My princess
The trailer opens up showing us various glimpses of the settings that we will visit during the adventure. If we’ve been able to see the variety of loc
ations already from the videos we’ve seen in the past, here we see it confirmed without too much spin in words: in a few seconds we pass from sunny beaches to lush forests, from endless deserts to mountains in winter colors. The vastness and wealth of the scenario is now out of all reasonable doubt, if ever you have doubted Aon
uma’s words, which did not hesitate to define this Zelda as the most extensive gaming map series. In the following sections we see many enemies already familiar as well as some of the objects used by Link: there is not much to say from this point of view. The true prota
gonist of this trailer, after the setting, it’s just one: Zelda. Although in the second part of the video there are numerous and still mysterious characters, who seem to be intent on giving our hero a strong, Zelda catalyses all the attention on himself. The new inca
rnation of the princess seems to be one of the most emotional (if not the most emotional) ever seen up to now, and seeing her burst into tears is a moment that, we believe, any fan of the series can not help but find excitement.
And maybe that’s how we can summarize this trailer: exciting . From focusing on heterogeneity of settings to the presentation of numerous characters, from hints to plot received through cryptic phrases to the epic background soundtrack. Aonuma seems to mean, from now on, that this Zelda will involve us and excite us more than any other chapter in the past, and we, after viewing this trailer, can only believe its implicit promise.
A world without borders
After the story trailer, it is the turn of a longer gameplay session, shown on the occasion of the Nintendo Treehouse yesterday. The game begins with the Great Plateau, a location that has been seen many times over the past few months: from here we can m
ove freely and decide in which direction to go without any predetermined path of sorts. If we were to decide to use a horse to move us into the game world, we would have to get close to him, the horse, otherwise, would try to run away. It is not enough, however, to get on the animal because it obeys automatically to our controls: not being accustomed to our presence, the horse will soften and try to do what it wants. It will be up to us to tr
y to train him, to get used to Link and obey him. This is a totally new feature for the series, which goes well with the desire to create a living and responsive world of gameplay, which is not limited to passively playing the player’s actions: the horse will not be just a means of locomotion, but a real animal that will not be done just use it as an object. In
the gaming world we will encounter stables, where we can record the wild horses we will have trained during the game, giving them a name. Registering a horse will actually make it “ours” and be able to summon it to any of the stables in the game. We can record up to five horses, but if we want to add more, we can change them with those previously recorded. The horse will also have some features, in addition to aesthetics, which will differentiate
it from others: strength, speed, stamina and temperament. We can also see how strong the bond we have with a certain horse. It has been included the opportunity to feed animals, and not only to our horses, but also to others, such as dogs who, thanks to gratitude,
will follow us and become enthusiastic about us.In fact, many creatures will populate the huge map of the game: animals, enemies, other travelers. Everything contributes to the idea of a life-giving world, without sacrificing the fairy-tale and dreamy features of the series.
In the video, we will see one of the many temples that will be present in the game: in reality, it was decided not to show the location in full, but you can see some of the puzzles that will be present inside it and that, as tradition , will be resolved by combining our cunning with the objects at our disposal. Once a temple has been completed, we will be given a new skill, and the location will become a warp point where we can travel in the future: a very interesting reward, given the vastness of the game map.
Later in the session we see a part of the grass catching fire after an enemy’s attack: the way the fire is moving is completely natural, like the flaring of a real fire, a further confirmation of a new realism for the series, which is further increased when
the flames invade Link’s clothes, damaging it, just as it would happen in reality. But, you know, Nintendo, even more than the proverbial devil, is in the details: and that’s why the sound of horse hooves will be heard exactly when his feet touch the ground. A marginal detail, of course, but still a testimony, if still needed, of the love that Nintendo, in the particular case of Aonuma and his team, puts everything in it, the love of the craftsman which impresses a part of himself in his work.
In the last few minutes, the presence of dynamic time is reiterated, both in terms of day / night cycle and atmospheric conditions: this will mean that every location will be experienced by the player differently depending on when you visit it, giving reasons for revisiting already seen places.
