Enth's Insight - Nintendo Blog

As most of you Nintenfags out there will know, the most recent Nintendo Direct presentation was jam packed with surprise announcements, but perhaps none more so than the revelation of the 2003 Gamecube classic The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker getting the HD treatment and being ported to the Wii U this Fall. We were also teased that the game will receive some gameplay tweaks as well, such as interaction with the GamePad controller. But how far will these tweaks take us? Time to speculate!


Graphics:



The handful of screenshots we were provided with were no less than jaw-dropping. It's actually quite admirable of Nintendo to take the decision to completely upgrade all the graphics, rather than just make the original look "HD", as is the case with all the PS3's HD ports of classic PS2 games. Even if Nintendo had used the quicky-HD method, no doubt the game would still look beautiful, as Wind Waker has aged by far the best out of all of the 3D Zelda games, and it still looks lovely today thanks to it's unique cel-shading.

Not everyone is united in the appreciation of the new graphics however. I've seen plenty of people on Neoseeker or IGN etc feeling unimpressed. So let's do a comparison between the Reborn's screenshots and ones from the original. The remake may have lost some of that "living cartoon" look at first glance, but that's not necessarily a terrible direction. It's easy to simply assume Nintendo just chose this style as a tester experiment for the next brand new Zelda Wii U game (but that's a story for another blog entry) but the lighting compliments the character designs really well, which remain at their heart as cartoonish as the original that fans fell in love with.

Something to keep in mind was that Wind Waker received massive criticism for it's non-realistic graphic style up until it's launch. The problem is that no matter how pretty the screenshots were it was a totally different ballgame seeing the game in motion before your very eyes, destroying all the naysayer opinions, and that is exactly what is going to happen here. Sure, there'll still be people who'll prefer the look of the original, and their intitled to that opinion, but I appreciate this evolution. This is the kind of look Nintendo fans have been dying to see for years so it shouldn't just be a step back because it's been applied to the already gorgeous Wind Waker. I for one cannot wait to explore all the nooks and crannys of the remake and I keep imagining just how stunning everything is gonna look - from the Moblins, to the Great Deku Tree, to the glorious final boss battle. Is your body ready?


GamePad:

I don't know about you guys, but I often struggle to imagine how the GamePad will revolutionise some of Nintendo's biggest franchises - while it was easy to see how the WiiMote would evolve Metroid and Zelda. So what can we hope to see from Reborn other than just a boring map and inventory screen?



Conducting the wind should be the immediate thought. With the Gamecube controller of course you would simply press the analogue stick in the direction you want to conduct, as you play the song. Replacing this method with the WiiMote seems like a genious thought (seriously, imagine conducting the wind with your WiiMote!) but I don't see the developers taking that step. Using the WiiMote would mean using a control method other than the GamePad, which would certainly be a wasted opportunity for this next-gen console. Not only that but it has been confirmed that Reborn will be completely playable on the GamePad's screen without use of the TV, so you wouldn't be able to use the WiiMote in that mode anyway.

I predict that when you activate the Wind Waker, the GamePad screen will change in such a way that you can drag your finger in a wavey line to conduct the song in that fashion. Keeping your finger on the screen for the duration of the song, you would swipe your finger up, then left, and finally to the right to play the Wind's Requiem song.



Then there's the Tingle Tuner (does anyone even remember that?). A rather redundant item in the game, it's purpose was you to connect your GameBoy Advance to the Gamecube using a special cable, and then use the GBA's screen to control Tingle, dropping bombs to reveal secret Ruppee locations. I bought that cable specifically to get the most out of Wind Waker, but the Tingle Tuner was a pretty pointless addition that didn't add anything exciting to the gameplay or offer anything essential.

This could all change with the GamePad. If the Tingle Tuner had been used to reveal secret enemies areas, items, or even mini-dungeons, the original game would have been hit with so much criticism for effectively forcing the player to own a GameBoy Advance and special connecting link cable to see everything in the game. For Reborn however, the GamePad can act as your GBA and connector, making the features of the Tingle Tuner accessable to everybody playing the remake. Therefore, I hope Nintendo decide to include some of those possibilities I mentioned like secret areas etc that require the Tingle Tuner, because on this occasion there will be no player missing out from the experience.



Lastly there's Link telescope, which is used a couple of times at the beginning of the game to give a zoom-in look at things far away to progress the story. It would be really cool to use the GamePad itself as your telescope while the TV screen remained a fully zoomed-out view of whatever you're looking at.


GamePlay:

So what gameplay tweaks in terms of the game itself? What will change? Well it is true that if something isn't broken it shouldn't be fixed, but there are a couple of things that would improve Wind Waker. The most popular element people across the Internet love to complain about in terms of Wind Waker's gameplay is the Great Sea. Setting out to sea and raising your sail, you would sit tight in your boat for about 5 minutes or so (depending on how far you're going) until you would reach your destination.



I am personally a fan of the Great Sea. The theme music was grand, there were occasional exploding barrels or enemy look-out posts to add challenge on the way, and I know for a fact I may not have discovered a lot of the game's secret islands if not being left to explore the Great Sea. For that reason I hope Nintendo don't try to bend to pressure from the loud fraction of the fanbase who hate the Great Sea by including some sort of option to "skip" the journey once it begins. I do however see them perhaps doubling the speed your boat travels at for example, as that should be enough to calm the haters while staying true to the original at the same time.

Finally, were you aware that Wind Waker was originally supposed to contain two extra dungeons? Maybe you did, as it's not a closely guarded secret, but it's not the most wide-known thing either. Due to a combination of time constraints and running out of space to fit everything on the 'lil Gamecube disc, two planned dungeons were scrapped. One of them was replaced with the fetchquest for the Triforce parts, sending you trawling across the sea to find them instead.

The other is a bit more obvious when you think about it. With Wind Waker you play a fire-type dungeon to get one mysterious fire red artifact (in this case Din's Pearl), then a forest-type dungeon to claim the grass green artifact in the form of Farore's Pearl, and then...you're just given the water blue artifact, Naryu's Pearl. Jabun the Water God just hands it over. Whut? Obviously a water-type dungeon was supposed to be included here.

So will Nintendo use this opportunity to include these two dungeons for Reborn? That's the question I most want an answer to, and there is certainly a possibility I may get that wish. Who knows if an addition of that much effort would actually be thrown into the mix, but it's an exciting thought nonetheless.

So do you agree with the points I've raised? I think all these additions/changes are possible, but if there is anything I may have overseen I would love to hear your opinions and comments. Reborn is certainly going to be an instant buy when it releases later this year, and I cannot wait to see the extent of it's evolution.

Finally I want to say thanks for reading! And stay tuned for more blog entries in different categories of speculation, opinion, and news concerning both upcoming and classic Nintendo titles.