Zelda: Breath of the Wild team on dev approach, difficulty, speedrunners, concept art, Shrines, bugs, and more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 9 Comments
The Verge recently chatted with Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, art director Satoru Takizawa, and technical director Takuhiro Dohta. Tons of topics were discussed in the new interview. Among them include how the team approached development, the game’s difficulty, speedrunning, the crazy concept, designing Shrines, and making the experience as bug free as possible.
We’ve rounded up notable excerpts from the interview below. You can read the full discussion on The Verge here.
Switch sold through 95% of its initial shipment in Japan
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 77 Comments
Various information about Switch’s debut sales have been coming this week. In its first three days, the console is estimated to have sold around 330,000 units.
Dengeki now reports that Switch sold through 95 percent of its initial shipment. Given that, as well as how it’s tough to find in stores, the system’s first shipment is almost entirely depleted. That means when next week’s sales are reported, Switch is likely going to have a major drop off – so don’t panic when you see the numbers.
By the way, on another interesting note, Dengeki says that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has an attach rate of 60.8 percent with Switch. That’s higher than the rate for Twilight Princess and Wii at 35.9 percent.
Nintendo offers up expanded statement on Switch issues, says problems “being handled promptly”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 17 Comments
TIME has received an expanded statement regarding issues some owners are said to have been experiencing with Switch. For the most part, it outlines what we’ve heard previously.
The big takeaway: Nintendo says that Switch isn’t facing “widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con Bluetooth connection.”
The statement in full reads:
“At Nintendo, we take great pride in creating quality products and we want our consumers to have a positive experience. It is common with any new innovative consumer technology for consumers to have questions, and Nintendo Switch is no exception. There are no widespread technical problems, and all issues are being handled promptly, including the reports regarding the left Joy-Con Bluetooth connection. To best support our customers, we continuously update the online consumer support site and provide real-time answers to the questions we are receiving. We want our consumers to get up and running quickly to have fun with Nintendo Switch, and if anything falls short of this goal we encourage them to contact Nintendo’s Consumer Service team. For help with any hardware or software questions, please visit: http://support.nintendo.com”
LEGO City Undercover on Switch has “dramatically improved” load times and more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 32 Comments
LEGO City Undercover was originally a Wii U game, though it’s now seeing new life on the latest gaming systems such as Switch. The game will feature some improvements and additions.
As for why LEGO City Undercover is being revisited in the first place, it seems that the team has a strong attachment to the game. “It’s something that’s quite personal to us,” producer Matt Ellison told Game Informer this month.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – new Battle mode footage (new options and courses)
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos | 3 Comments
Brand new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe footage was just shown on the PAX Twitch stream. We’re able to get a first look at the likes of Shine Thief and Renegade Roundup, along with footage of courses revealed today. View the gameplay below.
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Nintendo Minute – Super Bomberman R
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Switch, Videos | 10 Comments
This week’s episode of Nintendo Minute has gone live. In today’s video, Kit and Krysta try out Super Bomberman R’s multiplayer with a couple of friends. Watch the full episode below.
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Nintendo: Joy-Con replacement / repair requests “not significant”, consistent with its other hardware launches
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 54 Comments
One of the early problems some users have reported experiencing with Switch concerns the Joy-Con disconnecting during play. We’ve gone over that enough times, so we don’t need to touch on explaining it further. However, Nintendo did provide a new statement to TIME about the situation.
“The number [of Joy-Con replacement or repair requests received] is not significant, and is consistent with what we’ve seen for any new hardware we have launched,” a representative said.
We heard from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime earlier today that the company is looking into potential issues, and wants to hear from consumers via its support line if they experience anything. The same goes for the dock scratching Switch’s screen.
More: top
Art director says Link’s iconic hat is missing in Zelda: Breath of the Wild since it’s tough to make it look cool
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 68 Comments
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild breaks many of the series’ conventions. Among these is the lack of Link’s iconic hat, which has long been a staple of the series.
In an interview with Polygon, Breath of the Wild art director Satoru Takizawa told Polygon that due to the rise of graphic fidelity, it’s tough “to make that hat look cool.”
He said:
“As the graphic fidelity has increased it becomes more difficult to make that hat look cool. As the game becomes more realistic it’s difficult to present it in a way that’s appealing.
If you look at Twilight Princess, I really made the hat long, so it would flap in the wind and move around. But because of that people were like ‘What’s he got? What’s in that hat?’ We’re reaching our limits as to how we can make it look cool.”
Takizawa added that with Skyward Sword, he attempted to make Link’s hat diminutive and giving it much less motion, but “we’re reaching our limits as to how we can make it look cool.”
Zelda: Breath of the Wild may have a tribute to Iwata
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 13 Comments
YouTube user Seaniccus may have uncovered a small but lovely tribute to Satoru Iwata in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
We won’t get too much into the specifics just in case there are some of you who want to be completely blind of the game’s smaller secrets and whatnot, but the main idea here is that one of the game’s NPC bears a striking resemblance to the late Nintendo president. Along with that, he tells you about a certain mountain in the game that’s just one letter off from “Satoru”.
For the full video, continue on below.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild – full GDC 2017 panel
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment
The full panel is now online for the Zelda: Breath of the Wild session at GDC 2017. Nintendo’s Hidemaro Fujibayashi,
Satoru Takizawa, and Takuhiro Dohta go in-depth with discussing how some of the convention-breaking mechanics were implemented in the game. Check out the full video below.
