1641 replies to this topic

[The Satellite]

http://www.zeldainfo...line-placement/

 

Sort of the same but also different from the article posted in here previously. Okay, yeah, that's basically a confirmation of the downfall timeline. Some people are saying it's a "timeline-merger," which they have been for a while, but I'm not sure if I see that happening. Not that I'd mind. Though I'd sorta mind. Wind Waker's ending was too beautiful and there's so much potential for New Hyrule we would lose with a merger, but ah well. But yeah, I'm more inclined to believe this is on the downfall timeline.

[Naru]

A bit off-topic, but regarding the WW-timeline, can you explain to me why only zelda was turned to stone after getting spirited away in phantom hourglass and no one else?

[The Satellite]

Well, I believe it was because she was having her soul drained or something, just her specifically because she had a powerful soul. 

[The Satellite]

[HylianGlaceon]

Two small bits of news.

 

No HD rumble features apparently, which, eh, no big deal to me. 

 

Decently sizable info dump from a recent Aonuma interview on the game. Thing I want to focus on are these two points:

 

 

 

 

... I'm worried and cautiously optimistic. We'll see how that goes, but themes generally made dungeons more memorable in the past. However, they also made things more repetitive... What with all the fire, forest, and water-themed dungeons we've had over and over. Sometimes they got clever twists, other times, not so much. Wonder what that means as far as what specific dungeons we'll run into in this game... 

Yeah, that's quite disappointing. Themes are often what makes a good base to create a dungeon. I mean, it's possible to create a good dungeon without a straight theme such as Forest, Fire, Water, Ice, etc. But it is much harder to design them well and then different enough from each other since you have to do more to make them different instead of just relying on what the themes give you in terms of inspiration.

 

I'm thinking this unfortunately means dungeons are basically just going to be bigger shrines to access more plot and will feel very samey after playing a couple of them. I could be and hope I'm wrong though,

[The Satellite]

My hope is that it means the shrines aren't themed, which also seems like a pain because there are over 100, and that'll get samey fast. But if the quotes are taken to mean that the only "dungeons" in the game are just longer shrines with bosses... I might be disappointed? We'll find out. Maybe overworld gameplay will just be that good.

[thepsynergist]

My hope is that it means the shrines aren't themed, which also seems like a pain because there are over 100, and that'll get samey fast. But if the quotes are taken to mean that the only "dungeons" in the game are just longer shrines with bosses... I might be disappointed? We'll find out. Maybe overworld gameplay will just be that good.

The more I hear about it, the more I think of Skyrim.  It's just just because it's an Open World RPG, but Elder Scrolls has had that thing going for them since the first game.

[Naru]

Never played Skyrim or Elder Scrolls, but heard good things about both. The most open-world-like *cough, cough* games I played were test-accounts of Aion/WoW (which I rather not liked) and GW2. The letter did not only disappoint me in general, but the seemingly themed dungeons are quite boring with visible fire or ice effects, but in the end just simple hit-and-run-tactics. Actually if I had to choose I would prefer the simple without many effexts. The only reason I even buyed it is my time-intense obsession with the first GW, contentwise not the best, but with nice story and a big amount of different skill-choices. It included also dungeons, they didn't have a theme, rather they were just caves that for example included ice and snow if located in a cold region. Most even used identical maps, but based on the different enemies the dungeons played quite different.

OK, this was rather off-topic and I hope BotW won't resemble these games in the least, but I think themed dungeons work best with a gimmick, with elements (like the dungeon-item) that interact with the theme, otherwise it is only for show and will become rather a sore to the eyes over time. The typical themes are quite overused by the series, ice, fire and water especially, starting with OoT and MM that had great dungeons but beside getting hurt by fire, frozen or a flooding mechanic and visible fitting bosses the dungeons had not too much to do with their theme. In that regard WW did the best in my opinion, followed by the DS-game that did especially well based on the usage of the gained items. The non-Celda games did go more into the direction of stunning looks instead.

I think with the open-world gameplay these specific and often item-based dungeon-themes don't work too well and the game is better off without them. A good layout with a more typical theme like ruins or caves should be more than enough, and the graphics should solve the problem easily, including different wall designs, greenery, certain puzzle-elements that make the dungeon unique without a real theme to them and some elements that are not limited to the dungeon but are part of the region the dungeon is placed brought into it.

[The Satellite]

Just a small note, Elder Scrolls is a series, which Skyrim is a part of.

 

Anyway, we can at least confirm that each shrine is built around a gimmick, that being whatever enhancement or ability you receive in each shrine, so they'll have that going for them. From the few we've seen though, they don't seem like much more than demonstrations of your new ability. With some hidden goodies in chests. I suppose again we'll have to see how it goes when the game comes out, but, at least for that aspect of the game, color me cautious. I'm incredibly hyped for the overworld gameplay, don't get me wrong, but fun and solid dungeon/labyrinth/shrine gameplay to complement it would be nice, ya know?

 

Also now that Psynergist mentions it... Yeah. My experience with Oblivion (my only Elder Scrolls game apart from a bit of Skyrim before realizing my PC won't run it well) is that you're in it for the towns and quests and storyline more than you are dungeon-crawling. All the caverns and ruin systems are incredibly samey, and honestly aren't very fun to navigate. Most of the puzzles within don't have much variance, and it's uninteresting to be honest. There's a lot more fun to be had walking around the overworld and discovering new places, which is definitely what I expected to be having the most fun with in Breath of the Wild. The shrines at the least seem at least far more varied and unique than any of Oblivion's "dungeons," but for the most part... yeah, the comparison seems apt.

 

It'll just probably be a little more fun to play because I much prefer Zelda's play style and controls over Elder Scrolls.

[TheLegend_njf]

Have you tried Dark Souls?

[The Satellite]

Yes. I just couldn't really get into it. I wasn't a big fan of the control scheme at all, nor the inability to pause safely unless I was absolutely certain I was in a safe zone. I get it was kind of the point, but I value being able to pause the game any time I want.

[Shane]

So this is a stretch, and I will put it in spoiler tags just in case anyone wants to keep it a surprise (it's just an area name with some minor implications though, really) but...

 

Spoiler

 

Gleeoks might return?

 

Edit: I guess it's not really a spoiler since Nintendo showed it. But oh well better safe than sorry. I was given the source video which is also worth looking at:

 

[The Satellite]

That's a lengthy load, but I wonder if it'll be improved by the time the game releases, or if it's basically loading everything, reducing load times for, say, warping. In which case, that'd be very impressive.

[Anthus]

That's a lengthy load, but I wonder if it'll be improved by the time the game releases, or if it's basically loading everything, reducing load times for, say, warping. In which case, that'd be very impressive.

 

It is probably like GTA, in the sense that it takes for ever to load at first, then the game itself is -mostly- seamless.

[Shane]

I'm not sure where I saw this, and don't quote me on it, but I heard that there will be no loading times on the overworld. I can imagine loading times for cutscenes, shrines, main dungeons and other indoor places however and from what we've seen of the shrines the loading time seems pretty typical and that was on the Wii U. From what we've seen, the world's pretty seamless even when transitioning to boss(?) battles. So hopefully that's the only lengthy load but if not, I won't complain... as long as it doesn't go overboard with lengthy loading times.