New patent from Miyamoto / Nintendo. Scene based gameplay. Very ambitious.

elkatas

carmofin wrote: »

whats there to get excited about some tutorial vids? zelda games used to be designed in a way they would just flow naturally, if anything this is a step back.

And our own thick-headed, but beloved mascot comes in.

Let me explain this. This isn't only just mere tutorial video, but a way to every enjoy the game. I know more than few players who don't have either time or skill to get into harder parts of the game. Now they can experience whole game without feeling vindicated. Those with "l337" skills can progress through the game normally.

The other important aspect of this feature is that developer doesn't need to compromise difficulty to gain accessibility. I guess that Miyamoto himself noticed that Twilight Promcess and Phantom Hourglass were too easy, and practically gave no challenge for more seasoned player. With this, difficulty can be left high, but the game still stays accessible for less seasoned players. They can skip hard parts, and gradually learn play better, while still progressing further. Furthermore, developers have often complained that it is pointless to do big game with lots of secrets, as only fraction of players will ever see them. With this, more players will see whole game.

Dr Mario Kart

Doesnt the patent lock 3rd parties out of implementing this idea in their games?

Secondarily, its going to be a challenge to communicate this new found core game accessibility to those people that dont play such games. They've largely already made up their mind about them.

elkatas

Dr Mario Kart wrote: »

Doesnt the patent lock 3rd parties out of implementing this idea in their games?

Pretty much, but then again, patent give only protection for this specific way of handling hints. And when patent goes so far as mentioning SD-cards and gyroscopes, it won't be too strict.

Dr Mario Kart wrote: »

Secondarily, its going to be a challenge to communicate this new found core game accessibility to those people that dont play such games. They've largely already made up their mind about them.

Indeed. The other challenge of this is make it balanced. If it is too fast, many players have temptation of ruining game for themselves. If it is unlocked too late, it won't help anything at all.

riposte101

Jebral wrote: »

FyreWulff wrote: »

One of my issues with Zelda games was the fact that there was always moments you wanted to play again, but you had to start a new file to do them, and it'd take hours to get back to there.

After beating the game, it would be very neat to essentially have a DVD-menu where I can play any part of the game I want to. This patent fits Zelda pretty damn well.

Although I swear there's a game announced or released where you can jump in during a replay or somesuch and play from there.

Doesn't the new Alone in the Dark do that?

Yeah that's what I was thinking when reading through the description.

elkatas

riposte101 wrote: »

Yeah that's what I was thinking when reading through the description.

Alone in the Dark is just jumping into specific chapters, nothing else. I guess that you could call this more refined version of same idea.

Xagarath

I actually like this idea in one sense. It shouldn't hurt the purported game at all, and it could help make the medium more accessible quite dramatically.

It's only viable in linear games, of course.

Ampix

elkatas wrote: »

Dr Mario Kart wrote: »

Doesnt the patent lock 3rd parties out of implementing this idea in their games?

Pretty much, but then again, patent give only protection for this specific way of handling hints. And when patent goes so far as mentioning SD-cards and gyroscopes, it won't be too strict.

Dr Mario Kart wrote: »

Secondarily, its going to be a challenge to communicate this new found core game accessibility to those people that dont play such games. They've largely already made up their mind about them.

Indeed. The other challenge of this is make it balanced. If it is too fast, many players have temptation of ruining game for themselves. If it is unlocked too late, it won't help anything at all.

I really don't think this is a feature that actually has to be "unlocked". The whole point of it is accessibility, making it inaccesible until later in the game sounds strange. But it probably won't be there right away, maybe it'll unlock somewhere around the first temple. Regardless, this does sound pretty cool, but I think that most people are looking into it a bit much. It's just a small feature, I doubt that (for us) it'll make a significant change for the next Zelda.

LutExIV

Ah. As if you could nerf some of these games anymore than they already are, now they come with autopilot.



