Quick Look: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

@jacksukeru said:

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/a-link-between-worlds/0/0

Iwata

The subtitle in Japanese is Triforce of the Gods 2, but it's a completely different game, so they aren't using the "2" overseas.

Aonuma

Overseas, the subtitle for the earlier game was A Link to the Past.

Iwata

Now it will be A Link Between Worlds.

Aonuma

Yes. This time instead of "linking" to the past, the setting of the new game takes place far in the future, and the story passes between the two worlds of Hyrule and Lorule.

Iwata

So that's why it's called A Link Between Worlds.

Aonuma

Right. In Japan, though, it didn't feel out of place to add a "2" to Triforce of the Gods, so we decided on that. Some of the staff, however, thought that would encourage people to think it is a remake.

Shikata

There was even talk of calling it The New Legend of Zelda like there's New Super Mario! (laughs)

Everyone

(laughs)

Aonuma

But we use the game world of Hyrule and the top-down point of view. Because of those similarities, we decided on The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods 2 here in Japan.

And now you know. :)

@def: Thanks :)

meh

Jeff got out at the right time, that HyRULES joke set a unprecedented high for the rest of the Quick Look that couldn't be matched.

He certainly fluffs games really good. :P

Seriously though, maybe Brad shouldn't heve the controller for quick looks... Ever.

Anyway, since another reply I made on this thread got eaten, I'll have to repeat my indecisiveness about this game again. One one hand, it's more LttP, and hell yeah more LttP! On the other hand, it's more LttP, and once more demonstrates Nintendo's complete inability make anything outside of minigames that isn't rooted in nostalgia. I'll pick it up and have fun with it most likely, but would it be too much to ask for some originality from what was once the most creative publisher in the industry?

@yukoasho: Unless you bought a Virtual Boy, I'm not sure anyone has the right to complain about Nintendo's originality. Neither can you ignore that the hardware exists to cultivate and promote originality. Would Hotel Dusk exist without the DS? I don't think it would have any impact as a browser game. I just bought Jason Rohrer's game pack on DSiWare and love having it. That motherfucker made a diamond trading simulator and self published it. Nintendo has the indie juice.

For software (developing and publishing), they roll the dice and win so many times, but they do it by not betting their cachet of good will every single year. Metroid Prime, big hit; Other M, not so much. Epic Yarn, the pinnacle of Kirby. Skyward Sword, tutorial city. Kid Icarus' reboot actually worked out, and it took them forever. For chrissake they put out a 4-minute garden simulation that is actually a modicum of entertainment. Tell me the last time the system music or audio on a handheld wasn't delightful and iconic. It can't be done, because they have the best people doing it. Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Fire Emblem, Layton, Mario (Galaxy, Paper, & Luigi, etc.), all of which are still increasingly good through iteration. Variety does not sacrifice originality. Don't treat video games like a junkie who has built up immunity to sequels, you're going to miss out on good stuff.

The problem with wanting NEW_IP_TITLE_2013, is that we all hope it will be so good that we'll naturally want another. And then next time we complain when they choose a sequel over NEW_IP_TITLE_2015. We should stop doing that, because it implies quantity over quality, and when the most played Nintendo games boil down to the same half-dozen Nintendo and Mario releases, we prove that quality is what makes Nintendo games worth replaying.

I'm not going to argue with iteration, it clearly has its place. However, the last new IP from the former kinds was Pikmin. They just... Stopped after that, content to drill 20+ year old franchises through the dirt. Iteration is fine, but when companies that have franchises that haven't been around as long and have shown consistent improvement get ripped to shreds for sequelitis, the double-standard given to Nintendo is nothing short of revolting.

Note: I'm not saying these games are bad. Hell no, I'm gonna be picking up Super Mario 3D World and Link Between Worlds as soon as I'm able. Probably not at the same time as I need to start buying Christmas gifs, but I'll have them both by year's end. They look hella fun. But they also look practiced, rote, expected. Nintendo hasn't taken a chance on software in years, and while their games are still awesome, I refuse to turn a blind eye to the fact that they get away with things that the rest of this industry would be eviscerated on the internet for.

You're mistaking new IP for creative risk. That's a false equivalency.

Within its long-running franchises, Nintendo takes risks, more than any other studio in any other franchise. Every Halo game is the same. Every Call of Duty. Every Uncharted. Refined, sure, with some new bits, but nothing on the level of a Galaxy, or a Metroid Prime, or a Wind Waker. All established franchises, all games that could have been new IP for all they broke from tradition.

