What I'm saying is that, despite initial appearances, enough has been shown to make it clear that it's far from an empty kingdom. There are multiple towns and stables manned by humans, traveling salespeople (most notably Beedle, making a return appearance, and several different characters shown in that trailer including Zoras, Gerudo, and Gorons. They just have shown a lot less of them than of the landscape (after all, it is called "Breath of the WILD")

Most of the E3 stuff was on the plateau, which is pretty much devoid of humans (except for Link and the old man), but it's only about 2% of the entire map. New footage has made it clear there are a lot of people in the ruined kingdom of Hyrule, just not many of them near where all the devastation is on the plateau and near the castle.

Darth Board wrote:What I'm saying is that, despite initial appearances, enough has been shown to make it clear that it's far from an empty kingdom. There are multiple towns and stables manned by humans, traveling salespeople (most notably Beedle, making a return appearance, and several different characters shown in that trailer including Zoras, Gerudo, and Gorons. They just have shown a lot less of them than of the landscape (after all, it is called "Breath of the WILD")

Most of the E3 stuff was on the plateau, which is pretty much devoid of humans (except for Link and the old man), but it's only about 2% of the entire map. New footage has made it clear there are a lot of people in the ruined kingdom of Hyrule, just not many of them near where all the devastation is on the plateau and near the castle.

unless you saw different footage than I did at the Switch event... I don't see "a lot" of people. sparse towns maybe. I'm open to there being more, and hopeful of it.

Well, I have seen other footage beyond just the trailer, but here are some screen grabs from the trailer itself (and a couple of others) showing other characters/towns:













Great Fairy GIF:


We've seen other guys from this species (probably a new version of the Rito from Wind Waker:


From earlier footage, Link talking to one of them with an accordion:


And in other footage, we've seen these stables that are all over the world (that's Beedle on the right):


My point is this game looks to be every bit as populated as any other Zelda title, just with more wide open spaces in between. Apparently there is a LOT to do! 120 shrines/dungeons, 70-some side quests, and a bunch of other fun stuff all around (like taming horses, hunting game, looting enemy camps, and more). I think the fact that it's seemed empty early on is that they're trying to keep mum on story details.

I think that's my point. We're looking at the same data from two different angles. The same population over older Zelda maps didn't feel as desolate. Now it feels there is hundreds of miles between each encounter with some specialized character. The space between just feels massive, and the level of characters didn't proportionally grow with it. It look you like 4 screens to get from the old man who gives you the sword to the shield merchant, the game guy, potion merchant in the original LoZ, Link to the Past is littered with people and castle guards running all over the place. The scale made it feel more populated, this feels like the same amount of people, hundreds of real miles between them.

I'm still gonna play it, and still gonna love it.

I get what you mean, then.

Here's something interesting about the game too. Looks like it will be the first in the series (at least the first I'm aware of) that will have alternate endings!

https://mynintendonews.com/2017/01/21/t ... -the-wild/

The Switch launches at midnight tonight, and the reviews are mixed to positive.

But one thing everyone agrees on is that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an absolute masterpiece! There is no doubt this will be many outlets' game of the year. It's racking up more perfect scores than I recall ever having seen for a game. I am VERY much looking forward to playing it, but I can't decide if I want to try it on Wii U or Switch! Anyway, here's a selection of reviews on the game:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/zelda- ... 0-6448347/

I mean, it's pretty impressive when you see lists like this for any game:

It gets even better for Zelda fans! Breath of the Wild is currently sitting on a 98% at Metacritic with 61 positive reviews, 0 mixed and 0 negative! That is INSANE! I looked further and found that 37 of those scores were perfects, and the lowest one was a 90%.

This is the highest score of any current gen game and the fourth best of all time, with #2-6 on the list all scoring a 98 (all time 1st is Ocarina of Time at 99%). I think I will be looking to get this game tonight or tomorrow if I can, although I'm not sure if I'm going to try to get a Switch or just play it on my Wii U (probably the latter, but I haven't decided for sure; I'm going to Orlando for the first few days of next week, and being able to take it with me is VERY appealing). The Metacritic score is for the Switch version, as no reviews for the Wii U version are up yet. By all reports, there is very little difference between the two, with the Switch having very slightly crisper graphics, longer draw distances, and less slow down.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/t ... f-the-wild

I'm still not sold on the Switch in general, but I'm very curious about Breath of the Wild.

Sounds like it'll definitely be worth it on either console, though.

My inner cheapskate is tempted to wait and see if the price for the Wii U version falls so I can snag it on the cheap, but I'm undecided.

I think it's actually going to be very difficult to find on Wii U unless you download it digitally. It might be decently easy to find in stores for a little while since so many people are playing it on Switch, but I don't know. I suspect Nintendo made a very small number of disks, and I cannot imagine they'll be pressing any more (particularly since they stopped producing the console entirely a few months ago). I actually did buy a Switch and the game last night, but I haven't opened either of them yet. I decided I'm not going to let myself play with any of it until I clean up my space, which I've been putting off and need desperately to get done.

I set the boxes up right next to my TV so I have to look at them in their unopened glory. I figure if it encourages me to get organized when I really need it, it's actually worth my purchasing the system.

Here's a thought: Maybe you can even get the girls to organize their space!

In other Zelda news, fanboys who cannot stand that Nintendo is getting such high praise for a new game are actually posting "0" reviews on Metacritic. Seriously. There's a bunch of 0% user reviews now. Many of them even admit to having not played the game. The critic score is still 98%, but the user score is 76% thanks to the hater campaign.

People can be really messed up sometimes.