All Articles: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

First gameplay footage of The Legend of Zelda Wii U unveiled at 2014 Game Awards

In this stage of Shigeru Miyamoto’s career, the legendary developer has morphed into a sort of kindly uncle figure for the video game world. And when he gets together with Eiji Aonuma, the Director of the Zelda franchise, the two of them get into a calming groove like a pair of old friends.

This genial relationship is at the center of the first gameplay video for The Legend of Zelda Wii U, which was unveiled during last night’s Game Awards. The two developers chatted while showing gamers just a taste of the game’s massive open world. Thankfully, Link is equipped with the Sailcloth (from Skyward Sword) and is able to call on Epona for assistance. Epona is now smart enough to find her own path through the world, deftly avoiding trees and allowing Link to aim and fire his bow from the saddle. And when its time to explore, Link has added a cool slow-motion dismount to his repertoire.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U will be released next year, likely towards the end of 2015.

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Confirmed… Link is the main character in Legend of Zelda Wii U

The Internet was in a bit of a tizzy yesterday when Legend of Zelda Wii U Producer Eiji Aonuma hinted that the arrow-wielding warrior in the game’s teaser trailer may not be the series’ standard protagonist, Link.

However, it seems it was a a small joke that exploded out of proportion. Aonuma has now clarified matters by confirming it was indeed Link that featured in the video segment.

Actually that comment I made jokingly. It’s not that I said that it wasn’t Link. It’s that I never said that it was Link. It’s not really the same thing, but I can understand how it could be taken that way. It seems like it has kind of taken off where people are saying ‘oh it’s a female character’ and it just kind of grew. But my intent in saying that was humour. You know, you have to show Link when you create a trailer for a Zelda announcement.

Given how much flack Ubisoft is currently taking for its sexist attitude towards a playable female character in Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and how much of a buzz there was that the new character may be Link and Zelda’s daughter, Nintendo could certainly do worse than play with the idea of a female lead for a future installment. However, Aonuma deftly side-stepped the issue with an explanation as to what Link represents.

I don’t want people to get hung up on the way Link looks, because ultimately Link represents the player in the game. I don’t want to define him so much that it becomes limiting to the players. I want players to focus on other parts of the trailer and not specifically on the character because the character Link represents, again, the player.

Well said.

[Source: Nintendo Insider]

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Is Link the hero of The Legend of Zelda Wii U?

When Nintendo finally revealed the latest iteration of The Legend of Zelda franchise for the Wii U, many were focused on the open world aspects described by Producer Eiji Aonuma, or the cel-shaded graphics that the art team has settled upon. However, it seems that while the audience lapped up the brief battle between the game’s hero and the laser-wielding tentacle monster, they may have missed the obvious…

The hero may not be Link.

This is straight from Aonuma, who was quoted as saying, “No one explicitly said that that was Link.” Now, no one said it wasn’t either, but his big tease would indicate that Nintendo is taking a massive step away from the core formula of the series.

A key indicator seems to be the sky blue tunic worn by “Link” in the trailer, a departure from the game’s characteristic green uniform. In fact, it is remarkably similar to the clothes worn by young cel-shaded Link in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker; could the two games share a continuity of some kind?

Another, more fantastical theory is that the hero is the son, or daughter, of Link and Zelda. This would certainly push the franchise into fresh, new territory, both in terms of history and storyline. What do you think, readers? Is Aonuma just teasing, or does Nintendo plan to expand their hero roster in the Zelda-verse?

[Source: Venture Beat]

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Explore an open world in The Legend of Zelda for Wii U in 2015

Taking inspiration from the very first Legend of Zelda, Franchise Producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda Wii U will take place in an open world similar to its 8-bit predecessor. The idea is that players will be able to go anywhere and do anything as they attempt to solve the puzzles the game will throw at them.

This open world also opens up a whole new way to battle enemies, as the teaser trailer above shows. A tentacled creature that looks like a cross between an Octorok and a Tektite chases Link across a field before he dispatches it with arrows on the shores of a pond.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U will be available sometime in 2015, which can’t come soon enough.

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Nintendo plans to “rethink the conventions of Zelda” with next game in series

legendofzeldaThe first Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U will be this Fall’s HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. But the first original Zelda game for Nintendo’s newest system (The Legend of Zelda Wii U) is going to look a little less familiar.

Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo’s overseer of all things Zelda, used today’s Nintendo Direct presentation to muse a bit on the future of the franchise. During his talk, he revealed that the team’s mission for the next game in the series is to “rethink the conventions of Zelda.”

According to Aonuma, rethinking the conventions of Zelda will involve setting aside some of the more linear aspects of the series (such as requiring that all dungeons be completed in order and playing the game by yourself) and creating something a bit more wide open. Aonuma didn’t come out and say the words “open world Zelda,” but he certainly planted the seed.

Aside from his team’s new mission statement, Aonuma also said he won’t be talking about the next Zelda in any kind of detail until the visuals are ready for a public demonstration. Hopefully, that’s sometime soon.

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Nintendo confirms 3D Mario, Zelda games in development for Wii U

Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that pre-planning for a Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U had begun within Nintendo at this year’s E3 Expo. But Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, has revealed even more about the publisher’s future plans for two of their biggest franchises.

Speaking to IGN, Iwata announced that both a 3D Mario game and a Zelda game are in the works for the Wii U:

“We will announce the launch schedules for new 3D Zelda and Mario games in the future, but this is not the right opportunity for me to indicate when we will make such announcements,” Iwata said.

Nothing more was said, but I have a strong feeling that E3 2013 is going to be very interesting.

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Miyamoto: Zelda for Wii U is in R&D stage

Last year’s Wii U reveal included a tech demo of Link battling a giant spider in jawdropping high definition. This year, the plucky elf in the green tunic was no where to be seen.

So where was he? Entertainment Weekly pried the answer out of Shigeru Miyamoto yesterday during the closing moments of E3 2012:

EW: So you’re sort of in the R&D stage [for the next Legend of Zelda game]?

Miyamoto: Yeah. With the last game, Skyward Sword, that was a game where you had motion control to use your weapons and a lot of different items, and I thought that was a lot of fun, but there were some people who weren’t able to do that or didn’t like it as much and stopped playing partway through it. So we’re in the phase where we’re looking back at what’s worked very well and what has been missing and how can we evolve it further.

According to Miyamoto, this “research and development stage” involves a lot of experiments at Nintendo including “What is the most important element of Zelda if we were to try to make a Zelda game that a lot of people can play?”

When they figure that out, Miyamoto said, is when Nintendo will announce the next Legend of Zelda game.

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