It does look really good. I've never been one for the whole "Zelda needs to be OoT every game forever" mantra, so the way they're seemingly just trying out a whole bunch of new ideas is refreshing (even if they aren't exactly fresh concepts these days).

Plus, the visual style. Very close second to Wind Waker for "most beautiful".

The game has been awarded IGNs Game of E3 2016.

I dunno, anybody who would say that you have something against women for choosing to stick with the male main character you've had for thirty years now shouldn't be taken seriously at all. Forums and gaming press will post it as a news story to get some clicks and then such a claim would die down. Remember when someone complained that none of the three GTA V protagonists are female? Yeah, that was pretty dumb, that went away pretty fast.

Anyway, I think most of these ideas came from that initial trailer for this game. It really wasn't clear if the main character in that trailer was male or female and that sparked a lot of interest and curiosity (frankly, at the time, I was rooting for a female Link and I'm a dude).

Back on topic, I still haven't really seen everything from this year's show - I've never been able to just sit down and watch everything at any given E3 - but Zelda easily stole the show for me. I'm not generally a fan of this series but I've got a strong urge to go out and buy a Wii U and the Wind Waker/Twilight Princess HD versions now because I just want something like this to play. Anything.

I've been watching some more of the gameplay that's come out of E3, and I don't think I initially realized just how emergent and open the combat sandbox in this game truly is. Seeing the breadth of possibilities and freedom the mechanics present is making me even more excited for this game than I already was, if that's possible.

The idea of experimenting with the systems, mechanics, environment and AI to explore all kinds of different ways to approach combat in a Zelda game is incredibly exciting.

I hope Tingle is straight in this game...

An interview with Miyamoto on the new Zelda. Seems he is not taking as much of a hands-off role as he has done in the past. That much seems clear tbh.

A portion of a GameKult interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...

GK: To begin with, I would like to talk about the filiation between Breath of the Wild and the original Zelda for the NES. Do you still play the original game from time to time to see how the series has evolved?

Miyamoto: The relationship between Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda first comes from the reactions of people who have been able to test the game, we are not trying to recreate the first Zelda. At the time, the latter was created with the idea of freedom of action and a miniature garden in mind. When the series started to evolve, we went to make more and more games with only one path to follow, which pushed us to create larger and more complex dungeons, to imagine enigmas requiring specific items which ended up giving very sequential games. We then decided to go back to the roots of the series and we started developing the game we are showing today.

GK: I noticed that the game had more numerical data than usual, but in contrast, the Rupees counter and money in general seems to have disappeared from the game. Is that the case and if yes, why?

Miyamoto: As part of the reinvention of the Zelda conventions, we focused on the rupees’ case because we had a lot of feedback on the fact that you could pick up a lot, but there were not enough ways to spend them. As items to collect in such a free and open game, we thought they lost their benefits, even if they’re in the game in a different way involving combinations and other surprises in the final version.

GK: What is your level of involvement in such an important project for Nintendo?

Miyamoto: In the past, I was heavily invested in Zelda, whether for establishing the basis or to adjust small details on the way. With the help of my colleagues, I could deliver a key game in hand and then let the team take care of the closure. Today, considering the size of the game in the works, there are a lot of different teams in charge of the production, including one responsible for the physics engine’s integration, for exemple. So, I have especially been doing small tests on the way Link controls and reacts to the player’s orders, but I leave the developers take care of the rest after validating a checklist. As we are approaching the end of the development, I think I will be more involved to polish the game as much as possible.

GK: We regularly talk about the possibility to include a female character in a Zelda game for several years. Considering her important role in the story and the name of the series, can we expect to see in the future a game with Zelda as the main protagonist? If Tingle managed to have two games in his glory on DS, surely it is possible to do something, right?

Miyamoto: We clearly talked with the team to make a game centered about Sheik, so I cannot say it is impossible to see something of the sort in the future, but in the classic games in the series, Link is the hero and that will not change. For the rest, you have to be patient and see what happens!

What does this mean?

I've been invited to play the demo at Hyper Japan later this week. Very excited!

So, according to Bill Trinnen, you can create a hoverboard by placing two metal planks on top of each other then hitting them with the Magnisis rune. I am naturally wondering what could be done on a metal floor and a metal shield, and wonder how you could propel yourself forward.

WoW the trailer is awesome

Graphically, it looks dated. There's a lot of emptiness with muddy textures. The palm trees in the beginning of the trailer are quite rough/simple. The horse and moose animations still look embarrassingly cheap and amateurish, like Skyrim rather than Shadow of the Colossus or RDR. I expect more from a publisher with as much money and quality as Nintendo.

Open world Hyrule could get pretty boring. The demo had the player doing so much nothing. I kind of wish they'd drop all transportation from the series for more dense and thoughtful level design, like Dark Souls.

Yeah, I was too. Really though, I'd like a new series in a similar style from Nintendo, possibly featuring a girl. Why does it have to be Sheik? (Referring to the interview with Miyamoto.) Be more creative than that. I'm rather sick of Hyrule and its lore.

@ezekiel: You've gotta remember that this is a Wii U game, man. That console is about as powerful as the Xbox 360.

That said, the game may be dated graphically but I don't care about that. Aesthetically, I think it looks pretty stunning. I saw a handful of comparisons to Miyazaki movies, particularly Princess Mononoke, and I can't think of a higher complement for something going for this sort of art style. I just hope it performs well, but Nintendo tries their best to make games run at 1080p60 so I'm pretty sure performance will be fine.

The demo had the player doing so much nothing.

Really? I watched those gameplay videos so many times. I've never been a big Zelda fan, the only two games I've finished in the series are A Link Between Worlds and Wind Waker (and Twilight Princess pretty soon, close to the end of that, that one's probably been my favorite so far), but the gameplay I saw in Breath of the Wild sold me on both the game and a Wii U to play it on. As someone who loved Skyrim mostly because of all the wandering through beautifully hand-crafted fantasy environments, this game looks great.

@ezekiel said:

Man, it must suck to be you.

I mean, sorry, I don't mean to offend, but god, the game looks fine.

@fnrslvr: Eh, some textures do stick out as pretty poor, and I'm not terribly picky about graphical fidelity. Whether the art style makes up for it is subjective.

It looks two generations old at times. Nintendo needs to stop being cheap with their hardware. It's not just the system limitations, though. Like I said, the quadrupedal animations look poor.

The only Miyazaki/Mononoke-hime I see in the trailer are those religious rocks in the fields and the low clouds (highlands), which is kind of a stretch. I think people are just saying that because of the music in the beginning combined with the green. I'd love an action-adventure collaboration with Miyazaki.

It doesn't look quite as good as the first trailer. It'll be fine though. You don't play Nintendo games for top of the range graphics.

Nintendo have released a new trailer/clip on their Facebook page, which is related to cooking. Its nothing special, but I've noticed the textures look significantly better than those seen in the demo version. I don't think it's the NX version, but I do think the game is running well enough on Wii U in order for them to push more texture quality.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=Voe_9CSy6Gs

This game looks so great. I tend to be very reserved about games before they are released but my hype levels are through the roof. Must.keep.myself.in.check.