The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Woopman]

I love the new art style. It just needs more polish on the models, but that's just what they're doing.

Controls look perfect. 1:1 sword controls in Zelda is what I've wanted since the Wii was announced.

So, I'm pretty excited for this game.

[demonbaby]

I felt kinda bad for Nintendo during E3, during the demo, nothing was working for them. But I know Nintendo will pull through and make this a great game. I have to say I'm a little bit more excited for Other M than this though, sorry.

[motherbra1n]

just this one occassion i really REALLY wanted them to use upgraded twilight princess graphics. last time on the gamecube we saw the magic they pulled off with those AMAZING graphics on twilight princess and was hoping theyd do it again on the wii, making it cel-shaded is just playing it safe, especially with them going on about trying to out-do monster hunter tri graphics. i absolutely love the wind waker and its graphics (its my 3rd fav game of all time alongside twilight princess) but this time it was a 4 year wait, no info was released whatsoever and we were literally dieing to see what this game would be like, would it match monster hunter tri graphics, is it young link or adult link, whos the girl in the picture we were on the edge of our seats and id be lieing to myself if i say seeing that cel-shaded link at e3 didnt disappoint me.

either way, im still really excited about this game and know itll be absolutely amazing, especially once we get another trailer, thatll really hype the game up (just like with other m, first trailer: hmm. looks nice. second trailer: OH MY GOD!!!!!!)but next console zelda really needs to have realistic graphics, the 3ds can handle wind waker like graphics so cel-shaded zeldas need to stay on handhelds

[TYFIGHTER]

realistic graphix are bettur

I think the cel-shaded/artistic style suits the Zelda series perfectly! It gives the game a fresh and unique feel, and its such a nice change of pace from every other game out there thats just trying to push polygon counts. I was so happy that they decided to go for the cel-shaded look again... but even better they didn't just improve on Wind Waker's, but took a whole new direction with cel-shading and made it look like a painting! I absolutely love the artstyle, and hope they stay away from the realistic look for the series.

[Devil_Rising]

Like I've said before, I too was really hoping for just seeing the Twilight Princess art style, but with the full power of the Wii behind it, much like TP had the full power of the GC behind it. I bet you anything it would have looked gorgeous.

As I've also said before, I do like that Skyward Sword's art style is NOT purely cell shaded, I hesitate to even really call it "cell shaded" at all. Wind Waker is cell shaded. And frankly, I never liked the WW look. It just doesn't seem "Zelda" to me. Never has, never will. But this game basically has the OoT/TP type of look, except with a kind of bright, pastel "sheen" to everything. Which is fine by me. It may, in fact, technically be cell shaded, but if it is, then it's in that 2008 Prince of Persia fashion, not Wind Waker fashion.

[beastmaster100]

realistic graphix are bettur

I think the cel-shaded/artistic style suits the Zelda series perfectly! It gives the game a fresh and unique feel, and its such a nice change of pace from every other game out there thats just trying to push polygon counts. I was so happy that they decided to go for the cel-shaded look again... but even better they didn't just improve on Wind Waker's, but took a whole new direction with cel-shading and made it look like a painting! I absolutely love the artstyle, and hope they stay away from the realistic look for the series.

yaknow i really agree, i feel like the painting style could really turn out beautiful in better environments. at E3, they did not do this style justice in that bland shroomy environment. i just cant wait to see the beautiful mastery that is the fire temple in this style pure beauty

[wiiarebrothers]

I just played Majora's Mask this afternoon, and I am at the Pirates' Fortress. I use the Rabbit Mask, the Deku Nuts and the grapple at the same time.
At first, I was really impressed with the new system object in Skyward Sword. But now I'm confused, how are they gonna do ? Will they change the puzzles so that we have to use only one item at a time ? Wouldn't be that weird ?

And I thought that "Celda" debate was over ! Guess not.

[MAGNUS-8M]

Well, for one thing, there is now a run-button, so the bunny hood wouldn't be necessary. Masks or similar items in general likely aren't in the game, so that kind of item switching probably won't be necessary(and if it is, like equipment changes, I'm sure it won't be quite as demanding to change quickly....hopefully). As far as grappling hook and deku nuts, I think the item switching will be intuitive enough that it'd be like having 8 'C-buttons' to quickly grab an item and use it. So it could wind up being better in that way, as long as item switching is pretty fast and smooth without pausing the action too much.

Which is what I love to see....I think the most "jarring" part of Zelda games was having to pause the game to grab another item during an 'epic boss fight'. Health is low, C-buttons are full; gotta pause the game to grab a jar and heal up real quick. I'm not saying I hate those games now, I just think it's a very natural and very large step up from previous ways of playing, especially since this pause/reassign-buttons mechanic has been something that's been a part of Zelda since the very first game(barring the second game, although you did assign one magic to a button at a time, I think).

