Zelda Wii U gameplay shows vast open world

Nintendo designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma gave a brief gameplay walkthrough of The Legend of Zelda for Wii U during tonight's Game Awards, and dropped a sly hint about the next StarFox as well.

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Tonight's Game Awards ended with a first look at gameplay for The Legend of Zelda for Wii U. Designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma walked through some of the open world exploration, showing off navigation, horseback riding, and a nifty slow-mo mechanic when Link jumps off Epona.

The conversation also dipped briefly into the StarFox title in development, announcing that it will hit before Zelda does. Majora's Mask, not surprisingly, is due out before either of them.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 5, 2014 10:23 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Zelda Wii U gameplay shows vast open world

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      December 5, 2014 10:42 PM

      Damn that looks like its going to be awesome, am looking forward to it for sure. Once it is completed I am sure it will look much better and fuller with stuff, probably be out near the end of the year I would think.

      Has potential for sure, looks like the base is there.

      Nice

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      December 5, 2014 10:50 PM

      I know that Wii U owners are so desperate for anything to play they'll probably gush over this and ignore the elephant in the room, but really, the combat looks as clunky as hell. Look at how slow and awkwardly the camera and aiming were. They probably added the slow motion feature because they realized that nobody would be able to aim their bow accurately with the clunky ass controls.

      Also, a metallic clank sound effect to indicate that a hit registered? Uh, hi Nintendo. Hi there. Clank sound effects are almost universally used in video games to suggest that an attack was blocked. It's not intuitive. These guys don't even seem to know the vocabulary of modern games that companies have established.

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        December 5, 2014 10:54 PM

        I totally agree with you ^^^^^ it looks really really rough and in the WIP stage, seems like it needs at least a year to go if that.

        I was just impressed that the Wii U can even draw all that, my thoughts are Nintendo has pretty much been releasing polished games so I am sure they won't ship it like that and it will be polsihed.

        Yes it looks rough gameplay wise 100% and it needs a lot of work but the base is there.

        We shall see, hey.

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        December 5, 2014 11:25 PM

        I haven't seen enough of the combat to really have an opinion, and I think slow-mo to aim in the middle of a jump makes enough sense. I do agree about that sound effect, though. The first thing I thought when I heard it was "oh, it must have a hard shell so he'll have to use a different weapon."

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        December 5, 2014 11:49 PM

        So desperate playing all these great games while I wait. Troll harder.

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        December 5, 2014 11:57 PM

        Oh, so you don't think it's possible they added the slow motion because you're leaping off a galloping horse while trying to shoot an enemy in midair without your "modern game" auto-targeting system? Interesting.

        Nice jump to conclusion on the second part too. A metallic clank? WELL, I NEVER! Nintendo just can't make modern games!

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        December 5, 2014 11:57 PM

        definitely thought the same thing about the sound. I don't know how you knew the controls were clunky while aiming. Wouldn't it aim like any other 3rd person game using thumb sticks?

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          December 6, 2014 12:22 AM

          The video made it obvious. Look at his movement of the controller and the movement of the camera on the screen. It's really clunky.

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            December 6, 2014 2:00 AM

            I'm gonna go ahead and ignore your random assumptions about how the game controls until you've actually played it.

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              December 6, 2014 8:09 AM

              99% of the time you can tell whether a game plays well just by watching videos of it.

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                December 6, 2014 2:47 PM

                And 86% of all statistics are pulled out of the speaker's ass.

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                  December 6, 2014 2:55 PM

                  Well honestly, it's all of the time, but I just said 99% to leave open the possibility (it hasn't happened yet).

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          December 6, 2014 9:43 AM

          The sound isn't universal in meaning a block though. In many FPS games a variant means you actually are hitting the target.

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        December 6, 2014 12:09 AM

        Aonuma was offaxis from the display.

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        December 6, 2014 4:16 AM

        Shots fired... clank

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        December 6, 2014 4:17 AM

        How dare Miyamoto reinvent the rules?

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          December 6, 2014 5:15 AM

          Or Aonuma even. I mean, I have confidence in this mostly because of A Link Between Worlds.

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            December 6, 2014 8:32 AM

            This isn't reinventing the rules. It's displaying ignorance about how people respond to sounds. That sound effect doesn't sound like a hit registered. The whole reason it's become a convention to use a sound like that to represent blocking or parrying is because it sounds like blocking or parrying.

