Daedaelus
Dec 4th, 2002, 03:41 PM
"Zelda: Kaze No Takuto finished version impressions!
Posted on Tuesday, December 03, 2002 by Justin
Where to start?
How about with this:
The finished version of Zelda is appallingly, shockingly, brilliant.
Much has been improved since the last demo we've seen (I finished all three E3 demos multiple times). Perhaps the game benefitted from progressive mode, but the Zelda now just looks incredible. I went inside one door, and trapped the camera to give a closeup of Link's face. Hello, where are the pixels? Can we have some pixels please? Even on a television, the game looks 100% like moving hand drawn animation. Lit. In 3D. And controllable.
The game world has been improved, tweaked, and tightened, and perfected since the last demos we saw. It looks breathtaking. 10 minutes in, I started thinking strange thoughts. Like, "why isn't every game in the world made to look like this? Silly developers." Imagine the most solid, consistantly beautiful game world ever constructed. Well that isn't Zelda. Because you can't really imagine how well they've pulled it off.
Now bear in mind, I wasn't hugely impressed by the E3 demo. My impressions of that are here: http://www.tokyopia.com/reviews.asp?reviewsid=16
So let's start. I select save file one, and off we go. I start off on a totally different island, one I haven't seen in either shots or demos. A village on an island to be precise, larger than the one in the E3 demo. Grassy roads winding up slopes, houses and shops build on slopes, overlooking the ocean like a Tuscan village. I walk through. Certain people are reactive to where I walk, a first for a Zelda game. A group of children spot me, a stranger, and run up to me, eyes amazed, circling me slowly. I walk away, they follow me. I stop, they stop and gawp at me again. They follow me all over the village, bored, expressions of curiosity on their faces. Brilliant.
I wander up the slope, into houses and buildings. A rich person's house, large with ornaments, two floors and a chandelier. He gets mad when I smash some of his pots. I take a run at the chanderlier from the second floor stairs, hop, and grab onto it, swing back and forth. Cool.
Enter more buildings on my way up. Fantastic character designs, interiors modelled around the personality of the owners. Higher up I reach a hilly plain with a grave, a strange guy with an afro dancing next to it. Beyond I can see clouds billowing in the distance, the ocean stretching on for miles, little Miyazaki style waves washing over it to the horizon. Then I spot my boat, down by the dock.
I jump off the ledge, fall for ages, land in the water (the splash is considerably improved from the demo version... then again, so is everything). Swim up to the boat. The front of the boat is a dragon looking face (as you know from the artwork). What you don't know, is that the boat is a living thing. Its head follows me around curiously as I swim around it. I lock on, and it talks to me. The boat is sort of like Navi, except less intrusive as it's not tied to you 24/7. Later on, it gives me the Wand of the Wind, and teaches me how to use it.
I hop on the boat, and paddle out slowly to sea. Not much speed. I check my inventory, and find a white sail (multiple sails then...) -- open it up, and whoosh! The boat rockets forward in the direction of the wind at top speed. I'm flying at mad speed ahead into the unknown. A sea gull joins me and skims the water by my side, soon joined by three or four others, flying along side me at top speed while my boat crashes through the waves. Probably the most exhilarating feeling captured in a video game this year. I kick back and swing the camera around... where to go? Far, far in the distance I spot more land. A tower? I swing the boat towards it, and off we go.
Then I remember about the telescope. I equip the telescope while sailing at top speed towards the dark tower in the distance. With it, I can zoom around the horizon, and notice five or six different land objects on the horizon. I can swing the boat around and journey to any of them. So this is it. The game overworld, game's Hyrule field, except it's the sea, with multiple island you can sail to and explore. You have no idea how liberating, exhilarating, it feels to pilot this boat around a vast ocean, Sinbad style, seeking out mysterious islands and land masses in the distance with your telescope, and actually being able to go to them, and find whole new levels, people, items, worlds to enter.
