The February 2010 issue of the Japanese gaming magazine Nintendo Dream came packaged with a 100-page Zelda art book, featuring artwork from the original Legend of Zelda all the way through Spirit Tracks. I’m happy to announce that we at ZeldaPower have the full book scanned and uploaded for your viewing pleasure!
1UP is now competing with IGN for coverage of the The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary so I thought I would post the various articles and links to videos and podcasts from their extravaganza here. Clicking on the above image leads to the main page and each of the following images leads to their respective pages.
Discuss! Oh, and lets try to keep the futile arguments of the Zelda timeline to a minimum just for the sake of the threads collective sanity. What are you going to do to celebrate 25 years of Zelda? I think I'm going to play through Twilight Princess again (third time, whoo!) as I actually just played through A Link to the Past again recently. Those two games, incidentally, are also my two favorite games in the series as it stands thus far. We need not argue over which game is the best here though. Share your own opinions and rejoice that the Zelda series will be with us for many many years to come.
And the game I'm looking to forward to the most this year: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Easily. Also really really looking forward to playing through The Ocaina of Time again though, in 3D!
Skyward Sword also channels Wind Waker in distinct ways.
[...]
More importantly, the journey feels like Wind Waker; upon gaining access to your air-bound Loftbird, there's an enormous sky canvas to paint on. Feel like aimlessly wandering? You can. See an island in the distance and suspect a heart piece might be in the bushes? Find out! I didn't have a chance to discover much but I did poke around the map, and it was clear Nintendo has spent the last half-a-decade making sure there are plenty to find. Completionists should be excited...and scared.
man how did the other Zelda thread even get so borked?
Its a secret to everyone.
Actually, I tried to simply make a post in it and then . . . chaos! My suspicion now is that Ganon has escaped the Sacred Realm and is mucking things up just to be a dick.
The eyes seem a bit off (maybe the heavy eyelashes) but otherwise I like the style/character design just fine. And holy crap there is a lot of video and information out there.
Profile -> Signature Settings -> Hide signatures always. Then you don't have to read this worthless text anymore.
That other thread is so borked it frightens me a little.
Yay Zelda! I am moving back and forth between wanting to go on a media blackout, and realizing that it's almost 2 months away and I don't know if I have that much patience.
There's a video of a mid-air fight in the sense of you riding your bird into battle against a giant flying creature, but it's unclear if you actually get to attack while on the bird or if you only get to maneuver the bird into a position where you can jump onto the creature, a la SoTC.
I can't decide whether that looks huge or incredibly small without context.
It's the underworld/surface. The sky is supposed to be huge, like WW's ocean. The underworld is of unknown size but it is said that the individual parts that you jump into from the sky are unconnected.
@Inkyblots ... eh. Most videogames have terrible voice acting; I'd rather have none than bad or mediocre. Actually I would prefer to just have less cut scenes in Zelda altogether, though at least this game looks pretty nice. Plus it would probably up the size of the game file and crowd out space for orchestral music.
And word on the street is that this game is much harder than other 3-D Zeldas. I actually saw a quote from a hands-on that says it's the hardest Zelda yet ... which would be insane because Zelda 2 is damn near impossible.
While I agree that most videogame VA is awful I don't think that's a valid reason to not use it. I can live without cutscenes and voice acting out but leaving the latter out just seems lazy.
Yeah nobody wants bad voice acting but Nintendo isn't exactly struggling for cash, they could of found some good voice work for one of their most popular franchises. Like I said it's not a deal breaker for me but it would of just put a little more life into the game and not doing it just seems like a cop out or just plain lazy.
Considering the voice acting in Super Mario Sunshine and how irritating the video below gets after awhile, I'm okay with Nintendo never approaching voice acting regarding Zelda (or anything else period outside of small snippets).
No game needs Voice Acting, just like a game doesn't need fancy graphics, a good sound track, or hell even good gameplay for the matter. It's all just there to enrich the experience. I look at Twilight Princess and I see a game that didn't go the extra mile to become a great game, and while I'ma reiterate that voice over work isn't a big deal, it's just hinting at the same mentality they had with TP.
No game needs Voice Acting, just like a game doesn't need fancy graphics, a good sound track, or hell even good gameplay for the matter. It's all just there to enrich the experience.
