The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Message Board older than one year ago

#zelda My favorite location in The Legend of Zelda is its expansive desert region. That zone begins at the mouth of a mine, where technology appears to be more advanced than it ever has been in any other Zelda game. More »

- ten people were involved with the sound development
- 5 on sound effects and system, 5 composing
- the first year and a half was spent on instrumentation and a general sound base
- the last sound effects person was added to the team this year
- no other game from Nintendo has ever had 10 sound devs
- 22 devs worked on landforms
- this was the most for a Zelda game ever, as well as a Nintendo game
- the sky travel was designed as a way for players to travel from dense location to dense location
- the team was inspired by Super Mario games and their stage select screens
- this lead to the creation of Skyloft as a base, and the idea of Link jumping down to the areas below
- Fujibayash saw skydiving on TV, which lead to thinking of implementation for a Zelda game
- originally the travel involved jumping from a huge tower
- you would climb up and jump off, repeat
- the higher you climb, the farther you could fly
- the dev team considered adding a bird that would automatically take you to your destination
- when Aonuma saw the early game from the beginning, he thought it wasn't good at all
- Aonuma pushed Iwamoto to focus on the beginning and make sure things made an impact for the player
- Miyamoto saw the early beginning and asked just what the dev team had been doing all this time!
- Miyamoto says the beginning has to be good or you lose players right away
- Aonuma feels development was harder than ever with this title
- the dev team had a new tool they could use to handle things like character dialog and timing on their own instead of using various people
- Miyamoto told Aonuma he originally put in too much text
- Skyloft was made as a place to prepare for your adventure and to explore at a more laid-back pace
- the bazaar houses many shopping/game mechanics in order to make the process quick and easy
- early on, the designers drew up concept images for the sky and proposed multiple ideas with it
- Batreaux is an example of an idea that cropped up early on that made it into the final game
- great attention was paid to creating wind sounds, with 5 designers splitting up to work on different wind effects
- you can play the harp as you walk and play along with background music
- Mario Club Co. Ltd recorded all the event scenes to check sounds
- once a week, the devs held leader meetings to keep things straight
- changing the placements of enemies even slightly could alter the landforms in a big way
- the team could stay focused on such a huge project due to there being just 4 worlds, although all of them very dense

Thanks to Tingle for the heads up!

If you missed the recent Zelda concerts because of their unfortunate non-Texan location, take heart (containers) because Nintendo is kicking off its touring series of symphonies next year in Dallas on January 10.

Tickets are available directly through the Dallas Symphony, with a 15% discount available through Club Nintendo. To get that code, just sign into Club Nintendo and look for the special offer on the front page.

This is only the first concert in the tour; Nintendo will hold more performances for the "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" concert throughout 2012, with dates and locations to be announced. You'll have plenty of time to buy something nice to wear. It's the symphony, after all.

SLOWDOWN IN THE GAME IS DUE TO THE E3 DEMO/PC HARDWARE. NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FINAL GAME. I'VE EXPERIENCED NO SLOWDOWN IN THE FINAL VERSION.

#zelda The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has beautiful graphics, despite the fact that it runs on dated hardware. In this game, artistry repeatedly trumps technological limitations. More »

Despite a presence in most Zelda games, Nintendo confirmed earlier this year that Ganon wouldn't appear in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. While the character hasn't been in every Zelda game, he's a part of the franchise's iconic trinity with Link and Zelda, and is frequently represented as one ...

Direct link and more videos here



Check out more screens here

Also, for those that want to have the game COMPLETELY SPOILED, you can check out the link below. It's full of a text rundown of the gameplay. I can say that up to where I am in the review copy, this information is legit. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO NOT READ ON, AS YOU'LL SPOIL THE ENTIRE GAME!

#zelda The music of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is delightful. The musical trick the game's creators pull in the game's main shopping area, the bazaar, is one of the first things I discovered in the game that made me smile. More »

- "This is the first game i've played that delivers on the promise sparked by that initial Wii remote showing."

- The last two boss encounters are the most difficult fights in any Zelda

- The biggest surprise is the story. The reviewer mentions that previous games have been fairly predictable, but this is a big step up for the franchise.

- He mentions that some gamers might not like the amount of time that it takes to fly from island to island. The review does say that it's faster than traveling in Wind Waker.

- "The vast, open Hyrule Field is replaced by tinier, more disconnected, and more puzzle-centric ground areas leading up to dungeons."

- His first playthrough took him over 40 hours

- The physical size of the world is smaller than Twilight Princess

- You'll occasionally have backtrack through areas for fetch questions. He says that this isn't too big of a deal since they change the environments up enough to still make things interesting.

- "From a gameplay and story standpoint, this is the biggest shift the series has ever seen..."

Direct link and more soundtrack samples here

Check out more screens here and here

- Unique “transformation system” used for the desert, so the team made three separate areas
- The desert becomes a sea
- You’ll need to use a boat once this happens
- The dungeon you head into is a stage set on a ship drifting around a desert sea
- Staff wanted to make the desert have gameplay that was of contrast
- Early on, the team researched/experimented making use of the Wii’s capabilities so players could go back/forth between the past/future in an instant, wherever and whenever they wanted
- Transformation system was a result of the experiment the team did for gameplay with contrast in the desert
- Cut through space and that becomes the past
- Strike a Timeshift Shone in the desert to turn the present into the past in a widening circle
- In the present, Link is in a desert region, with an ancient civilization lying underneath all the quicksand
- Hitting the Timeshift Stone reveals the civilization
- If you make a broken cart move after the transformation, you can’t use it in the present but when you return to the past, it works

Read the rest of the story...

#zelda I'm 25 hours into The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. More »