It sounded like a Majora's Mask type thing, I don't think it'll create new timelines.
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New Aonuma interview in French on Zelda development, Monolith, voice acting, Ueda/TLG
- Thread starter Cerium
- Start date
It sounded like a Majora's Mask type thing, I don't think it'll create new timelines.
It's nice to see they're utilizing Monolith's talents to its fullest.
It's funny how some Nintendo fans are still downplaying their involvement after Aonuma literally said they're involved with more than just asset design this time. Level design isn't a trivial part of a game, especially an open world game.
It's funny how some Nintendo fans are still downplaying their involvement after Aonuma literally said they're involved with more than just asset design this time. Level design isn't a trivial part of a game, especially an open world game.
High budget for SIE or Ubi Soft standards? No. High budget for Nintendo standards, yes. Nintendo is much more conservative and Monolith Soft's projects have been on the higher scale of them. The games average what? 70-100k sales in Japan?
DecoReturns
Member
Same as Skyward Sword I believe.
Hidemaro Fujibayashi. (His name autocorrects to Hide Mario lol, that made me giggle).
They're not as expensive as you might think. They are ruthlessly efficient on costs and deadlines. In fact, interviews during Xenoblade had the director flabbergasted when they approached him to give them even more levels and stuff to create because they were tearing through the necessary designs so quickly.
Obviously it would have to be thoughtfully implemented considering the franchise's legacy of eschewing voice acting and having a mute player character. Really weird that this is what you came away from this article with.
Hidemaro Fujibayashi.
It's still the former Flagship guy from Skyward Sword.
Neoleo2143
Member
Same as Skyward Sword, Minish Cap and the Oracle Games.
Xenoblade did like 200k LTD in Japan. Dunno about worldwide but it got a re-release on the new 3DS and on the Wii U e-shop, so it should have sold pretty well if it's getting that much attention.
Xenoblade X did ~140k last time it was tracked in Japan, including digital, and over 200k in the US in its launch month. Could have exceeded 500k worldwide.
It's not a budget title for Nintendo, sure. But it's not expensive either that Nintendo's losing a ton of money because the franchise would have been scrapped by now otherwise. I bet they even gained profit from those games.
I don't think we should expect anything else.
Shikamaru Ninja
任天å ã® å¿è
He worked for Capcom. Not Flagship. He also made the Disney Tetris game on the N64. It was a charming title for what it was.
I'm skeptical. I think they're given extra leeway because they've got expertise available nowhere else within Nintendo.
Either that or they might've gotten an ultimatum like IntSys did with Fire Emblem...
Suddenly the new Xenoblade art style makes sense.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Not every game needs voice acting, jesus.
OmegaSmash
Member
It's been a long while since I played Skyward Sword, but I've always thought that it felt like a handheld designed home console game. Like, the way Skyworld/Overworld was split, the constant revisiting of places, how the regions opened up bit by bit.
James Scott
Banned
Monolith's games are likely not that expensive when compared to Zelda or other AAAs. Xenoblade was on the wii using Wii level assets and while XCX is super impressive in its tech, the character models are fairly simple and I believe they focused on gameplay instead of story/narrative which was likely a budgetary thing.
Wind Waker came out 3 years before Shadow of the Colossus
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
takahashi said themselves that the xenoblade games havent actually been expensive, they're mid-tier games and if you pay attention to them, you can tell, the world is big and beautiful and full of life, but alot of things like animation of the characters doing certain actions are skimped out on, and having 3 levels of cutscene animation for xenoblade 1 and x where level one is just having them standing around in a circle with letterboxes and flapping their gums, level 2 where they add a bit more animation and voice acting, and level 3 when you get the big amazing cutscenes in those games.
Voice acting isn't that big of a deal, especially since Zelda never really used voice acting until now. And even then, Nintendo doesn't spend nearly as much on voice acting as, say, Sony.
FloweryMarston
Member
i think it was the whole wii thing, where they wanted to expand the audience. I think that now they want the core audience back, that's why we are seeing open zelda and mario.
SinCityAssassin
Member
That's a really weird thing to complain about, considering voice acting can make or break the immersion you can have in a game's story like Zelda. They have a right to be cautious in deciding whether to dip their toe or go all in.
Also fuck you Splatoon and Mario didn't have full voice acting.
James Scott
Banned
Kid Icarus Uprising and both Xenoblades had full voice acting. Might be a tradition thing they were worried about.
It's not even directly comparable with IntSys and FE situation. Plus, Xenoblade series getting more attention now more than ever says that Nintendo is pretty happy with how the franchise is doing.
And art style was never consistent per game because they use different artists.
Exactly. I'm glad that it's there in BotW, but it's no deal breaker if it's not even there as the series didn't have full voice acting until now and still remained one of the best series of all time.
I think this is the most likely case. The lack of voice in Zelda games has become a sort of iconic thing. Shaking that up is a big step.