Reaching the island, I beach the boat and start to head in. Here, the boat gives me the Wand of the Wind and teaches me how to use it. It seems that the first use is to summon the boat to you at any beach. The first use of many, I'm sure. You wave the wand in time (Parappa style) in certain directions to get the desired combination. Up, up, left, right, down. There are half and double measures as well, depending on how long you conduct in one direction. Not as easy as it looks.
The highlight of this area was actually going back outside, to find a giant molten whirlpool of fire about 1,000 feet wide rotating in front of me, tiny platforms dotted above it in the distance. The fire is full cell shaded and casts light on itself, as it rotates and folds into itself. Hundreds of little ash particles fly about slowly in the wind, blowing back and forth, all lit by the rotating flame. INSANE.
This is a glimpse of the full game. 30 minutes, chosen at random. Imagine the variety of game locations, painted in this consistent, incredible artistic brush. Hoist your expectations as high as you like. Kaze No Takuto is not going to disappoint.
-Justin Keeling
[email protected]"
Tokyopia (http://www.tokyopia.com/reviews.asp?reviewsid=46)
Planetgamecube.com
"Impressions: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Karlie goes hands on with the final version of The Legend of Zelda: Kaze no Takuto. Find out all about the first dungeon!
Written: 12/03/2002
I started the level filling a bottle with water. This bottle came from a half bird half girl creature who needed your help crossing over a gap where the bridge had broken. By picking her up and throwing her as the wind is blowing in the right direction, she can reach her destination safely and then rewards you with the item. The problem now, how does Link get across the gap? By watering a small bomb flower and throwing the bomb that grows at the rock that is covering the fountain, water rushes out to fill the space and Link can swim across the gap into the first dungeon.
The main room of the first floor has a large bridge suspended over the lava below. The ledges around the room lead to each door (except for one!). The only two enemies in this room are two Keese, although the lava will come roaring up from below to obstruct your path. The entire room has a hazy effect from the heat, this is just one of the graphical touches that are everywhere.
Many of the rooms are separated by wooden planks rather than doors. Different techniques need to be used to break them apart. Sometimes throwing a rock or Link’s own sword will open the door, otherwise an enemies’ larger sword or a flaming stick. The sticks can also be thrown at a door if it is too far away to reach.
In some rooms there are large pots of water. As well as looking comical when carried above your head they can be thrown onto the lava to create temporary rock platforms. This can be used to cross a large pool or when the lava is shooting up, the platform formed by throwing water also shoots up and can take you to higher ground.
Some of the dungeon requires you to be outside. One of the dungeon keys is found in a bird’s nest, reached by climbing, crawling and shuffling around the cliff. Outside passages are found often in this dungeon and it is usually easier to reach a different floor this way.
In one sequence, the flying girl has been captured. After defeating the enemies, (including the final one that is dropped down by a bird) she is freed and gives you the rope and hook. This can be assigned to one of the buttons and launched where a yellow flashing symbol appears. Pressing the same button again releases it and you land wherever you were flying above. It is important to face the correct angle while using the hook and rope otherwise it’s easy to just swing into mid-air and fall when the rope is released.
Once you have the rope and hook there are a lot of areas in the first floor that are now accessible. Rooms can now be re-visited to ensure the entire dungeon has been explored. The map is accessed by pressing up on the D-pad. Once the compass has been found visited rooms are shown in green, rooms yet to be entered are black and unopened chests are marked as yellow.
Link can use the Baton to change the direction of the wind. Pressing directions on the control stick in time activates the compass that can be used to choose the new direction.
Not all the characters have eyes as large as Link. Also interesting, Link actually starts off in a blue and white shirt, instead of his normal uniform. After finding your grandmother, she gives you the normal clothes, which Link puts on with a look of disgust.
As always, there are shops in the village. One of these was found on a boat and sold a type of fruit. After purchasing this and going back outside, using the fruit would balance it on your head. A seagull would then swoop down and you’d end up on it’s back, flying through the air.
For those considering an import, be warned that there is a lot of Japanese text in most areas. The story parts of the game are largely trial and error if you cannot read the text but the dungeons have less writing so are easier to navigate.