No, not everything Nintendo puts out holds this up -- the 'New' Mario games are fairly tired, and Mario Kart hasn't had a new idea since Double Dash, which everyone except me hated, apparently. But more often than not, it does.

People seem to tell themselves a lot of lies about the nature of Nintendo games. It's weird. You say they get slack (actually, you say that you 'refuse to turn a blind eye' like Nintendo is perpetrating some great crime and you are the one lone voice brave enough to stand against their tyranny of not doing what you think they should be doing, which is as stupid as it is offensive), but your 'argument' here is as rote as anything you accuse Nintendo of. Every Nintendo game comes out to this same fanfare. The moaning of the nerds; "Nintendo is franchises! Nintendo is boring!" But they aren't.

I do share a wish for Nintendo to make new IP. But I don't accuse what they are currently doing as somehow 'less-than' because it might be dressed up in familiar trappings. As a development house, they are as creative as ever. I just want more.

I have no problem with Sequals, My problem is justifying buying a 300$ console for the same games I played last year, and have been playing for all my life. I bought a 3DS and will probably buy the 4ds and the d5s when they come. Because there is no better handheld.

Nintendo has inovated. With out Nintendo we would not have the Kinect or the PS Eye or PS Camera, for better or worse. But Nintentendo over values their name, game mechanics, and brands. And undervalues third party support, good intuitive UI, and graphics.

The Nintendo wasnt a good looking system, but I got it over the Genisis because it has more games then the Genisis, and it was cheaper. Now its not cheaper, nor dose it have more games. Its just bad looking.

Best QL intro in ages. The melancholy Kakariko Village music playing over the aftermath took it to another level.

I don't know, I saw a whole lot of Mario 64 in the Sunshine and Galaxy games, and Zelda has been creatively frozen since Ocarina, despite Aonuma continually telling us that, no, this next game's going to shake the foundations.

Really, Nintendo hasn't introduced anything in the way of memorable new game mechanics since Wii Sports (take it or leave it).

And yet, you and many others praise them as paragons of innovation even while slagging off Bungie, Naughty Dog, IW/Treyarch, and the lot of them who also iterate more than they innovate. If there wasn't an obvious double standard, I wouldn't be having this conversation. If gamers who claimed to want creativity didn't jizz all over themselves at a glorified LttP expansion pack, none of thise would matter. I love the games, but I'm not going to fall into the trap of worshipping them as anything more than another gaming development house.

Who knows, maybe 30 years from now people will be holding the companies we're slagging today as gaming gods through the sheer, unrelenting force of nostalgia.

@yukoasho: maybe if you play some 3d World or A Link Between Worlds you wouldn't be so grouchy all the time.

what am I not getting here? I didnt play old 2d zelda and to be honest this looks pretty boring, was it just the way he was playing? I mean getting a buzz out of cutting grass? what next farmville?

I want to know what happened after Jeff took his mic off god damn it!

omg why did you all cut the video?!?!?! that shit was the best

You must have missed some text prompts because some things are plain wrong. Prompt the weapons again and you can buy them for 800 rupees, you get the sprint super early, it's on the left bumper.

Can someone make a list of games that Brad has claimed to be weird? I feel like it happens every quick look he is in, basically!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8jNkAAM9gU

Starting at 1:40 ... probably one of the Top 10 QL-Moments ever.

It's kind of cute that he thinks he's halfway through the game in this quick look.

Amazing intro!

Brad Shoemaker—Professional Videogamesman.

This game looks fantastic in person. People just watching videos don't know what they're talking about. About halfway through now too and really enjoying the game. Finally making me upgrade to an XL too. Nintendo has dominated my gaming the last few months or so, good to see some quality stuff coming out.

Oh wow. I've gotta have this. Been needing me some Zelda.

@beachthunder: Uh, that's exactly what this is, right? Unless you mean sprite based 2D graphics as well, in which case my bad!

This isn't 2D in any sense of the word...

@beachthunder: Well, I guess I thought maybe you were using "2D Zelda game" as a byword for games in the tradition of LTTP, Link's Awakening etc... which is to say games that are played from an overhead view rather than in the third person view established by Ocarina of Time. In that sense, even though this game uses polygonal graphics and the stereoscopic 3D effect of the 3DS in some cunning ways, I would describe this as a new 2D Zelda game. Perhaps "top-down vs. behind the back" is a more accurate description of the two styles, but I doubt I am alone in thinking of Zelda games as 2D or 3D depending on their play style rather than their graphics.