TheDinoman
Member
I'd imagine the reception to Metroid Other M might of made them a bit hesitant on the whole VA thing as well.
The idea of making a world and then placing elements in it sounds so bad. Like they're just making an arbitrary easter egg hunt in a space that wasn't designed specifically to accommodate the features of the word that should be naturally interacted with. This really feels like how most open world games are and it feels terrible to play. (Obviously I'm just saying this based on a dev quip and I don't actually know shit about the dev process)
Everything else about the game sounds absolutely awesome.
Everything else about the game sounds absolutely awesome.
SinCityAssassin
Member
...Wouldn't that be the opposite? Like wouldn't the elements by default be made to accommodate the landscape?
Neoleo2143
Member
That's how level design works though. You tweak the world until you can use every system to bring as many people as possible optimal experiences. Systems can only do so much unless you design interesting pathing even in 4X games where it's nothing but systems essentially. Otherwise you get No Man's Sky, and no one wants that for a Zelda game.
It's placing "elements" in a pre-set world. The "elements" is what I don't like the sound of. Level design should be whole, natural, a body. Saying there are X many shrines for example, tells me that shrines are a system. That doesn't imply that there is an organically progressive approach from the player with ebb and flow, it implies a field with some check marks to complete.
You could say the same things about dungeons (field, dungeon, field, dungeon, repeat, repeat, end boss). When there are only a few dungeons though, it's a little easier to mask. Really dungeons should be done away with, along with the concept of the player ever thinking "okay, I'm in this phase of the game now, and after this I'll be in that phase of the game."
Again, I'm just projecting my own experience with other games onto this game I haven't played yet. I'm completely open to experiencing the vision the creators have for the game without thinking it has to comply to any rule set of game design, but I'm also wary based on what I've seen.
That makes sense. Never really understood what Flagship was anyway, in the west they seem to be a studio that worked for Capcom and had a relationship to Nintendo (mostly via Capcom) as well.
mrmickfran
Member
Aonuma never played Dark Souls?
That's a shame.
That's a shame.
Slamtastic
Member
And note "All cutscenes", nothing about how much unvoiced speech bubbles/text boxes there are for "in game" interactions.
|OT| Climb. Live. Protect.
Yep. http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=3218
I thought Flagship had been a Capcom studio?
Yep. http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=3218
This sounds like the real reason for feature parity.
Neoleo2143
Member
I bet this is one of the irritating things about being in game development. They are so over-worked, especially people in leadership positions. It's gotta be impossible to make time for games that have a learning curve.
RareFantasy64
Member
From what I've read as far as key individuals who have given interviews for this game, it seems to me like Aonuma is the brains behind this game. At that first ND where no footage was shown, Zelda U was just mentioned, Aonuma was the one who broke the news. When BOTW was first shown, Aonuma was the one who debuted the game. Aonuma seems to be giving more interviews for this game than Miyamoto and Fujibayashi (the director of the game). Maybe I'm just missing all the press Miyamoto and Fujibayashi may be involved in. To me, I just get the impression that Aonuma is the driving force behind this game. Is that an accurate assessment of the situation? Does anyone else feel similar?
Very interesting to learn about the sort of games Aonuma plays.
Very interesting to learn about the sort of games Aonuma plays.
Eh I think you just have to work your way up the ladder before you get public exposure. Aonuma was directing games once while Miyamoto did the press.
Koizumi was the one who presented Mario Odyssey and he even dressed up for it, but he's not the director of that either.
FloweryMarston
Member
I do think though that the direction of the franchises are based on koizumi and aonuma desires for it. The producer title may sound "off hands" but these two always gave the impression that they were very much hand on with it, of course with the directors handling the ship as well because as producers they had to work on other games while the main one is being made.
He's not wrong fundamentally, but I think the solutions they came up with in response to that thought are far worse and a clear underestimation of the player base. The actual concept that not knowing what to do is the worst thing that can happen to a player is actually spot on. I would rephrase it as "not knowing what is expected of me" though. The point is, when you do any task or engage in any activity, purpose is very important. You need to know what is expected so you can try to do your best. This doesn't mean knowing the solution to a puzzle, but rather knowing how the rules work. Presenting things clearly helps sets a person at ease so working out how they want to accomplish their tasks can be satisfying and even fun. If you don't know what the rules are and you don't know what is expected of you at all or how anything even works, you will be frustrated and stressed.
Sakurai did it, though. But I have idea if he played any of the following games.
Skeletos311
Junior Member
So, when is Aonuma going to get Ueda to work on a Zelda game with him?
Sakurai mentioned there were a few times he was so busy he was unable to beat the latest Fire Emblem.
Milly Osworth
Member
There is voice acting in all cut scenes? Nice!
I hope in the next Zelda everything has voice acting.
I hope in the next Zelda everything has voice acting.
To be fair, if you're interested in non-answers about female Link the english interviews are a goldmine!