gameplay videos. But if you don't want to know, don't read the spoiler!
- Link seems to have been asleep for 100 years. (The Mystery Voice tells you so after you activate the towers.) He doesn't seem to remember much. (The voice urges him to remember.) And the Old Man asks you if you recognised the voice, and said it's a shame after you say "no". (There's only "no" and "..." as choices).
- Calamity Ganon is the main villain, said to have wrecked havoc on Hyrule 100 years ago. It is sealed in Hyrule Castle, as the Old Man said it is the purest symbol in Hyrule, but it's barely able to contain the evil. Note that not only is the name a bit different from previous games but also no one refers CG as "he", they use "it". In both the trailer and in the gameplay footage, you could see it around Hyrule Castle, dancing around like smoke, barely having a shape, and evil glowing eyes. It seems that CG is only a spirit/residue but this is speculation, as maybe later in the game it takes a form. It is also referenced by the Monks in the Shrines, calling Ganon Goddess Hylia's enemy. This re-enforces the fact that Ganon is Demise.
- The Sheikah seem to be behind the technology present in the game. They're referred to as an advanced civilisation. You can read about them in the Old Man quotes below.
Quotes:
Old man
The Great Plateau, "is the birthplace of the entire Kingdom of Hyrule."
That temple there...Long ago, that was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Since the decline of the kingdom, it now sits abandoned, in a state of decay.
Yet another forgotten entity. A mere ghost of its former self...
Seems you managed to get your hands on a spirit orb! Well done! As one gets older, it can become more difficult to see what is right before one's own eyes...
However, that which is hidden from view can often be crystal clear.
But maybe that's not true for everyone! Har har har!
The appearance of those towers and the awakening of this shrine...
It's all connected to that Sheikah Slate you carry on your hip there.
It has been quite some time since I've seen or heard of the Sheikah Slate...
Long ago, and advanced civilization known as the Sheikah inhabited these lands.
It was the power and wisdom of the Sheikah that saved this land time and time again.
But their civilization disappeared long ago...or so it is said.
It is interesting, however, to think...that something of them might still remain hidden away in a shrine such as this.
These shrines are tucked away in numerous places all across this land.
On this plateau alone, I believe there are still three more.
Secure the treasure from those shrines...and I will give you the paraglider.
My my...It would seem we have quite the enigma here.
This tower and several just like it have erupted across the land, one after the other. Very interesting...
It appears that some long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly.
I assume you've caught full sight of that atrocity swarming around the castle.
That.....is the Calamity Ganon, it brought ruin and corruption upon the kingdom of Hyrule 100 years ago.
It appeared suddenly...destroying everything in its path. Leaving countless innocents in its wake.
Over the last century , the kingdom's purest symbol, Hyrule Castle, has been able to contain the evil.
But just barely.
There it festers, building its strength for the moment it will unleash its blight upon the land once again.
Mystery voice
Open you eyes
Wake up Link
That is a Sheikah slate
Take it. It will guide you after your long slumber
Link...You are the light - our light - that must shine upon Hyrule once again.
Now, go...
PHEW! Well, maybe you can tell, I am very much a fan of the series! XD
I think I know how to describe how this game is looking.
It's like if Shadow of the Collossus and Skyrim had a love-child, Snake Eater and Minecraft had a love-child, and then those love-children grew up and had a love-child together, and then THAT love-child got into bed with Zelda.
Skyrim and Snake Eater alone seems an odd combination. But I guess in a way the thieves guild adds in some of the stealth espianoge, except with a bow and skooma instead of a M1911A1 and cigarettes.
I was watching another video of someone playing for 30 minutes. In it, the player came across a fire wand in a chest. Whoa! The fire wand unleashes SERIOUS damage on the environment!
I was watching another video of someone playing for 30 minutes. In it, the player came across a fire wand in a chest. Whoa! The fire wand unleashes SERIOUS damage on the environment!
A FIRE ROD!?!? Awesome! I just saw that video, can't wait to use it! I missed some of the items from the old games (A Link to the Past having a fire rod though it works differently).
I was watching another video of someone playing for 30 minutes. In it, the player came across a fire wand in a chest. Whoa! The fire wand unleashes SERIOUS damage on the environment!
I haven't seen the video (and I doubt I do), but I can't wait till I get to play the game to try it. I've sorely missed the Fire and Ice Rods since A Link to the Past.
Think I may have to put a moratorium on watching Breath of the Wild videos. I have seen more than enough to know I want this game. When pre-orders open up, I will be on the list day one.
That they are. I'd love to see an HD remake of Ocarina (so long as the graphics are the only thing changed, and the ability to turn Navi off), and one of the reasons is because it would make those arrows even cooler. Too bad the Wii U doesn't have the hardware capabilities of the PS4 or XBox 1 to make the graphics really impressive.
I love the fire and ice arrows in Wind Waker a lot. It is cool how you get them, and you know right away (that is, if you have been exploring the map) where you can use them to further the quest.