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              December 6, 2014 8:56 AM

              Dude, this is not the final version of the game, might have been a placeholder. Chill.

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                December 6, 2014 9:51 AM

                Even if it weren't placeholder, still pretty far-fetched to call it a shitty game just because of that.

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              December 6, 2014 9:07 AM

              Jesus Christ, you saw a minute of a game that isn't due out for a fucking year. When did you become an expert on this game? Was it about 7 seconds into that demo? It's good the world has someone like you to correct and point out the ignorance of 2 of the greatest game designers of all time. Surely you've averted what would have been the first sub-A quality Zelda game.

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        December 6, 2014 5:04 AM

        Sandy vagina's up in here. Wii U has a ton of shit.

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        December 6, 2014 5:20 AM

        A traditional gamepad accelerometer and gyroscope control should be used for very fine tuning, not major movement. Some of it was cringe worthy for me, such as at the start of the video you could see he was having difficulty moving just a little bit further to mark the tower.

        Regardless it's Nintendo so I'm certain they will get this figured out. Also it looks like its shaping up to be something like a Skyrim version of Zelda which is an instant purchase.

        I thought the shot was blocked also when I heard the sound.

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        December 6, 2014 5:44 AM

        [deleted]

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        December 6, 2014 6:33 AM

        Front pager droppin some bombs today.

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        December 6, 2014 7:10 AM

        From your post history, you seem to just hate everything. What a sad life you must have.

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        December 6, 2014 7:22 AM

        Did no one play wind waker HD?

        It's likely the exact same controls used there, which gives you the ability to control aiming both via the typical analog sticks and the gyroscope at the same time. You can forgo the gyro altogether if you want, but once you are accustom to it for fine tuning it works really well and much better than just traditional analog.

        I'm sure they wanted to display how "different" the wii u gamepad so used only the gyro when they should have either had someone better at snapping to a target or just used analog. It looked like what would have happened if I handed the controls to my wife.

        I have zero doubts the new Zelda will control great as every other one has in the past and think it's hilarious all the jumping to conclusions going on from one small gameplay clip. Also those lighting effects look insane for the wii u. Cant wait for this holiday unfffff.

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        December 6, 2014 7:31 AM

        Stop feeding this troll, Shack. This poster has 37 posts and only showed up to troll threads.

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          December 6, 2014 8:27 AM

          http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=32806664#item_32806664

          Uh huh.

          What makes me laugh is that someone can naively be unjustifiably optimistic about every game and nobody will ever call them a troll, yet anyone who's willing to criticize obvious problems in games instantly gets labelled a troll. I'm not a troll. I'm just critical of games that are obviously dog shit.

          If you could refrain from insulting people and spreading lies about them, that'd be great. I mean, I could call you, say, a serial rapist, but that wouldn't be true either, and you probably wouldn't appreciate it, would you? You don't seem to know what a troll is. Maybe you shouldn't be using words you don't understand.

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            December 6, 2014 9:25 AM

            I'm just critical of games that are obviously dog shit.

            This is something a troll would say about a game that has shown all of 3 minutes of gameplay.

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        December 6, 2014 8:37 AM

        I think you're laying it on a bit thick, but yeah, the sound thing was pretty bizarre and it did look rough.

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          December 6, 2014 9:00 AM

          I agree about the sound thing.

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        December 6, 2014 9:20 AM

        Yeah, because Nintendo/Zelda's controls is so spotty...

        http://media0.giphy.com/media/Rhhr8D5mKSX7O/giphy.gif

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          December 6, 2014 9:25 AM

          Actually, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword DID have spotty controls. I was missing swings all the time due to that stupid waggle.

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            December 6, 2014 1:43 PM

            "I sucked at actually moving to do stuff rather than using the joystick" == "The controls are spotty"

            I didn't have any trouble in TP or SS.

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              December 6, 2014 3:07 PM

              Many people correctly believe that TP and SS had shitty control. Get over it.