So, if I watch Resident Evil Degeneration on my PS3, does that count as having "played" it?

Hockey Johnston

LutExIV wrote: »

Ah. As if you could nerf some of these games anymore than they already are, now they come with autopilot.



So, if I watch Resident Evil Degeneration on my PS3, does that count as having "played" it?

What does the word count mean here?

Like, count towards what? Your e-peen?

BarneyL

LutExIV wrote: »

Ah. As if you could nerf some of these games anymore than they already are, now they come with autopilot.

So, if I watch Resident Evil Degeneration on my PS3, does that count as having "played" it?

But don't you as an obviously elite gamer who is far superior to us poor inferior masses get tired of games being dumbed down below your high standards? Many games these days no longer require your cat like reflexes or puzzle solving abilities that would put Einstein to shame.
With something like this you can get a game worthy of your superior skills while the rest of us lowly mortal can skip the hard bits and enjoy the plot.

SwashbucklerXX

This sounds like a useful feature for getting around that whole "here's a terrible minigame with awful controls which you must complete before progressing the plot" thing. Though that hasn't been a huge issue with Zelda, as far as I can remember. And I'd prefer if designers just kept the terrible minigames with awful controls out of the game entirely, or at least stuck them in as side quests.

Brainiac 8

Many people were worried on how Nintendo would make a core game but make it where new players could get into it without compromising the game. Well, this may be their answer.

Like you said, it is a very clever idea...and leave it up to Miyamoto to come up with something like this. And yes, it's obviously intended to be part of the next Zelda.

Faffel

LutExIV wrote: »

Ah. As if you could nerf some of these games anymore than they already are, now they come with autopilot.



So, if I watch Resident Evil Degeneration on my PS3, does that count as having "played" it?

Man, you're a real moron.

carmofin

UncleSporky wrote: »

carmofin wrote: »

whats there to get excited about some tutorial vids? zelda games used to be designed in a way they would just flow naturally, if anything this is a step back.

By used to, do you mean like before Twilight Princess or before this patent? Also I have no idea what you mean about "flow naturally," they're good games but quite commonly in the early ones you would just wander around until you found something interesting.

The patent's a step back from what? Aren't you reading into it a bit much? It doesn't say that "from now on every Zelda game will have a mode available from the start where you can watch the game being played from start to finish. This mode means we will make the game in such a way that it no longer flows naturally."

In fact they might not even be planning on using it, people patent things all the time just because they're good ideas that they may want to use someday. Or they're filthy squatters.

well i didnt mean to say it IS a step backward, i meant it WOULD be, of course we have seen no implementation of the idea which is why discussing filed patents is mostly stupid in general.

either way, when i say flow naturally, i mean that zelda games are designed in a way that the players teach themselves the game naturally, without even noticing. theres no "tutorials" or the likes. theres many ways to teach a player how to play a game without applying silly gimmicks but now that i think about it i have even seen this kind of thing before in metal gear solid 3 and if i remember correctly it did a rather poor job.

PatboyX

CygnusZ wrote: »

PatboyX wrote: »

This seems like those Laserdisc games but with the disc having more control over what you do.
I have one of those old Dragon's Lair style games that runs on any DVD player using the same idea, right? It was the hologram time-travel one. AND IT CAME WITH 3D GLASSES.

Do you mean Time Traveler? I'm not sure how that game would work without the actual machine used to display the holograms in 3D...

Surprisingly like it did in the arcade: shit.

shit

BigKev

Some people are missing the point here epicly.

MiserableMirth

I have doubts that this game will be harder than other iterations like WW or TP if you play it without the new help system. I would guess it's designed to make the game more accessible, not some bridge between the casual and us super gamers.

Heart containers will still be everywhere. Weak points will be giant eyes. And so on.

Liabe Brave

Well, at least this would make for maximally short speedruns: load the last digest, wait until 10 seconds before the final boss is dead, jump in and kill them yourself.