It’s no secret The Legend of Zelda franchise will make a triumphant appearance on Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console at some point. Link, the game’s protagonist, was utilized in one of Wii U’s initial tech demos that debuted when the console was announced at E3 2011.
Since that Wii U tech demo that included Link and an oversized spider, gamers and the media alike have been wondering if the visuals in the demo are representative of what the first The Legend of Zelda game on Wii U will look like. The answer is a resounding “no” if the first rumored details on Zelda’s Wii U debut are to be believed.
The folks over at Wii U Daily are claiming an inside source at Nintendo has passed along some vital information about The Legend of Zelda on Wii U. This source and his/her information, which for now should be taken with a grain of salt, paint a picture that will put a big grin on the face of gamers around the world.
According to the source, The Legend of Zelda on Wii U will be Nintendo’s biggest and most expensive game ever. The game has been in development since 2010 under the direction of Zelda vet Eiji Aonuma and won’t be released until 2014, giving it a production cycle and budget along the lines of what Rockstar spends on its expansive Grand Theft Auto games. The E3 2011 demo was created by a completely different team and is nothing like what the actual Zelda Wii U game will look like.
How big, you wonder? Apparently an early demo on a “buggy” Wii U dev kit consisted of a dungeon the size of Hyrule field in Ocarina of Time. That’s one dungeon equating to the entire field. That, in a word, is massive. The game will include a similar number of dungeons as past Zelda games, but they will be much bigger and completely different from one another.
If that wets your appetite then there’s more to digest. Some of these dungeons are so big that they are broken into three parts that will take hours to complete. The scope is reportedly beyond anything seen in a Zelda game before, and that includes “hours” of original music. A 25 GB disc is required to fit it all.
As you might imagine, the untitled The Legend of Zelda game on Wii U is made for the console. The GamePad will be used to follow clues, avoid traps and navigate the world. Apparently the dungeon level has been used to show third-party developers what’s possible with the Wii U GamePad, and one aspect of the GamePad’s functionality was added as a result of the Zelda developers thinking it up during the game’s progression.
The report wraps up by promising that the new Zelda on Wii U will offer not one or two cool features, but “one cool feature after another.” It points toward a vision that seems deserving of the grossly overused term “epic” and will offer new innovations that will be “copied by others for years.” Too bad the game appears to be at least a couple years off.
Source: Wii U Daily
