Nintendo ripping off Okami again. Sigh, lol. I wouldn't say Skyward Sword is like a water-color painting. It has elements but it still looks like the graphics are leaning toward a cartoony style to me, especially the character models in the demo showed.

Skyward Sword is sure as hell not ripping off Okami. Have you even looked at Okami or Skyward Sword? They don't even look remotely the same at all. Okami's graphics have an old Japanese painting look to it (and sure does a good job at it), while Skyward Sword looks like a 3d version of A Link to the Past.

I was really excited for this title! LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111!!!!111!!!!one!!!!!eleven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

When? I heard 2011, but I'm just really impatient for it. Early? Late? I reaaaaaaaaaally want to play it soon

A bit of story was revealed, by Eiji Aonuma:

"The final scene of our E3 trailer saw Link diving off a cliff into clouds - a very memorable scene," he said. "That's a very important point in the story this time around. Link is a young man who's born and raised in this floating land - Skyloft. It may sound an interesting place to live, but Link doesn't think about it like that.

"However, one day an incident reveals there is a land beneath the clouds. This other world is ruled by evil forces. It's very dangerous. But Link is forced to go into it.

"One of the driving parts of the story is that Link has to travel back and forth between Skyloft and this other land. The thing that leads Link down is the subtitle, the Skyward Sword. The mysterious figure in the artwork we released last year is the Skyward Sword. When it's leading Link or advising him it will take on this appearance.

"You've probably realised this already, but the Master Sword is very important. What exactly is it? That's something you can maybe imagine for yourselves. Actually, I'll go and tell you right out: The Skyward Sword becomes the Master Sword. Sorry about that.

"Sky or skies is also very important to the game. These clouds that surround these beautiful vistas is very powerful and that's one of the reason we've implement the graphics style that we have. I really like this art style a lot. It only took one step in the approval process to get the okay from Mr Miyamoto!

"There's still some work to do, a lot of polish, and when we're finished we'll find a nice harmony between graphics and gameplay."

Interesting...

its twilight princess and spirit tracks's son! AMAZING

people reacted the same way to the visuals in windwaker, but now it's widely regarded as one of the most beautiful games ever made. you have to trust nintendo when they pull things like this, because to my memory, not a single one of their big titles has gone down in history as having terrible visuals. making games that stand the test of time is what they do better than anyone else, even if it's not what the fans wanted to see at the time it came out.

i think last year's artwork gave people the expectation that this was going to be twilight princess x2, with the same look overhauled on the wii. the shock of getting something that's totally different will wear off soon and then you can bet people will be amazed by the way it looks.

I couldn't agree more. And I too think Wind Waker is the best Zelda game ever.

The colors...And the graphics........kinda remind me of Free Realms.

Disagree, this looks like A link to the Past in 3D, I love the vibrant colors and less realistic take on it.

It all looks great so far. Looks exactly as I hoped it would. Add some polish, and it will be great. I guess one thing I would like to see are what the towns look like, and other characters.
One concern I have about this game is, being left-handed, that there might not be the option to select which hand Link uses. Both alternatives (Playing the game right-handed, or playing left-handed with a right-handed Link) sound awkward.

another gamer's opinions about the game: http://www.roboawesome.com/?p=12070

there's also a nice video that shows off the 1:1 swordplay by way of gratuitous mushroom violence before the guy realizes he has no clue what he's doing. the coolest part is that in addition to the old spin attack, link can now flip and do a vertical spin as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em-n3LrCD-Y

forget the photos; the game looks much more beautiful in motion.

I wonder wheather they'll patch up the fractured story line?

From the IGN interview with Aonuma, there comes the revelation that Hidemaro Fujibayashi is heading up the direction for this game. He previously direct the Oracle games and Minish Cap with Capcom. I don't know yet how I feel about that, since I never got into the Oracle games.

That is true. And talk about ripping - Okami ripped it's whole basic structure from Zelda series.

The Oracle games were decent at best, but Minish Cap was genuinely good. The hat talked too much, and collecting those medallion things makes replaying a bore, but it was fun to play through once, quite clever and colorful. A worthy and overdue successor to the Link to the Past, though certainly not as good. I hope this might mean Vaati will be involved! There was a sky land in Minish Cap, too, which was my favorite dungeon in that game.

@WhoKnew: Interesting info. This is propably the first Zelda in the timeline then.

I think that this may be either the first game in the timeline or after MC,FS, and FSA.

Yep. I'm also pretty sure we ain't gonna see Ganondorf this time around, if the first time he showed up was in OOT.

Perhaps we'll see Vaati pass the torch to Ganon. I don't pretend to understand, care about, or even believe in the existence of the supposed timeline, but if that's how it works out, hooray for the timeline.

I guess that means we won't see Midna again though. Her part didn't really seem resolved, for some reason, but I've mostly blocked out that game, so I don't recall exactly what happened.