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                December 6, 2014 3:11 PM

                Try not to use argumentum ad populum when defending your point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum

                If you have a source for that, name it. The reason I bring this up is that I have heard the opposite. For example: http://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-review/1900-444/
                ". It’s strange to spend so much time talking on and on about combat in a Zelda game, but it’s no longer about smashing on the attack button anymore. Quite literally, you are part of combat, and motion controls, done well, provides a satisfaction that wouldn’t be possible any other way. This is the finest example yet."

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                  December 6, 2014 3:15 PM

                  Yeah, Skyward Sword worked fine. Twilight Princes not so much; they basically just replaced pressing a button for the sword with rattling the wiimote. There's a reasonable complaint there, sure, but Skyward Sword's controls had a purpose and were well integrated into the gameplay.

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                    December 6, 2014 3:22 PM

                    I didn't think skyward sword was ok. It was better than most of the wii style control games. But the input was lagged, and wouldn't register all the movements. Made so many fights, that would be so easy with a regular controller, into a frustrating mess. Also I find it funny that this is the only zelda, that I am aware of, that starts you out with more than 3 hearts. I always assumed this was because they knew their controls didn't work well and you needed that added cushion.

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                      December 6, 2014 3:29 PM

                      I didn't really have that issue.

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                  December 6, 2014 3:22 PM

                  fire00f1y is the one who used that argument--not me. He basically told me because he thinks it's fine everyone else's opinion must be invalid.

                  https://www.google.com/search?q=skyward+sword+bad+control&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

                  And while you're at it, try not to be a condescending assfuck and tell people how to communicate. See? It's annoying, isn't it?

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                    December 6, 2014 3:25 PM

                    Enjoy your ban. (Again) You need to get off the internet and relax. If that doesn't work, how about you just leave here.

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                December 6, 2014 8:21 PM

                You made a wrong statement for the sole purpose of getting people inflamed and are now angry that those people are responding. Get over it.

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          December 6, 2014 10:54 AM

          The ds touch screen controls sucked. So did the controls of skyward sword. I never did finish skyward sword because the controls were so shit.

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        December 6, 2014 3:20 PM

        You should mix it up and post something positive, just to give it a try. You're getting a reputation.

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          December 6, 2014 3:23 PM

          I think I'll stick with being honest and let the cards fall where they may.

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            December 6, 2014 3:26 PM

            Honesty is fine. Judging people because they are excited about a game, calling people "desperate," etc is just lame. I'm sure you love the attention, but there is a way to be honest without passively judging the very people you have come here to have a dialogue with.

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            December 6, 2014 3:27 PM

            [deleted]

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        December 7, 2014 4:38 AM

        I think you are confused with the current back catalogue the Wii U now has...and to say they don't know the 'vocabulary of modern games that companies have establishes', are you referring to releasing buggy pieces of shit that require us to wait weeks for a usable build, ala Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft?

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      December 5, 2014 10:53 PM

      Most of this looks like a hi-res Skyward Sword. But it's still super early, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a 2016 release.

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      December 6, 2014 12:38 AM

      I'm probably going to watch this 100 times over the weekend. Absolutely incredible.

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      December 6, 2014 1:14 AM

      STAR FOX

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      December 6, 2014 4:13 AM

      Look I'm happy the world is gigantic at all but if they do not actually fill it with things to do it will be just as boring as Hyrule Fields in OoT x 1,000,000. Skyrim is not a big empty world (which they took as reference).

      That's more worrying to me than the supposedly clunky combat system or the hit/blocking sound, for which they don't need a lot of time to polish. Filling the world with content takes a lot of people and time. I do not like that it's already coming out next year. I'm interested to see if they seamlessly add content to the world after release.

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      December 6, 2014 4:15 AM

      Another reason to pick up a Wiiu. Now only if they did something with metroid I'd be unable to resist

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      December 6, 2014 5:23 AM

      Oh my God.. It looks incredible. Love my WiiU

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      December 6, 2014 6:10 AM

      Hmm...less exciting looking than the E3 tease led me to believe. That open world looks...sadly barren :(

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        December 6, 2014 7:09 AM

        [deleted]

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          December 6, 2014 7:22 AM

          I don't see how the Wii U hardware couldn't possibly handle this while 360 & PS3 managed to handle Skyrim...