Yeah, I dunno... I loved Wind Waker's visuals very much, and I think this is .....similar, but I really don't feel like it's identical enough to have a cow over it. And unless there's almost no textures being used, I doubt it's all that advantageous to memory conservation and all that(it could be using very-low-res or procedural like Jett Rocket and getting a small advantage I guess). I think it's a great style, and I'm sure the older Link will eventually make it feel more like TP's style regardless of how it's shaded anyway. Really, I get the feeling super bright and happy Mushroom Hill Zone was used/modified for the demo to demonstrate the cel-shaded look, but I'll bet that's just the tip of what they could really do with it. I really don't think I'll get the game myself, but I'd love to see what they'd do with other, less-bright/colorful/cheery areas.

[Clowns8me]

realistic graphzors are butter

i agree. we need this here artstyle.

PRO TIP:

Spoiler:

zelda games with what would now be considered terrible graphics (OoT, Majora's Mask, LttP) are still enjoyable for their fantastic gameplay. graphics are entirely secondary.

[tendoboy1984]

realistic graphzors are butter

i agree. we need this here artstyle.

PRO TIP:

Spoiler:

zelda games with what would now be considered terrible graphics (OoT, Majora's Mask, LttP) are still enjoyable for their fantastic gameplay. graphics are entirely secondary.

Flat 2D graphics are more pleasing to look at than clunky early 3D graphics. Games like Mega Man 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, Pokemon Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Sonic 2, 3, S&K, Mortal Kombat 2, 3, SMB3, SMW, A Link to the Past, Yoshi's Island, etc. are all still enjoyable to this day.

The gameplay AND graphics of 2D games are easier to appreciate than many early 3D games.

Most early 3D games have horrible controls and graphics. However, SM64, Gran Turismo 1 and 2, Mario Kart 64, Crash Bandicoot 1, 2, 3, and Ocarina of Time still hold up because the gameplay, controls, and presentation were so well-done compared to other 3D games at the time.

[EXMGX]

I 'm really hoping for orchestrated music for this one i'm a bit tired listening to the same hyrule field music ._.

[BlankCanvas]

Personally, I really like SS's artstyle. I was playing OoT recently, and after watching SS at E3, OoT's graphics looked kinda' bland. I'm glad Nintendo went with the Impressionist artstyle for SS, because it really creates a beautiful atmosphere for SS's settings.

[Devil_Rising]

realistic graphzors are butter

i agree. we need this here artstyle.

PRO TIP:

Spoiler:

zelda games with what would now be considered terrible graphics (OoT, Majora's Mask, LttP) are still enjoyable for their fantastic gameplay. graphics are entirely secondary.

Flat 2D graphics are more pleasing to look at than clunky early 3D graphics. Games like Mega Man 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, Pokemon Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Sonic 2, 3, S&K, Mortal Kombat 2, 3, SMB3, SMW, A Link to the Past, Yoshi's Island, etc. are all still enjoyable to this day.

The gameplay AND graphics of 2D games are easier to appreciate than many early 3D games.

Most early 3D games have horrible controls and graphics. However, SM64, Gran Turismo 1 and 2, Mario Kart 64, Crash Bandicoot 1, 2, 3, and Ocarina of Time still hold up because the gameplay, controls, and presentation were so well-done compared to other 3D games at the time.

Absolutely. 2D gaming will always be better than 3D gaming, to me. They just feel more like VIDEO GAMES, and less like "interactive entertainment". Which is why most of my top favorite games, are from the NES and SNES eras.

[tendoboy1984]

@Devil_Rising

And that is precisely why I loved NSMBWii so much. It brought some of the best features of SMB3 and SMW and blended them together.

- Themed world maps? (from SMB3) Check
- Koopa Kid battles were different and unique? (from SMW) Check
- Airships? (from SMB3) Check, though I was disappointed that they weren't auto-scrolling
- Yoshi? Check, though I hated that he was only in certain levels
- Hammer Bros. battles? (from SMB3) Check, and they included different types of enemies as well
- Awesome castle/fortress stages? Check
- Item management on world map? (from SMB3) Check
- Item matching minigame? (from SMB3) Check

The main thing about NSMBWii that I hated was there was only one colored switch in the entire game, and it wasn't even a mini-level! You just jump on the switch
on the map and it only affected 2 levels.

ON TOPIC: While I think Skyward Sword will be a good entry in the Zelda franchise, I am wondering just how many changes Anouma and co. have made to the formula... They already said that the "field->dungeon->find item->beat boss with collected item" formula will be switched up a bit, but I wonder what else has changed...