Karlie Yeung, European Correspondent"
PlanetGameCube (http://www.planetgamecube.com/impressions.cfm?action=profile&id=531)
Posted on Tuesday, December 03, 2002 by Justin
Where to start?
How about with this:
The finished version of Zelda is appallingly, shockingly, brilliant.
Much has been improved since the last demo we've seen (I finished all three E3 demos multiple times). Perhaps the game benefitted from progressive mode, but the Zelda now just looks incredible. I went inside one door, and trapped the camera to give a closeup of Link's face. Hello, where are the pixels? Can we have some pixels please? Even on a television, the game looks 100% like moving hand drawn animation. Lit. In 3D. And controllable.
The game world has been improved, tweaked, and tightened, and perfected since the last demos we saw. It looks breathtaking. 10 minutes in, I started thinking strange thoughts. Like, "why isn't every game in the world made to look like this? Silly developers." Imagine the most solid, consistantly beautiful game world ever constructed. Well that isn't Zelda. Because you can't really imagine how well they've pulled it off.
Now bear in mind, I wasn't hugely impressed by the E3 demo. My impressions of that are here: http://www.tokyopia.com/reviews.asp?reviewsid=16
So let's start. I select save file one, and off we go. I start off on a totally different island, one I haven't seen in either shots or demos. A village on an island to be precise, larger than the one in the E3 demo. Grassy roads winding up slopes, houses and shops build on slopes, overlooking the ocean like a Tuscan village. I walk through. Certain people are reactive to where I walk, a first for a Zelda game. A group of children spot me, a stranger, and run up to me, eyes amazed, circling me slowly. I walk away, they follow me. I stop, they stop and gawp at me again. They follow me all over the village, bored, expressions of curiosity on their faces. Brilliant.
I wander up the slope, into houses and buildings. A rich person's house, large with ornaments, two floors and a chandelier. He gets mad when I smash some of his pots. I take a run at the chanderlier from the second floor stairs, hop, and grab onto it, swing back and forth. Cool.
Enter more buildings on my way up. Fantastic character designs, interiors modelled around the personality of the owners. Higher up I reach a hilly plain with a grave, a strange guy with an afro dancing next to it. Beyond I can see clouds billowing in the distance, the ocean stretching on for miles, little Miyazaki style waves washing over it to the horizon. Then I spot my boat, down by the dock.
I jump off the ledge, fall for ages, land in the water (the splash is considerably improved from the demo version... then again, so is everything). Swim up to the boat. The front of the boat is a dragon looking face (as you know from the artwork). What you don't know, is that the boat is a living thing. Its head follows me around curiously as I swim around it. I lock on, and it talks to me. The boat is sort of like Navi, except less intrusive as it's not tied to you 24/7. Later on, it gives me the Wand of the Wind, and teaches me how to use it.
I hop on the boat, and paddle out slowly to sea. Not much speed. I check my inventory, and find a white sail (multiple sails then...) -- open it up, and whoosh! The boat rockets forward in the direction of the wind at top speed. I'm flying at mad speed ahead into the unknown. A sea gull joins me and skims the water by my side, soon joined by three or four others, flying along side me at top speed while my boat crashes through the waves. Probably the most exhilarating feeling captured in a video game this year. I kick back and swing the camera around... where to go? Far, far in the distance I spot more land. A tower? I swing the boat towards it, and off we go.
Then I remember about the telescope. I equip the telescope while sailing at top speed towards the dark tower in the distance. With it, I can zoom around the horizon, and notice five or six different land objects on the horizon. I can swing the boat around and journey to any of them. So this is it. The game overworld, game's Hyrule field, except it's the sea, with multiple island you can sail to and explore. You have no idea how liberating, exhilarating, it feels to pilot this boat around a vast ocean, Sinbad style, seeking out mysterious islands and land masses in the distance with your telescope, and actually being able to go to them, and find whole new levels, people, items, worlds to enter.
Reaching the island, I beach the boat and start to head in. Here, the boat gives me the Wand of the Wind and teaches me how to use it. It seems that the first use is to summon the boat to you at any beach. The first use of many, I'm sure. You wave the wand in time (Parappa style) in certain directions to get the desired combination. Up, up, left, right, down. There are half and double measures as well, depending on how long you conduct in one direction. Not as easy as it looks.