This is why I wondered if you were specifically referring to the graphics, as opposed to the gameplay associated with a 2D Zelda title, in which case I understand the craving since Minish Cap was so long ago and, in my opinion, not among the strongest entries in the series.

@2headedninja: I dunno, that QL with Jonathan Frakes is pretty funny!

I've not played a Zelda game past the second one, for reasons that still seem accurate. I may pick this up, though. The intro to this Quick Look may or may not have helped push that decision.

Am I crazy, or was something edited out of the beginning of this video at 0:58?

I swear when this QL first came out there wasn't that fade to black there for a second. did someone say something offensive like that time when Ryan shouted out a bad word?

What about Xenoblade, Last Story, Wonderful 101, the weird Kirby experiments like Mass Attack, bringing back Kid Icarus after 20-some years and in a completely different fashion, new games they've on the eShop like Dillon's Rolling Western or Pushmo?

Nintendo experiments within its franchises. But even then, to say they haven't created something new in years is ridiculous.

@bbqbram said:

A lot of what they said about the game was odd/confusing. The game has so many parallels to Link to the Past, not because it's a "pseudo sequel/remake" but because it's an actually proper sequel. I'm not sure how he could be at that point in the game and not have realised that, they even make a big deal about a legend of the hero from LttP near the begining and many characters reference the events.

@mrmazz: The 3D in this game looks really sharp. Adds a lot.

Those see-saws had me stumped for a bit too. Drew clocked on to the solution much quicker than me.

After hearing the remixed dark world music I ABSOLUTELY NEED THIS GAME oh shit, wow.

@spunkyhepanda said:

In all fairness to Brad, I was stuck for at least as long as he was in Turtle Rock before I figured out you could freeze the hinge. Granted, I used my time more productively and accessed more rooms than Brad did by merging with the wall and whatever, but I was still thinking "There are a bunch of areas I clearly can't access, what gives?"

Freezing lava made sense to me, but with the see-saws, I just assumed there would be some kind of weight you would leave on one end. Video games do that so often! Having finished the dungeon, the weird part with those see-saws is that you basically never have to ascend both sides, so effectively they all become one-way ramps once you learn to freeze them, because the other side, if raised, would lead to nothing.

The only other dungeon I got stuck on was the hookshot water dungeon (Swamp Palace?) that Brad kept trying to dive into and failed (hint: that giant cracked rock right in front of the dungeon is pretty important). Also, it's tragic that Brad ALMOST saw a hint ghost, but it was slightly south of the dungeon entrance, closer to the rock. I got in the hookshot water dungeon fine, but I didn't realize the full extent of what the hookshot could do in the dungeon and thought I had to come back later with an upgraded Ice Rod that would make ice platforms (in my defense, that is totally how the ice dungeon in Majora's Mask worked, and it was cool).

@eaxis said:

Brad didn't "miss some text prompts". Both of those things just hadn't happened yet in Brad's file.

I think Ravio doesn't offer to let you buy stuff until you've rented everything, and re-enter the shop. I think this can trigger before you unlock the Sand Rod in the shop, because I'm pretty sure I had everything rented within like a couple hours of playing, and by the time I unlocked the Sand Rod, he gave me the option to rent it, or just buy it right away.

Anyway, in this case, Brad was sitting on 4000 rupees, so I assume he intentionally didn't rent everything, so that he could show off Ravio's shop in the Quick Look. The downside is that he would've had to re-enter the shop after renting everything for it to tell him about buying, but he didn't re-enter it during the Quick Look.

As for dash boots, the game doesn't force you to get them. Along with the bug-catching net, the dash boots are totally optional. The net is near useless though easy to find; conversely, the dash boots are much harder to find, but allow you access to what feels like 30-40 Maiamais. At least for me, I had already written off the thief in town as uncatchable without the dash boots, so I stopped even thinking about him, because I didn't realize that he actually has the dash boots.

Game looks like a flash game/f2p ios game art wise.

This has childhood memories all over it! -- Everything is different it seems except for the map, music, sound effects and enemies. Which is I think just the right amount.

I would give my left eyebrow for a video of the first couple of minutes of this!

Paper Zelda: A Link to the Past?

For someonoe who grew up on the old 2D Zelda games on NES and SNES but have no nostalgia for N64 Zelda because I only had a PS1 that generation this is far more appealing than Ocarina of Time.