I couldn't find a thread dedicated to this yet, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start one.  The game is about four months from release, and Nintendo has dropped a new trailer.  The standard def graphics of the Wii aren't doing the game any favors, but I love the impressionistic art style and the classic Zelda charm.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sdcc- … ard/717750

Game character models look rather ugly. Super underwhelmed for this game.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm a sucker for Zelda.

Kinda on the fence about this one.
Twilight Princess did very little for me, and Spirit Tracks bored me, so it's possible that I'm growing kind of tired of the series.

But who am I kidding? I'm a consumer whore, so I'll probably pick it up first day anyway.

I was really iffy on this at first, but more recent trailers and impressions have convinced me.  Well, that and the fact that the soundtrack is going to be amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. 

At the very beginning I was excited for this but the graphics looks blockier than I recall Twilight Princess looking (maybe it's just that the Wii hasn't aged well), the animation still jerky in places and the cinematics laughable as usual.  Skeptical of the soundtrack until given a good reason not to be.

Those one-to-one controls better be good.

I'm interested in the controls, but the trailers just don't make the game look very exciting. The content looks very bland.

I'm looking forward to the game for a few reasons though: 
- I'm really interested to try the sword fighting mechanics now that early impressions were pretty positive. 
- I'm curious to hear what Wakai can do in this significant new role.
- My biggest petpeeve from Twilight Princess seems to be fixed - instead have having innumerous chests in dungeons filled with rupees you can't carry, a new weapons upgrade system was implemented for more inquisitive gamers.
- It seems like it'll be one of the more challenging Zelda titles with enemies and bosses requiring some strategy for once as opposed to being complete push-overs in previous 3D Zelda titles.
- They're being really careful not to reveal anything about the lower overworld below the clouds and that just makes me more curious...

EDIT: I'm also noticing some Monster Hunter influences here with the new dash meter and aforementioned material searching for weapons upgrades.

Well it looks like they got rid of that giant onscreen Wiimote it had when I last saw anything about it, so that's good. Visually, it's alright, but I'd still take Toon Link aesthetics any day of the week. On the other hand, that music is mighty fine indeed. I just hope that personality carries into the dungeon themes, which have been largely pretty forgettable ever since Ocarina.

Incidentally, is this going to be bundled with the MotionPlus thing? I don't have one yet, and I'd like to not have to pay full price to just play this.

I've been playing through Twilight Princess again and this is much more annoying than I remember from my first play through, to the point of me wearing the magic armor to deplete my wallet so I can keep the treasure chest's contents and it's cleared from the dungeon map.

I thought I read in an interview somewhere that the on-screen wiimote would be something that could be toggled on or off.

Nintendo hasn't made it official yet, but I would expect that there would be both a bundle with the gold wiimote plus and a stand-alone version.  Reggie did confirm that a golden nunchuck is NOT in the works, so if you do get a gold wiimote plus, it won't match whatever color nunchuck you have.

Don't really get how the scarab isn't simply a slower version of the boomerang...

Don't you actually get control over the scarab as it flies?

That's true, however, it is being used exactly like a boomerang: it cuts cords, it hits switches, and it can carry items to you. Similarly, in Wind Waker taking control of a seagull bird was fun for a little reconnaissance, as a cool thing to mess with in the overworld. I don't think the inclusion of a specific item like this should be included for dungeons. I remember there was a hawk in Twilight Princess, but I can't remember any great experience using it. 

One thing I hope Nintendo adds is the ability to do weapon combos. I always liked switching out the skullhammer in Windwaker after a couple sword swings to whack enemies into oblivion.

update the first post with this:

Pre-order bonus
http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=122665

legend of zelda: ocarina time had me searching for sword and shiled as 1st quest. legend zela: twilight princess had me searching for baby basket as one of 1st quests. also, with title like that, I was expecting kristen stewart. with my epxectations so utterly destroyed from the previous game, what do you think I'm thinking about this upcoming game? link also walked pretty awkwardly in t.p., controls in general seemed out of sync with each other. fishing was practically game breaking flaw for me actuly I think that's where I quit.

having waggle controls looks promising this time around (what few they had in t.p. were atrocious), still prolly check this out when it releases, but cautiously optimistic.