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            December 6, 2014 7:30 AM

            Exactly this. The horsepower does not matter as much as how developers use it. Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. are beautiful games that scoot along at a smooth and steady 60 FPS. Nintendo has always been the best at wrangling its hardware (often to the detriment of third parties); I have no reason to believe the Wii U isn't up to the task of handling such a bold, beautiful vision.

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        December 6, 2014 7:12 AM

        I kind of thought the same, wonder how far along they are though.

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        December 6, 2014 7:13 AM

        You guys realize the game is at least a year out, right? And that the VGA demo was scripted to show specific mechanics and locations? Just because there wasn't a lot going on in the area they showed doesn't mean the world won't be teeming with things to interact with.

        Also, I'm a quality-over-quantity man. I'd rather Nintendo integrate compelling locations and creatures than have Link stop every 30 seconds to fight a bear.

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          December 6, 2014 7:17 AM

          [deleted]

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            December 6, 2014 7:28 AM

            Zelda is my favorite series in gaming, and the best IP in gaming. I'm on the front lines for this game. :D

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          December 6, 2014 8:49 AM

          I also prefer quality over quantity, by far. This video seems to be showing me that they've built a ridiculously large and empty world, that will do nothing other than waste my time walking back and forth across it. That's my biggest complaint about all open world games. I don't want to pointlessly fight bandits or packs of wolves constantly, either. Starting to think that mega huge world is not appropriate for Zelda. An open world map the same size and scale of Link to the Past, though? That might work. Scale it down and make it more intimate I say.

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            December 6, 2014 11:09 AM

            It just seems so stupid to get uppity about a gameplay demo for a game that's still a year away. The slice of gameplay Nintendo served last night was scripted specifically to show the size of the world. Obviously the team is still hard at work populating it with flora, fauna, and dungeons.

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            December 6, 2014 4:18 PM

            I too get mad about things that aren't final and only shown in tiny pieces. good call

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          December 6, 2014 10:58 AM

          I bet they weren't actually playing it on the Wii-U console they had propped in there just to visually tell people it's a Wii-U game. They were probably playing on a debit which is a huge black box set off screen.

          Also the questions were obviously scripted. Miyamoto already know those answers.

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        December 6, 2014 12:31 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 6, 2014 12:50 PM

        my #1 pet peeve with open worlds is walking for 5 mins to get somewhere. i swear if this game had backtracking or puzzles that require you to goto several locations to figure out.....i will kill

        at least with gta, the driving is fun

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          December 6, 2014 2:53 PM

          I'm sure horseback riding will be fun, and every 3D Zelda has a fast-travel system that unlocks just around the one when you begin to tire of hoofing it. It'll be fine.

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      December 6, 2014 8:18 AM

      Zelda games have always had a balance of content; anyone expecting the 80 hours of Fallout/Skyrim style play with infinite pointless side missions has forgotten what playing a LoZ game is like.

      If the game is a year away, you will most likely see lots of changes/improvements to the combat and camera systems, before even accepting that this is edited demo-play

      I will most likely play and enjoy this, but I'm honestly a little sad that Nintendo won't have this out until 4 years into the life of the Wii-U and it's still cartoony-looking!

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      December 6, 2014 8:35 AM

      More cool games for my wii u please

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      December 6, 2014 11:13 AM

      Looks interesting to me. Looks good for a beta.

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      December 6, 2014 2:57 PM

      I really, really hope they come up with a quest tracking and objectives system. Zelda games have never had one, which is fine for how limited a space they have. But if they're truly going open world, they need to solve that problem.

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        December 6, 2014 3:18 PM

        They had a map marker system in the video. He pointed to it, and the tower was marked on the map. I'm torn about a full blown objectives system. Link WoW would be terrible IMHO, and would kill the illusion of freedom. But something to remind you WTF you needed to do might be nice. Of course, I don't think the game is being designed to be strictly linear. So, I dunno, and will wait and see : /

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        December 6, 2014 3:42 PM

        Not sure I agree with this, sometimes objective markers and exploration don't mix. ALBW was great because it didn't tell you where to go next. I don't want to see a Zelda game with typical open world "visit every icon in the area, then go to the next place and repeat" gameplay.

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      December 6, 2014 3:59 PM

      OMFG MAP BEACONS GUYS!!

    • gmd legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
      reply
      December 6, 2014 4:00 PM

      Zelda Skyrim Sword

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