Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s map is based on Kyoto
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 0 comments
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s huge map is based on Kyoto, Japan. That’s according to director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who revealed the information while speaking with The Verge.
Fujibayashi told the site:
“When I first started looking at this game, I had Link in an empty game field and I would just walk around and try to map out and get a feel for the distance and where landmarks should be. What helped me with this was my hometown, Kyoto. I took a map of Kyoto and overlaid it on the game world, and I tried to imagine going to places that I know in Kyoto. I’d think ‘It takes this much time to get from point A to point B, so how does that translate to the game?’ And that’s how we started mapping out the world in Breath of the Wild.”
Fujibayashi added that using Kyoto as a base was helpful during development since developers were familiar with the region:
Zelda: Breath of the Wild director on cutting Wii U touch features
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 77 Comments
Before the Switch version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game was planned to have some touch features on the Wii U GamePad. Ultimately, those ideas were scrapped. The GamePad simply tells players that they can tap on the controller to enable off-TV play.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently chatted with IGN about the decision to cut the game’s touch features on Wii U. Once Switch was brought in and tests were done, Nintendo “noticed looking back and forth between the GamePad and the screen actually took a little something away from this type of Zelda game.”
Fujibayashi’s full comments are below.
Niantic CEO on Pokemon GO – 2017 update plans, Legendary Pokemon, cheating, missing features
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 38 Comments
This week, Wired’s German division conducted an interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke. Hanke was able to answer some important questions about plans for Pokemon GO in 2017 and more.
First, Hanke was asked about what fans can expect from Pokemon GO’s second big update this year. He confirms that “playing together and gym battles” will be primarily addressed.
“There are a couple of areas that need to be improved – one of them being playing together and gym battles. We released those in an incomplete state. We knew from Ingress that cooperation and planning can be a lot of fun. When people have a common goal, then that’s a strong incentive to meet up with friends or even with people you don’t know.”
“The gameplay in gym battles is very limited. They just don’t work as well as we wish they would. We will overhaul this aspect of the game to ensure more teamwork and to give people a bigger incentive to receive the rewards from gym battles.”
More: interview, John Hanke, Niantic, Pokemon GO, top
Switch had “one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 50 Comments
How Switch will do in the long run remains to be seen. That being said, early indications from GameStop point to the system having a successful launch.
Eric Bright, the retailer’s senior director of merchandising, shared a few comments about Switch’s performance on launch day. According to Bright, Switch saw “one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years.” He also noted how many stores “were packed with customers”, with some fans lining up early to nab a Switch for themselves.
Bright said:
“Stores across the country last night were packed with customers who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the brand new Nintendo Switch. We even had customers lining up as early as yesterday morning so that they could be one of the lucky ones to score one of the additional units for our walk-in customers. This is one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years. For those fans who are still looking for the Nintendo Switch, don’t worry–we’re getting more. And, we’re pretty sure that there are a lot of gaming fans who pulled all-nighters last night playing their new Switch, and who also called in sick to work today with ‘game-fluenza’ just to stay home and play even more.”
Yacht Club on finding out about Switch, says it’s an “incredibly easy system to develop for”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 3 Comments
Yacht Club Games is at Switch’s launch with Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment. But how’d the studio find out about the new console anyway?
In a recent interview, lead programmer and studio co-founder David D’Angelo said:
“Nintendo first came to us. They said, ‘We have something coming. No we can’t tell you what it is, but if you have something around this time then that would be great.’ They do a pretty good job of keeping us in the loop in case our projects line up.”
D’Angelo also mentioned that “Switch is light years ahead of the Wii U. It’s an incredibly easy system to develop for, even compared to other consoles.”
With Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games had it running “within a week”. In D’Angelo’s experience, developing for Switch is very close to the PlayStation 4. “I’ve been very impressed with how put together it is,” he said.
More: interview, top, Yacht Club Games
1-2-Switch producer says the game wasn’t planned to be part of WarioWare, why it isn’t pre-installed
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 21 Comments
Within the past week or so, new 1-2-Switch interviews with producer Kouichi Kawamoto appeared in both in Famitsu and on Japanese website 4Gamer. While nothing too major was mentioned, there were a few excerpts we thought were worth highlighting.
First, on 4Gamer, the site started out by talking about how 1-2-Switch feels reminiscent of WarioWare. Kawamoto responded to this and later directly commented on why the game isn’t pre-installed.
Below is the relevant exchange between the two sides:
The first game I created after joining Nintendo was the Sound Bomber mini-game included in 64DD title Mario Artist: Polygon Studio. Sound Bomber became foundation for WarioWare, so I am credited as being responsible for coming up with it.
Does that mean 1-2-Switch is based on WarioWare?
No, it doesn’t (laughs). I happened to come up with something completely new this time. […]
Did you ever consider making a game like 1-2-Switch as part of the WarioWare series?
WarioWare throws new games with different rules at you one after another, and they are fairly difficult games. If you played them without looking at screen, they would be extremely difficult. Furthermore, the players themselves are the characters in 1-2-Switch, performing on their ‘stage’ in front of the screen, so there isn’t really any room for the Wario characters. Because of that, I decided not to use Warioware from the outset. I made something new.
More: 1-2-Switch, interview, Kouichi Kawamoto, top
[Let’s Talk] Your impressions of Switch and Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk, Switch | 43 Comments
It’s almost tough to believe that Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are finally here. With Switch, we’ve been waiting on it ever since late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata teased it as NX two years ago. The wait for Zelda has been even longer as it was first mentioned in a January 2013 Nintendo Direct.
It may only be around two days, but we’d love to hear about what everyone thinks of Switch and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Have they lived up to your expectations? Are they disappointing you in any way? Let us know in the comments below.
Highlights from last week’s topic: Will you play Switch more as a console or a portable?
Bye-Bye BoxBoy! localization confirmed, listed for March 23 by Nintendo UK
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 3 Comments
Goodbye! BoxBoy! is getting localized, and perhaps sooner than expected. Nintendo UK’s website is currently listing the game for a March 23 release.
As Bye-Bye BoxBoy! has not yet been officially announced for the west and the page leads to a 404 error, this is likely an unintentional leak from Nintendo. However, if it really is coming out in a few weeks though, we should be hearing about it very soon.
More: Goodbye! BoxBoy!, HAL Laboratory, top
Kimishima on Switch’s price, VR
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 21 Comments
Earlier today, Asahi Shimbun published a brief interview with Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima about Switch. There were a few interesting excerpts about the system’s price and plans for VR.
Regarding price, Asahi Shimbun brought up how some people feel that Switch is expensive when compared to other gaming systems. However, Kimishima was quick to point out that the features are different, so you can not simply compare them. He thinks those opinions are not necessarily the majority. Nintendo is putting in effort to reduce costs, so the company may be able to consider a price drop in the future.
More: interview, Tatsumi Kimishima, top
Aonuma interested in exploring HD Rumble in the future
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 8 Comments
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild doesn’t have support for HD Rumble. That being said, series producer Eiji Aonuma is certainly interested in the new force feedback feature Switch provides.
Speaking with Game Informer, Aonuma said that HD Rumble “is something I am keeping in the back of my head” and “would definitely like to visit” at some point in the future. He also brought up how it would work well in something like Skyward Sword – HD remaster, anyone?
Aonuma’s full words:
