Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Back to TotK: Does anyone think that there will be a Sky Guardian, or something along those lines? Maybe we’ll get a Construct that is similar with speed/power, because I’m not expecting to see Guardians again.

Maybe the reason why TotK took 6 years to make, despite the fact it's an assed-reuse sequel with seemingly exact same overworld, is because they were simultaneously developing the next Zelda for the next system? Maybe they only had a small portion of the dev team to develop TotK?

@dionysos283 I dunno, Nintendo has historically always brought their A-team for mainline Zelda games. I doubt they would use a smaller dev team for this one, if anything, it was probably a larger team. I think the reason why it took so long was a combination of covid putting everything on hold for several months and the fact that I think there is still much, much more to this game that they just aren't willing to show off. If the development of this game is finished, as Aonuma said, then I could see the main team moving on to the next-gen title, with a smaller portion being left to work on the DLC, if there is going to be any for this game.

@Mrkittyhead Flying Contructs are definitely a possibility. We haven't seen any from the trailers yet, but I could see them being a later-game enemy. On the topic of Guardians, I'm kind of doubtful that they'll come back. Especially considering the fact that all Guardian remains and ruins have been cleaned up and are now absent from the overworld. If shrines return in some form, I could see maybe the Guardian scouts being part of them, but some sort of Construct scout is probably more likely.

@StarPoint yeah and considering that their excuse for making the game $70 is that they put a lot of work and the game will offer a $70 experience i wouldn't say they put a small team into it. because i wouldn't buy a game that expensive for something nintendo didnt have their A-Game working on.

@StarPoint
You're probably right. I just thought about how Bowser's Fury looks like Nintendo gave a small (also young?) team the chance to make something fresh and new with old game assets. And TotK could be something similar (only on a larger scale, obviously). Maybe it was actually possible to make TotK with a smaller team due to reusing a lot as assets?

@dionysos283 Bowser's Fury was a different thing entirely, because it was a small additional thing added upon an already made game. Tears of the Kingdom had the entire team working on it, given it was a fully fledged Zelda title, made by an entire dev team, and not just an additional small side mode.

I don't think the Zelda team split to have half the devs work on TotK, while the other half are working on the next big game for the next console. It feels more like the entire dev team was working on TotK, and that the Zelda for the next console is most likely going to come later within that system's life. We still don't know what else TotK has in it, but from what it looks like, the game is shaping up to be too big to just be made by a small section of the team, let alone new staff.

@VoidofLight
Your argumentation is of course more reasonable and conservative than mine. But in the end, we both don't know.

My reasoning is the following: TotK had a development time of 6 years. That's not only longer than BotW (5 years), but the longest of any 3D-Zelda game; despite it being an asset-reuse sequel. In comparison, Majora's Mask only took 2 years of development (and it didn't reuse Oot's overworld). So by that logic TotK would have to be as big as 3 Zelda games, which I don't think it will.

My second line of reasoning ist this: With the Switch Nintendo learned how important a great lineup of first party launch titles are (BotW, Mario Odyssey, etc.). Many people say (myself included) it was the Switch's best year. Having BotW as a launch title was probably one of the reasons the Switch was so successful. It would be ludicrous to not launch the next system with both Zelda and Mario within the first year.

So if I combine both of these arguments, I come to the conclusion that TotK was not developed by the full dev team to make sure Nintendo will have a Zelda launch title for the next system (or at least within its first year).
But that's of course just speculation. If TotK turns out to be massive, easily justifying the 6 years of development time, and if the next Zelda game will take another 5-6 years, then I was obviously wrong.

@dionysos283 Game development has vastly changed since the days of Majora's Mask so it's not really comparable to making a game nowadays.

Kingdom Sad has the same director as Breath so it's being lead by the same guy at least rather than newbies. The director actually worked for Capcom first and was poached after Nintendo was happy with his work on the Capcom made Zelda games.