The highlight of this area was actually going back outside, to find a giant molten whirlpool of fire about 1,000 feet wide rotating in front of me, tiny platforms dotted above it in the distance. The fire is full cell shaded and casts light on itself, as it rotates and folds into itself. Hundreds of little ash particles fly about slowly in the wind, blowing back and forth, all lit by the rotating flame. INSANE.
This is a glimpse of the full game. 30 minutes, chosen at random. Imagine the variety of game locations, painted in this consistent, incredible artistic brush. Hoist your expectations as high as you like. Kaze No Takuto is not going to disappoint.
-Justin Keeling
[email protected]"
Tokyopia (http://www.tokyopia.com/reviews.asp?reviewsid=46)
Planetgamecube.com
"Impressions: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Karlie goes hands on with the final version of The Legend of Zelda: Kaze no Takuto. Find out all about the first dungeon!
Written: 12/03/2002
I started the level filling a bottle with water. This bottle came from a half bird half girl creature who needed your help crossing over a gap where the bridge had broken. By picking her up and throwing her as the wind is blowing in the right direction, she can reach her destination safely and then rewards you with the item. The problem now, how does Link get across the gap? By watering a small bomb flower and throwing the bomb that grows at the rock that is covering the fountain, water rushes out to fill the space and Link can swim across the gap into the first dungeon.
The main room of the first floor has a large bridge suspended over the lava below. The ledges around the room lead to each door (except for one!). The only two enemies in this room are two Keese, although the lava will come roaring up from below to obstruct your path. The entire room has a hazy effect from the heat, this is just one of the graphical touches that are everywhere.
Many of the rooms are separated by wooden planks rather than doors. Different techniques need to be used to break them apart. Sometimes throwing a rock or Link’s own sword will open the door, otherwise an enemies’ larger sword or a flaming stick. The sticks can also be thrown at a door if it is too far away to reach.
In some rooms there are large pots of water. As well as looking comical when carried above your head they can be thrown onto the lava to create temporary rock platforms. This can be used to cross a large pool or when the lava is shooting up, the platform formed by throwing water also shoots up and can take you to higher ground.
Some of the dungeon requires you to be outside. One of the dungeon keys is found in a bird’s nest, reached by climbing, crawling and shuffling around the cliff. Outside passages are found often in this dungeon and it is usually easier to reach a different floor this way.
In one sequence, the flying girl has been captured. After defeating the enemies, (including the final one that is dropped down by a bird) she is freed and gives you the rope and hook. This can be assigned to one of the buttons and launched where a yellow flashing symbol appears. Pressing the same button again releases it and you land wherever you were flying above. It is important to face the correct angle while using the hook and rope otherwise it’s easy to just swing into mid-air and fall when the rope is released.
Once you have the rope and hook there are a lot of areas in the first floor that are now accessible. Rooms can now be re-visited to ensure the entire dungeon has been explored. The map is accessed by pressing up on the D-pad. Once the compass has been found visited rooms are shown in green, rooms yet to be entered are black and unopened chests are marked as yellow.
Link can use the Baton to change the direction of the wind. Pressing directions on the control stick in time activates the compass that can be used to choose the new direction.
Not all the characters have eyes as large as Link. Also interesting, Link actually starts off in a blue and white shirt, instead of his normal uniform. After finding your grandmother, she gives you the normal clothes, which Link puts on with a look of disgust.
As always, there are shops in the village. One of these was found on a boat and sold a type of fruit. After purchasing this and going back outside, using the fruit would balance it on your head. A seagull would then swoop down and you’d end up on it’s back, flying through the air.
For those considering an import, be warned that there is a lot of Japanese text in most areas. The story parts of the game are largely trial and error if you cannot read the text but the dungeons have less writing so are easier to navigate.
Karlie Yeung, European Correspondent"
PlanetGameCube (http://www.planetgamecube.com/impressions.cfm?action=profile&id=531)