Quick Look: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Here we go!

Feature. Length. *makes popcorn*

Seriouly debating on whether to watch this or wait.

I am really wondering about the U version, I do not want a Switch

H E R E W E G O ! ! !

This looks real good. So many games, so little time.

I can't wait for this to arrive in the mailbox tomorrow!

The game looks great, but I don't know about the UI.... Looks kinda like placeholder art.

I'll wait for the HD re-release.

90 hours in? Jesus christ Dan!

This game looks good. Really wish I had a Switch (or WiiU)
EDIT: Have to say, graphically it looks a bit..messy? And the framerate, man that is some chugging at parts.

@probablytuna: I'm so happy the UI still looks like it does! When we first saw it, I was afraid it was going to be changed before release, either overall or for western localisation. I think what you refer to as "placeholder" is the exact same thing that makes it look fresh to me. A lot of fantasy game UI is over-wrought, this is minimalistic and easy to ignore.

That framerate

Yeesh this framerate. What a freaking bummer.

@cloudenvy: there is an wii u emulator in the works so in the future you could play the game with no framerate drops

This will be such a divisive game, for some people the framerate will be a dealbreaker (and I imagine people will be using overblown terms like "technical mess" and "unplayable" which is always a bit extreme) and for some it might not even register. Really interesting to compare this to Horizon.

Yeah to each their own. I just feel like it doesn't gel with the overall art style they're going for.

I'm with ya.. a lot of the menu's and stuff looks really out of place and weirdly "early access"

I really love this sense of adventure. Even in this showcase video, there are really fun, unexpected moments like when they land on the plateau and a golem pops up. It's an interesting contrast to Horizon. Both of them do the tribal stuff with old scifi technology in a post-post-apocalypse, but their approaches are very different. Horizon is like New Vegas or something in how they have their factions and societies, or at least that's the impression that comes to mind when I think about their main writer's earlier games. Zelda reminds me of Castle in the Sky, or possibly Nausicaa. I think the combat of Horizon might look cooler when you don't clear out freaking bandit camps Far Cry Style, but the sense of adventure here is awakening something inside me that doesn't get a good game often enough. It's like Shadow of the Colossus, or to a certain extent Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma, there's a specific charm to a fantasy world that's all about going out and exploring a world while fighting huge monsters. Zelda is unique in that space because of its puzzle focus, lighter tone and artstyles compared to the rest. It's also great that they've made a bunch of tools available from the start that allow you to float, for instance. I'm way into the hang glider in this, the leaf didn't get enough use in Wind Waker.

This game doesn't have a very dark night, either, though. And the weapon degradation sounds like a pain.

But of course, I grew up a Nintendo player and I don't normally notice framerate. Certainly not in this video. I still think we can at least agree that this video is a stronger quick look than Horizon's.

Game looks innovative and fun, but I'm not sure I can get past that frame rate. Don't know if it's the video or what, but the frame rate seems a lot worse than how they're describing it.

framerate WTF ? O_o

Oh man this makes me want a Switch so much. But it's almost 400 dollars here in Finland. :--(

I've never played a Zelda game, and have no reverence for the series, but seeing Link climb all over stuff was the coolest thing I've seen in games in a while. Besides from Grow Home, I can't think of a game where the player-character could climb everything. I'm never going to play this game, but that's cool has hell.

I will note that several outlets have reported that the framerate drops are far fewer in handheld mode, which leads me to believe it is the 900p resolution on TV that causes it.

Yeah! :D

Dammit just when I was starting to look into getting a Ps4 this happens.

It's also on the Wii U...

@hellforce: Yup, but i don't have that one either. I just have the 3DS from this generation of Nintendo. I'll have to wait at least a while to see if Switch will replace Nintendos dedicated handhelds or not and think again at that point.

aww yiss

main reason I want Switch, but will wait for more games

I'm so happy this has had such positive responses. Have been planning to give this a shot hoping it's the 3D Zelda which grabs me (I've had fun in the past, but never finished one). Now I'm undecided on Wii U vs Switch - The Switch gets super expensive, but I'll probably pick one up eventually anyway and it does have that screenshot button.

Either way I might just hold off a little while and see. There's so many good games right now and this is yet another one on that big pile of fun (which is great, but also almost overwhelmingly so).

Man, Link is killing it with those pylometrics.

I feel like I'd be more interested if this was anything but The Legend of Zelda. The world and art of LoZ has never grabbed me. And the desperate attempts to be like Ghibli aren't doing it for me either.

I like all the little details and interactions, but the overall experience just doesn't look compelling enough to me.

@alistercat: It is rather strange though. I would have to think it was a bug. The TV mode runs at more than double the clock speed of the hand held mode going by Digital Foundry's reports of the Switch hardware. It should be more than capable of playing the game at a stable 30fps at 900p if the hand held mode is stable at 720p. I'm wondering if it's just not clocking up correctly and thus the dips are occurring.

@mrcraggle: Brute forcing with clock speed might not yield the results you'd think it would. I'm not a developer so I can't say. I also don't know if everything is identical except for resolution in handheld, though it seems like it.

The lack of direction and the amount of freedom this game has just makes me wonder what the point of playing is then. I'm not saying I want this to be like Far Cry or any other open world game with useless side-quests and meaningless collectibles littered everywhere. There doesn't even seem like there's a story driving the game, especially if you can confront Ganon whenever you want. Why would I want to do any of it? I don't know. Maybe I'm broken.

I'm getting this game with my Switch tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out soon enough.

@razzuel: I am with you in liking my story driven narrative games...I recommend computer RPGs to you as they are the only place this still exists...

This game looks real blurry to me.

I'm not sure I can finish watching the video. The blurriness hurts my brain.

Because... because it's fun? I don't know about you, but I play games because they're fun to play, story or no story.

I can't wait to play this game.

EDIT: Man, I wish that framerate was more stable though. I feel like that will bother me.

REMEMBER LINK, THIS IS A SNEAKING MISSION

Chiming in here, I don't have fun if I feel like I'm wasting my time; regardless of what mechanics the game has. And I feel like I'm wasting my time if whatever I'm doing isn't either advancing the story or unlocking an ability/item/mcguffin necessary to open up new areas of the game.

To each their own.

Seeing about 10 seconds of the late game did it for me. I want to play this game.

The hype is real.

nintendo's like, "fuck you, take care of the waypoints yourself kids!"

55:40 was pretty damn funny.

Why is this Dark Souls.

Piles of crap loot and weapon degradation. Why would you do this.

There's nothing I love more than giant maps and a rapidly draining stamina bar. Good times.

Well that framerate sure is unfortunate...bracing myself for what the Wii U version's going to be like.

Then again, I played through Diablo III four times on a netbook at a 13fps average and survived every console Bethesda game, so I'm sure I'll adapt...especially since this seems to be as close to my conception of a perfect open world game as we're likely to see any time soon.

I bought a 500 dollar tablet 2 weeks ago and need a new monitor soon so it's so hard to justify buying a switch when I have no friends since it's really focused on a lot of coop games. I want to play this despite being emotionally invested in horizons story I think there is room for more games and more video game systems.

If I could buy this and return it before the 30 days were up I would do that because income is so limited. I'm so torn on the switch. I don't have a giant TV and I don't have a ton of interest in the library but I have hope for future titles and don't want to miss out. This looks beautiful. It's almost last Gen compared to some games but the vibrant colors are really beautiful.

Same.