Miyamoto: Wii Zelda underway with ‘fundamental changes’
Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 10:27am by Jack
So, new Mario and Zelda games are in development. Right. Now. That’s a given, and we knew as much after reporting on the shenanigans at E3 this summer. And then we knew a little more thanks to Reggie at Nintendo’s autumnal press foray a week or so ago (or Atonement, as some would like to call it today).
Forgetting the fact that the past 12 months have been a Nintendo first party bonanza, we want more. It’s how we roll, especially when those games are so, well, good.
But wait. What’s this? There is more? And it’s from the notoriously loose-lipped Shigeru Miyamoto? Do dish, Miyamoto-san, do dish:
“The Zelda team in particular always works on Zelda titles. The core members of the Zelda team have for a very long time now been focused on Zelda games, and continue to focus on Zelda games, so they are hard at work and working away,” Miyamoto said. “And then, of course, we have the DS Zelda team as well, so even there we’re having some switching of people in and out where the DS team is mixing in with the Wii team and working on the Wii version.”
Hmm, still ambiguous at best. Perhaps a follow up question on some first person shooter changes from GDC 2007 will grease the wheels a bit?
At GDC 2007, Eiji Aonuma gave a presentation on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. At that time, he showed a brief snippet of an experimentation the Zelda team conducted — it was Twilight Princess running in the first-person view. We asked Miyamoto if such a fundamental change could await players of Wii’s next Zelda adventure.
“I don’t necessarily think it will change that drastically, but I think that Zelda is a franchise that does need some big new unique ideas,” he said. “And so the team right now is very focused on trying to find those ideas.”
Alright. So we know what a Wii Zelda won’t be. In that respect, we can approach Nintendo’s clandestine new approach to game announcements like Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Any thoughts on Zelda now that we know a FPS design is, thankfully, in the garbage?
October 9th, 2008 at 11:11 am
FPS Zelda game would make me cry, I think. Glad that seems to be out of the question. I would play it, but FPS isn’t my bag, baby.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I say treat it like Mario .. do something new every time!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Hmm, big change, but not a FPS (thankfully). Maybe they are making a Zelda RPG (ala Final Fantasy). Or perhaps they’ll follow Mario’s example and have a Zelda Sports franchise – Zelda and the Medieval Games. Zelda Sims could be a possibility – What will Zelda wear today as he goes out to fight.
Let’s see, how about a Zelda Flight Sim. Fight Giant enemy birds as you control Zelda on his flying horse.
World of Zelda Craft.
Age of Zelda – the Real Time Strategy game.
Zelda Tetris (after all there aren’t that many Tetris games out there, are there?)
Or maybe just a return to a simple Zelda 2D game (after all if Mega Man can do it, why not Zelda?)
Wow, who knows what this new Zelda game will be, there just seems to be so many possibilities.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Here’s a few more possibilities:
Zelda VS. Street Fighter
Endless Hyrule (you just kind of walk around exploring Hyrule, but with nice music)
Zelda Party – Mini games, and more mini games
Zelda’s Mandolin Hero (with DLC)
Zelda the Force Unleashed
Super Paper Zelda
Super Zelda Galaxies
and
House of Ganandorf – a scary slasher game
October 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
No More Zelda
Zelda and Wiki
de Zelda
October 9th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Legend of Zelda Kart!
Kidding, of course. Maybe Epona’s Horse Racing…
No, still kidding.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Thank Hyrule there’s not going to be a FPS interface.
However, one major feature I want to see in the next Zelda game is the all-so-awesome Second Quest!
Swap everything around, completely new dungeons, different key items in different places, different locations for your heart pieces, everything!
Two quests in one game, just like the original!
I just got to have that in the next one!
October 9th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
How about the anti-Zelda game? You play as Ganon and have to get the other 2 pieces of the Triforce from Link and Zelda to take over Hyrule. You can destroy villages and intimidate people and be completely ruthless. I’d be interested to see how their implementation of that idea would end up.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
It is either going to be a Strategy Role Playing Game, or they are finally going to change Link’s attire!
I lean more towards the second…
October 9th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
@Scott – I imagine that would look a lot like Fable 2.
Zelda isn’t RPG, it’s puzzle solving and exploration. That, along with its 3rd person perspective (a character that you control, but who is himself and not you) are the essence of Zelda games.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Modern Day Zelda! People give you weird looks for dressing like that…Or better yet The Life of a Link Cosplayer.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
@burndive – Yea, I did think of Fable 2 or Knights of the Old Republic somewhat, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be RPG in that sense. Ganon could still be a character that you control and he could still be himself and not you.
In Zelda games, you take the hero through a quest with preset objectives and various side quests and collectibles, like you said. This type of gameplay could be left in place and you could simply play *as* Ganon. That departure wouldn’t necessarily be in gameplay so much as the perspective the story was told from.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
@Scott: I think that your idea could work.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
LOL you know what is funny I know what I would pay for. I didn’t really care for the last few zeldas but if they can make a 3d zelda like the snes version with the possibility of sword fighting with the motion+ capabilities I would be fine with that. Some thing like and over head zelda that has different play styles mixed with in.
Another thing was in the first zelda I would go to some parts of the map just to fight some thing because they where fun to fight. Seriously if they can make the fighting fun again they will find the magic of zelda once more.
If they need an idea for the story I say they should do a metaphor on how nintendo fans left them for final fantasy. That would actually be a sweet concept.
A zelda taking place in a apple seed world would be cool… how would that happen well ganon is from the future of course!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
[...] it seems, we’re on the cusp of yet another change for these two marquee franchise players. For the better part of the past year or so, Nintendo execs [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 7:52 am
That wasn’t exactly a “no” to the FPS deal.
I just hope that the changes are for the better and not for the sake of changing.
I’m kind of worried that there’s always and only a Zelda team making Zelda games. It shows in TP’s slight stagnation (though perhaps it’s more the fault of pleasing the fanboy’s pleas for “Ocarina of Time update please!”). I just hope they can deliver something great once again.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
2 words…….four swords.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Well it’s been known for the longest time that Twilight Princess would be the last Zelda in that style of gameplay. But it’s clearly obvious that Nintendo won’t do a first person style considering all the criticisms against the Crossbow Training control scheme. But I could see something more modern. I just hope that either the game will take advantage of the power and either give me more highly detailed textures and a higher poly count, or more than 8-10 dungeons. More like twenty would be nice. I really want a LONG zelda game that will take more than two weeks for me to complete.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
How about a return to Wind Waker!That is still my favorite Zelda game.
Or maybe Zelda Land:Shake It.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Just thought of another one:Zelda’s Island