[Barto]

been thinking about this game a lot recently. Nintendo's been pretty silent about it since E3 but I'm betting once Christmas comes and goes, we might hear more about it at Nintendo world 2011 in Jan.
One thing I've been think about about is shields.
They've been an iconic tradition since the franchises birth and I'm wondering how big of a role they're gonna play in Skyward Sword.
In most games we start out with a simple (wood) shield and later advance to a bigger and/or a mirror shield which played some pretty big roles on puzzle solving. As far a's I can remember, that's about a's technical as shields got in Zelda.

Thinking the most recent titles shields seemed pretty insignificant.
Twilight Princess-started off with a wooden Ordon shield-later you got a fire resistant Hylian Shield-the same EXACT one from ocarina of Time. I understand that's become Link's Shield of choice but it seems it'll make a comeback in skyward sword too.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I wanna see them expand upon he shield capabilities outside of the mirror shield.

In PH, link had a simple shield he kept for the entire game.
Spirit tracks-link had a shield the same shape as in PH but a different design...again that was it...aside from "unlocking" the shield from PH.

We haven't seen much of Skyward Sword yet. We HAVE seen link with the classic Hylian shield design. This will be it's 3rd appearance I believe. There's nothing wrong with that at all, I just hope it's not another case of...find wooden shield then buy hylian shield...then that's it. even if the mirror shield did come back...I'd be okay with that too.
It's been 7 years since we've seen it and I'm sure theres more possibilities for puzzles.

[TYFIGHTER]

Ya know, I never really thought about shields that much before... But I agree. It would be awesome to have more shield variation. I know they can come up with more awesome puzzles with the Mirror Shield, and hopefully they can think of another unique one with awesome abilities.

[AmbitionMakesYouUgly]

I think we should all reserve judgement until a "real" trailer comes out and not a preview for a tech demo.

[Barto]

I think we should all reserve judgement until a "real" trailer comes out and not a preview for a tech demo.

Yes absolutely! but keep in mind miyamoto Said the game was mostly done at E3 aside from the graphical work they had to do. So, it's pretty much guaranteed the hylian shield will be in them game since it was in the trailer, demo, and concept art.

[Ngamer01]

About shields, they've been used in three mediums:
Offense - Twilight Princess
You can smack foes with the shield to stun them and open them up to further punishment.

Defense - Most Games
It's trademark purpose is to defend you against enemy attack. Some shields will even let you reflect attacks back at the attackers.

Puzzle - Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask
With the Mirror Shield, there are several puzzles that require some light being shined on targets.

The only avenue left for the shield is if Nintendo combines the shield with mobility. Like a Hook Shield which is a standard shield until it opens to reveal a hook shot. Or a Magnet Shield which Link could toggle the polarity to jump to/away from metal objects.

[cortjezter]

The only avenue left for the shield is if Nintendo combines the shield with mobility. Like a Hook Shield which is a standard shield until it opens to reveal a hook shot. Or a Magnet Shield which Link could toggle the polarity to jump to/away from metal objects.

i love the idea of mobility. considering the sky diving apparently featured in the game, how cool would it be to have a glider of some sort? hell, even if the wings on the shield magically came into use somehow...

[DarkDude]

I like the Magnet Shield idea. Sounds like it might interfere with hover boots, though. And I think the only actions assigned to the shield is "Z" to hold it up and swing nunchuck to shield bash, or whatever they call it. So I just don't see how you could activate the shields' gadget.

[Barto]

Gliders and magnets! Love the ideas. I'm sure if nintendo wanted they could find a work around for the controls...maybe hold Z and then some button or motion or something.

EDIT: @ ngamer

I forgot about the shield attack in TP. That was pretty cool.

[Ezekiel Rage]

Ive been thinking about Bosses lately. ot only Dungeon Bosses but also Story Final Bosses.

Since this game is set before Ocarina of Time, We wont get Ganondorf or Ganon. So this will be the first console Zelda game without Ganon as bad guy. (except of course the phenomenal Majoras Mask! which is a sequel and not a ain entry but still)
So i thought: Who could be the bad guy?
I mean sure, tehy could use Vaati... AGAIN... But i consider him a weak bad guy and i hope they do something else.
They could use Malladus in his demonic form. They have to show how he was imprisoned but to be honest i HIGHLY doubt this would happen. Mallaudus lived in a different hyrule than this game takes place in (this is ocarina hyrule after all) and it wouldnt make sense.

they could use shadow link for real this time. id love that. but i guess tehyll go with a new villain. another one. because we havent had enough of those yet. probably some sort of dark scorcerer or powerfull demon...

maybe link is related to the wind tribe from minish cap?

[mariomaniac45213]

So this will be the first console Zelda game without Ganon as bad guy.

WRONG! Is somebody forgetting about Majora's Mask?

[Ezekiel Rage]

OH MY GOD IM SORRY!
This is too embarassing! Ill need to edit that out!