Yeah, that pre-order set is looking totally sweet.
If they're not doing something similar in Japan, I might have to import.

ign is already calling this one of the greatest games ever... ummm, can't say it looks that way.
Yeah, it will probably be a great or very good game, but it really doesn't look much different than the past 4 or so console Zelda games. Oh, and once again we do NOT get any voice acting (very lame on Nintendo). The reviewer said the graphics are the best on the Wii... but they still pale in comparison to the Xbox or PS3. I am looking forward to hearing the music, I have no doubt that will be wonderful. The reviewer also said the controls are amazing. That is something I'll have to find out. However, I disagree with him that motion controls are the wave of the future. Not everyone necessarily wants those. So although I reserve judgment until I've played, I am extremely skeptical by what I've seen thus far of it being truly groundbreaking. Still, ign does have an incestuous relationship with Nintendo, so it's not really a surprise that they overrate their games...

I'm rarely bored by Zelda games, even when they've gotten as formulaic as they are. The reviews on this one are strong and I'm pretty sure I'll have a great time with it.

Unfortunately, the music I've heard so far isn't blowing me away. The use of an orchestra is helping but there's still plenty of weak Wii synth in there and even the tunes with orchestra aren't among the stronger Zelda entries.

(Once I get around to actually playing it. I have Skyrim now and am completely addicted to it.;)

Uhhh... what?  Have you like... read anything IGN has written about Nintendo during the entirety of the Wii's life?

I don't know, I have a hard time taking anything ign says seriously. Parts of their website are so broken it isn't even funny -  http://ign.uservoice.com/forums/61837-m … ?ref=title. And to think, everything was fine before they started f---ing with it! I know I'm off topic but I liked the site before they fudged it up.

I don't know how the user there has a voice when it's constantly ignored.

Lucky for us IGN isn't the only website that has reviewed the game.  Metacritic shows 26 reviews, 11 of which are perfect scores: http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii/the- … ic-reviews

True, but then again how many perfect scores did games such as Metal Gear Solid 2 get? 16 (counted it)! I thought that was a horrendous game, and I'm not talking in hindsight.  To each their own of course, but I think there's so much hype about it because it's a Zelda game that it gets inflated scores. You're correct, fortunately there is much more out there than ign

I'm definitely going to play it, and I'm hoping it will be fantastic, I just doubt it will be a game I will leave saying "one of the best games ever, revolutionized the industry" which is basically what ign said. Of course, I'll just have to wait and see...

Wanderer, I would love to hear your thoughts about Skyrim. It looks utterly amazing! By the way, that had 23 perfect scores on metacritic

edit: by the way, I'm a bit tired of having link find some sort of musical instrument in every single game since OoT and then having to learn all these new songs. Point is, the games have gotten very formulaic, and I actually thought TP was the one that farthest from the mold, and my favorite.

Who cares?
Zelda games don't NEED voice acting.
Not every single game in the world needs to be fully voiced.

And I also hate how some people seem to think it's wrong to say a Wii game looks good because the PS360 looks so much better.

Absolutely. Any game that emphasizes art direction over graphical fidelity will look good forever.

Speaking of Zelda and graphics, haven't the last few generations of Zelda games kinda looked the same (outside the cel shaded one)? I'm probably the last person that sould comment considering I've only ever played Link to the Past to it's conclusion (I'm behind!) but I kind of miss the days when a series looked graphically different because of the console upgrade. Then again we're kind of hitting the wall in that respect although the Wii's case is a little bit more self imposed.

Well you've skewed your question by not including the cel shaded ones, and why wouldn't you include them? OoT and MM obviously look the same. Wind Waker is totally different. And Twilight Princess is different again, though closer to OoT in design style (not like you'd confuse the two though). This new one looks very different again, especially in the rendering.

Actually, I do care. You're right Zelda games don't need voice acting, in fact no game NEEDS voice acting, but I think most games (including Zelda) should definitely have voice acting. One thing I did like about Twilight Princess was the fact that Midna "spoke". True,it was nonsensical and probably repeated the same phrase many times, but that made a HUGE difference in the game, at least for me.

I actually think the excuse "oh, it's a Zelda game it doesn't need this or that, who cares..." is actually very bad. When OoT came out, it set the benchmark for games, and having a minimum of voice acting (such as Navi say "hey") was fine, and in fact really added to the game. Now? no longer acceptable. It seems to me that in many ways Nintendo has NOT progressed past OoT. I thought TP was a step in the right direction, and I was really hoping the next Zelda game would be voiced (and hey, Link does not have to talk at all, but the other characters really should). Seems to me like Nintendo refuses to progress in many ways. Let's not forget that they refused to accept digital disks and instead produced the N64, which opened the doors for Sony to become the #1 game machine.

Anyway, I do digress a little but the point is we're getting another Zelda game that could be much improved. I will admit that graphics are not nearly as important as art direction, and my statement on Wii graphics vs Xbox/PS3 did not come out the way I intended. I meant that it seems like ign bashes many games for their graphics, and yet said the graphics on the new Zelda game are astounding. Well, it's probably relative, so I don't consider that a big deal. However, Skyward really appears to be just OoT version 4.0.  Still, that's not necessarily a terrible thing, and again I reserve final judgment until I play. However, I still think it's been far hyped out of proportion, and I still want some voice acting! By the way, I can't think of any large company outside of Nintendo which produces RPGs/Adventure games for consoles with no voice acting, can you?

Has Nintendo ever struck you as a company that cares about what other companies do?

That may be true
However, I think in this case they really should use voice acting.

I'm with avatar here. Nintendo obviously do what they do very well but there are times they allow that... not even sure what to call it (want to go with arrogance but that's far too negative, possibly self-indulgence and an unwillingness to move with the times)... to get in the way. Like Metroid Prime 3's instantly respawning enemies, which nobody else would have been let away with since the SNES days. Yes, that was Retro but they got away with it because it was a Nintendo game.

Sure, Zelda doesn't need voice acting. But everything else about the game has moved to the point where it now feels incongruent to leave it out.

Personally, I'm fine with Zelda games skipping the voice acting, but I do think the company is making a mistake by doing it.  It does seem strange that a game of this size and scope is missing it, and younger gamers who didn't grow up with Zelda games will think less of the series because of it.  That said, Link should never talk since he's just a representation of the player.

I can understand that rationale in a game like Myst, with minimal interaction and no hint of what the player looks like. But when I'm staring at this big green fairy who is clearly not me and also he's having loads of silent conversations with townspeople in which, if it were me, I would talk, I'm not sure what value the silence has in terms of being an extension of me.

Regarding the voice acting debate, I'd actually like Nintendo to use less of it in general. Mario's voice has gotten higher and squeakier as time has gone on (Homer Simpson and Spongebob suffer the same affliction), and is now almost unbearable to listen to. StarFox voices never should've gone past the jibber-jabber noises, and if the noises NPCs made in Twilight Princess are anything to go by, constant voice would destroy any enjoyment I could derive from the series. Every time that Popeye postman shows up I want to throw the disk away.

On the topic of the game itself, early reviews seem to suggest that there is even more mandated boondoggling than in TP, which is going to feel like torture on anything past the first playthrough. I'm still looking forward to playing it, but I wish devs would stop assuming that they need this sort of padding so that they can brag about length. I'd rather play ten solid two-hour games without any fat on them than labor for two hours at a time to get at the interesting bits of a single great game.

This I have to agree on... to a point. I like the jibber jabber noises but at the same time I love the voice acting used during the ending when Fox and his team check in with Pepper and Corneria. I know it's low sampled but it really helps put a real capper on the whole adventure. Still, you're probably refering to Star Fox 64 and beyond in that respect and not the original's brief usage.

I'd rather have extra running around stuff than the idiotic mini-game type crap that's unrelated to the normal gameplay, yet forced on you to continue the story (in TP, for instance, the horse and bridge duals, the bird through the canyon, the escort mission, and anything else later I may not have gotten to).