4th March 2017, 3:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 4th March 2017, 6:07 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
Breath of the Wild is Nintendo's answer to complaints about Skyward Sword. I actually liked the aesthetic of Skyward Sword, but it's clear they did lose a lot in execution as you said. Their desire to tell a story meant you just weren't allowed to do what you will.
If you're worried about motion controls, the only motion controls in Wild are for aiming, and they are entirely optional. In fact, the control are as modular as they've ever been in a Zelda game. The default camera speed is pitiful, so I'm glad I was able to increase it this time. If you don't like where Jump is, you can reassign it, though button reassignment is pretty limited.
The game isn't narrative heavy. I mean, it's there, but you spend most of your time saying "oooh, what's THAT" and then going and finding "that". This extends to the minimalist tutorial. Your buttons all work right out of the gate and you can even jump ahead in the "this is how you do this" just by finding out how to do it accidentally beforehand. The "tutorial" is a brief blurb in the upper-right corner you can just ignore (or if you missed it, pause the game and look at the tutorial information in a small list, so you never have to worry you missed something important). Heck, the first area functions as a tutorial but much more like how the first section of Super Metroid or Link to the Past (or Link's Awakening) function as one. You learn by doing, and the environment just is filled with places you can use the commands you just used. They never hit you over the head with it or have some NPC scream at you for wanting to bypass some mandatory tutorial on climbing a box. (I have one big issue with Skyward Sword's tutorials beyond that. Slow slow tutorial, right up until they throw you off a cliff and force you to learn to fly just before tossing you into a race, and if you want to reset and try again when you're doing badly, well, you get to do all of that over again without any real opportunity to just casually figure out flying beforehand.)
The art design isn't the watercolor look of Skyward Sword. It's more of a mix of cel shading like Wind Waker and the more realistic proportions of Skyward Sword. I think it looks really good myself. Here's the thing, I don't WANT just one art style for Zelda. I don't consider any one style the "iconic look" for Zelda, and really don't want fans getting into that sort of expectation. Zelda as a series has really set itself apart for changing up it's art style significantly almost every entry, and I've grown to, like Plucky Duck, expect the unexpected. So long as we don't end up with something that looks like Wand of Gamalon, I want to see what new styles they come up with. If you'd prefer something a bit more like Twilight Princess, wait a few games and something darker like that may come up. As it stands, the look suits the game well, really emphasizing the places in Hyrule and the way nature has overrun it all.
Anyway, as for exclusives, I'm already sold on Super Mario Odyssey. It is so weird that the system launches with Zelda only for Mario to come later. Well, not really, that's what happened on the Wii too, but it FEELS weird.
I thought I'd tell you something quirky. When I first plugged in the Zelda cart, the system didn't detect it. I ended up cleaning the pins on the cart in the age old ways of our people, at which point it worked fine. Some things never change.
If you're worried about motion controls, the only motion controls in Wild are for aiming, and they are entirely optional. In fact, the control are as modular as they've ever been in a Zelda game. The default camera speed is pitiful, so I'm glad I was able to increase it this time. If you don't like where Jump is, you can reassign it, though button reassignment is pretty limited.
The game isn't narrative heavy. I mean, it's there, but you spend most of your time saying "oooh, what's THAT" and then going and finding "that". This extends to the minimalist tutorial. Your buttons all work right out of the gate and you can even jump ahead in the "this is how you do this" just by finding out how to do it accidentally beforehand. The "tutorial" is a brief blurb in the upper-right corner you can just ignore (or if you missed it, pause the game and look at the tutorial information in a small list, so you never have to worry you missed something important). Heck, the first area functions as a tutorial but much more like how the first section of Super Metroid or Link to the Past (or Link's Awakening) function as one. You learn by doing, and the environment just is filled with places you can use the commands you just used. They never hit you over the head with it or have some NPC scream at you for wanting to bypass some mandatory tutorial on climbing a box. (I have one big issue with Skyward Sword's tutorials beyond that. Slow slow tutorial, right up until they throw you off a cliff and force you to learn to fly just before tossing you into a race, and if you want to reset and try again when you're doing badly, well, you get to do all of that over again without any real opportunity to just casually figure out flying beforehand.)
The art design isn't the watercolor look of Skyward Sword. It's more of a mix of cel shading like Wind Waker and the more realistic proportions of Skyward Sword. I think it looks really good myself. Here's the thing, I don't WANT just one art style for Zelda. I don't consider any one style the "iconic look" for Zelda, and really don't want fans getting into that sort of expectation. Zelda as a series has really set itself apart for changing up it's art style significantly almost every entry, and I've grown to, like Plucky Duck, expect the unexpected. So long as we don't end up with something that looks like Wand of Gamalon, I want to see what new styles they come up with. If you'd prefer something a bit more like Twilight Princess, wait a few games and something darker like that may come up. As it stands, the look suits the game well, really emphasizing the places in Hyrule and the way nature has overrun it all.
Anyway, as for exclusives, I'm already sold on Super Mario Odyssey. It is so weird that the system launches with Zelda only for Mario to come later. Well, not really, that's what happened on the Wii too, but it FEELS weird.
I thought I'd tell you something quirky. When I first plugged in the Zelda cart, the system didn't detect it. I ended up cleaning the pins on the cart in the age old ways of our people, at which point it worked fine. Some things never change.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)