Okay, let me rephrase then
Voice acting would not enrich the Zelda experience.
I don't know, actually. I'm currently playing through Kingdom Hearts, a game that uses both voice acting and text-only segments, and the VO really fleshes out the characters. I mean, I expect that Link would always be silent, but I see no reason not to give a voice to other characters. Seems stuck in the past the same way Zelda music is still poor-quality synth/midi-based.
I'm all for avoiding bad voice acting but the way Zelda characters move their mouths with no sound coming out just looks wrong. I'd even be up for them speaking gibberish ala Animal Crossing. They can just be speaking Hylian or whatever. Then we can pretend it's a stylistic choice instead of Nintendo being outdated, stubborn and cheap.
I think one of the biggest problems is that, even if you hire the best voice actors, a lot of Zelda writing doesn't seem to suit itself to voice acting. Think of all the goofy and weird stuff people say in a Zelda game, and how often the text explicitly references gameplay mechanics. Was it Harrison Ford who told George Lucas "You can write this shit, but you can't say it"?
No game needs Voice Acting, just like a game doesn't need fancy graphics, a good sound track, or hell even good gameplay for the matter. It's all just there to enrich the experience.
Why wouldn't it? This just kind of points to the fact that zelda is not an enriching experience to begin with, and is just a game you play. Which is fine if you are into that sort of thing. Like Two Headed Boy said it just makes it look like zelda is stuck in the past.
And like two headed boy also mentioned with Kingdom Hearts, you don't need voice work for every like of text.
I'm all for avoiding bad voice acting but the way Zelda characters move their mouths with no sound coming out just looks wrong. I'd even be up for them speaking gibberish ala Animal Crossing. They can just be speaking Hylian or whatever. Then we can pretend it's a stylistic choice instead of Nintendo being outdated, stubborn and cheap.
Okami did this and it worked quite well in my opinion, it didn't run the risk of having terrible voice work and it fit will into the atmosphere of the game.
Posts
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/09/29/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-romance-trailer?objectid=872155
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/09/29/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-combat-tutorial?objectid=872155
Best part
[...]
More importantly, the journey feels like Wind Waker; upon gaining access to your air-bound Loftbird, there's an enormous sky canvas to paint on. Feel like aimlessly wandering? You can. See an island in the distance and suspect a heart piece might be in the bushes? Find out! I didn't have a chance to discover much but I did poke around the map, and it was clear Nintendo has spent the last half-a-decade making sure there are plenty to find. Completionists should be excited...and scared.
hype++++++++++++++++++
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj6_kOkH0i8
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Its a secret to everyone.
Actually, I tried to simply make a post in it and then . . . chaos! My suspicion now is that Ganon has escaped the Sacred Realm and is mucking things up just to be a dick.
It's happening to several threads.
Also, this is the first I've seen of any SS media and I have to say Link looks like a drag queen. Not really sure if that's a positive yet.
I just want to know if you can swordfight or shoot arrows on the bird like you could on Epona in TP.
Yay Zelda! I am moving back and forth between wanting to go on a media blackout, and realizing that it's almost 2 months away and I don't know if I have that much patience.
I'm pretty sure they've said there will be mid-air fights.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
@Syphon,
And I'm hoping this game comes with a hard mode because every zelda has been pretty damn easy even if you go for 3 heart challenges.
And word on the street is that this game is much harder than other 3-D Zeldas. I actually saw a quote from a hands-on that says it's the hardest Zelda yet ... which would be insane because Zelda 2 is damn near impossible.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_8L08ofQI4
Okay, let me rephrase then
Voice acting would not enrich the Zelda experience.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516
Why wouldn't it? This just kind of points to the fact that zelda is not an enriching experience to begin with, and is just a game you play. Which is fine if you are into that sort of thing. Like Two Headed Boy said it just makes it look like zelda is stuck in the past.
And like two headed boy also mentioned with Kingdom Hearts, you don't need voice work for every like of text.
It is but I don't think for every piece of music.
Thank God, too. Twilight Princess' music sounded horrible.
Okami did this and it worked quite well in my opinion, it didn't run the risk of having terrible voice work and it fit will into the atmosphere of the game.
Metroid Other M.
Game. Set. Match.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Twitter 3DS: 0860 - 3257 - 2516