[E3 2016] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: details and pics round-up

15 June 2016 Lite_Agent E3, E3 2016

In this post, you will find a round-up of details and pictures for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The details mostly come from interviews (not so much the Nintendo Treehouse Live), and various other sources.

Ganon

In one of the Shrine of Trials from the E3 demo, one of the monks tells Link that he is “dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Ganon”. This basically confirms that Ganon is in the game, though we don’t know more than that. Is it Ganon, the beast? Ganondorf? Is there another “sub-villain” à la Zant? Nintendo hasn’t given many details about the story yet, and we’re most likely not going to get an answer before a long while…

Source: Andrea Ritsu

Director / General Producer

During IGN Live yesterday, it was revealed that Hidemaro Fujibayashi (Director of both The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Skyward Sword) was the Director of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As for Eiji Aonuma, he’s credited as both Producer and Group Manager.

Via: NeoGAF

Head after the break for the rest of this post!

Link will be male

Ever since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was revealed, fans have been speculating about whether Link would be male or female. At E3 2014, Eiji Aonuma stayed deliberately vague, which gave birth to many rumours and theories (even though it wasn’t his intention).

But yesterday, Eiji Aonuma confirmed that Link would be male in this new entry, and explained his reasoning:

You know there’s the idea of the Triforce in the Zelda games we make. The Triforce is made up of Princess Zelda, Ganon and Link. Princess Zelda is obviously female. If we made Link a female we thought that would mess with the balance of the Triforce. That’s why we decided not to do it.

They did think of having Princess Zelda as playable character, but they ultimately rejected that idea:

If we have princess Zelda as the main character who fights, then what is Link going to do? Taking into account that, and also the idea of the balance of the Triforce, we thought it best to come back to this [original] makeup.

Later in the interview, Eiji Aonuma explained that it’s that very speculation about Link’s gender that led Yosuke Hayashi (Producer of Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors Legends) that led him to have Linkle in Hyrule Warriors Legends:

There was talk about the female Link and at the time we thought oh yeah that might be fun. In Mr. Hayashi’s mind, that idea cemented.

Source: Kotaku

NX

In an interview with IGN, Eiji Aonuma confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would be the “same experience” on both Wii U and the NX platform. Unfortunately, he didn’t say whether the NX version would have any exclusive features or not.

He also confirmed that the game would be compatible the Wii U Pro Controller on Wii U, which means that motion controls and the second screen are mandatory (which isn’t too surprising, since the game is also releasing on the NX platform, so they could not make it mandatory).

Source: IGN

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

In an interview with IGN, Eiji Aonuma said that a HD re-release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was “definitely possible”. He then went on to explain that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was, basically, the result of what they wanted to expand and improve.

Here’s what he had to say about that:

Yeah it’s definitely possible. As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a result of what we wanted to expand and make a better Skyward Sword. It’s like an evolved or expanded version. Putting out an HD version of Skyward Sword and tossing that into the mix might be a little weird. It’s always a possibility, so I really don’t know.”

Source: IGN

Who needs story?

In an interview to Polygon, Eiji Aonuma revealed that it’s definitely possible for players not to get the full story, depending on how they decide to play the game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was designed in such a way that you can go to the very end of the game without ever knowing why Link woke up the way he did, where he did.

Naturally, it’s something players will have to chose for themselves: it’s not something that most people will end up doing anyway. Eiji Aonuma actually thinks it’s not the best way to play the game, though it’s definitely not impossible to do so.

Source: Polygon

Map size

According to Nintendo, the map of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is huge… really huge. It’s apparently 12 times larger than the map of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (but still smaller than the map of Xenoblade Chronicles X, apparently). The area from the E3 demo only represents 1% of the game.

Source: Kotaku

Map,

During a presentation to the press, Eiji Aonuma explained that after developing and playing the game extensively, they found out that having a small map on the TV screen was better than keeping it on the GamePad’s screen. Talking of the map, you can “annotate” it at any time, placing beacons in order to find your way for example. You can also place stamps to indicate that a place has a treasure chest, enemies, or something interesting.

According to Bill Trinen, the game really gives you the same feeling you had when you played the original The Legend of Zelda as a kid. The only difference is that now… it’s all in 3D now. You get the same sense of openness, you can go in pretty much any direction, end up in places you’re really not supposed to be, and more.

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link can jump. In fact, he can even climb, with the stamina gauge depleting faster if the surface to climb is particularly steep.

Just like in many other openworld games, 1 second of real-life = 1 minute of in-game time. You can go to sleep in order to advance time (and get back some health): we can assume you can only do it at specific spots.

About the weather, you really have to be prepared. Even if you know you’re headed to a cold/hot place, you might end up reaching an area where the cold/heat is stronger. As for lightning, you can use it to your advantage. You can drop your metallic weapons, and have enemies pick them up in order to have lightning fall on them.

Next, we have items: those you use to solve puzzles (such as Runes) can be upgraded later in the game.

Source: Kotaku

NES

During a presentation to the press, Shigeru Miyamoto gave more details about the return to basics with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He explained that as new features were added to Zelda games, they became more sequential. But with this one, they wanted to go back to the original spirit of Zelda, which is freedom.

In this game, you will not have NPC explaining everything about the world. At the beginning, you will not know where you are, why you woke up where you did… in fact, you will not know anything at all.

Shigeru Miyamoto also mentioned the illustration that was used for the original game on the NES:

In the old Zelda, there was an image, an illustration that we started with, and you kind of had to put that in your imagination.Now, you don’t need that. This vast world surpasses the illustration, and you can walk and do things in this world that’s come to life.

Source: Zam

Voice acting

According to Eiji Aonuma, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will feature more voice over than what can be heard in the demo, but didn’t say whether the game would be fully voiced. There’s one thing he did confirm, however: Link will remain silent.

Source: Game Informer

Official website

In Japan, Nintendo has opened a teaser website for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can check it out by clicking here! Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be found there yet…