@jump
I know my theory is probably wrong. But it also makes at least some sense, imo.
Let's see how TotK will turn out, and wether the next Nintendo system will have a Zelda launch title. 😉

Maybe in support of my theory: We haven't seen a new 2D Zelda title since 2013. So with the Switch being the only Nintendo console, the two Zelda teams may have merged, giving them the possibility to develop two 3D Zelda games at the same time.

@dionysos283 You do realize that Majora's Mask only had a short dev time because it was made as a challenge right? The devs were trying to push themselves and see if they could make a game under a specific timeframe. It isn't like TotK, where the sequel was given a lot of time in development. It's why Majora's Mask is so buggy, and one of the reasons why Aonuma somewhat regrets the game being made in the first place.

Tears of the Kingdom, while reusing the same map and some of the same assets, took 6 years to develop because they actually went in and changed the core mechanics of the game. Due to this, they pretty much had to rework physics to work along-side those said mechanics. If you count the underground and sky islands, it seems to be that they pretty much made two other maps to go along with the already existing one as well. The physics system might've been tweaked, which was what caused BotW to be in development for so long as well, just so mechanics like Ascend and skydiving could work properly.

The dev team from BotW are fully working on TotK, as it's the next big thing for the series. Given that the next big console is probably going to be 2024 or 2025, it's more than likely that the launch title for the console is going to be the next big Mario game. Just because Zelda and Mario were in launch year on Switch doesn't mean that it'll be the same for the next big console.

Edit: Also, more info about Majora: The game only had four dungeons, and was effectively a half-completed game. Yes, you could argue "well BotW only had four dungeons", but that was due to the scope of the game, rather than the game being rushed out like Majora's Mask was.

@VoidofLight

I concede most of your points. I am just speculating here, after all. But from what we've seen so far they definitely did not "change the core mechanics of the game". They replaced the old Sheika abilities by four new ones. The rest of the mechanics (climbing, gliding, combat, etc.) seem to be exactly the same. I also don't think they had to rework the whole physics system either; more like adding to it to make the new abilities work. And we still have to wait and see how big the underground and sky islands turn out to be. I would be (pleasantly) surprised, if they are as big as the overworld.

MyNintendo store pre-orders for the collector's edition went live. Had a queuing system ,and had to reenter payment details twice, but I did manage to order one successfully.

@riChchestM Is that in the UK? I checked the NA store and wasn't able to find anything

Yes that's for UK/EU. The email arrived after lunch.

"Pre-orders for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition and Link (Tears of the Kingdom) amiibo are now open! Please visit My Nintendo Store to place your pre-order using the button below:

PRE-ORDER button

Please note that orders are limited to one per customer and a Nintendo Account is required to complete your pre-order.

This product will be available in very limited quantities."

If this wikipedia page for EIji Aonuma is a reliable source, I'm shocked at the longggg list of games he's worked on. If I focused that much of my life building zelda games, one after another, ..... maybe that was part of the motivation for "wanting to break conventions of zelda" for BOTW development. I probably would have burned out and left. I had no idea Aonuma worked on that many zeldas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Aonuma

@WoomyNNYes Yeah, he’s pretty much been a staple of the series since OOT. An absolute industry legend in my book. That is probably part of the reason why BOTW was such a shift in conventions, he’s been working on these games for so long and after Skyward Sword, he, along with many other people, probably felt the need to change things up in a considerable way.

Majora's Mask has fewer dungeons, but a much denser overworld. It never felt like an incomplete product to me.

That sounds more like Wind Waker. They had a few dungeons that were scrapped to avoid delaying the game so they put in that boring find the Tri-Force quest to replace them. The unused dungeons then went into Twilight Princess.

That's why WW and MM are lower on my list, I'm more of a dungeon person above all else. Side quests and scavenger hunts typically frustrate me. However, I love the artstyle, world, and gameplay from WW. It just needed more sizable dungeons and less triforce hunting.