(Welcomes Eiji Aonuma to the stage.)
Aonuma:
So a moment ago, Mr. Miyamoto touched on the 3DS version of OoT, and mentioned the two versions of the game included. I would really like to see people try out the Water Temple again. You may notice that it’s much easier to put on and take off the iron boots than it was before, and I want you to enjoy how much easier that makes it to enjoy the Water Temple. And mention that in all of your articles that you are writing.
So last year we mentioned that the WT was tough and that we would make it easier. But when we got back we decided that no, it was not, it was just a pain in the butt, so we just decided to make it easier to make your way through the processes.
So in this year’s Skyward Sword demo we introduced the bird flying mechanic and a new boss fight.
(Very few raise their hand).
Oh, so not as many as I thought, but were you able to beat him?
(Yeah)
Oh, so it’s not that hard then.
You know, as far as sword fights go, he can be pretty tricky, but given the new mechanics for sword fighting in this game, I want people to give this a try to see how this feels.
Other than flying through the air and using your sword to battle enemies in the game, there are a whole lot of other elements in the game which it can be hard to showcase in such a short period of time. So today I will show some other gameplay elements.
In the Zelda series, one element has always been to find and dig up new features in your environment. In Skyward Sword, we have used this sort of gameplay to provide all sorts of ways to find things in your environment.
So I’d like to invite one of our resident NOA super players, Mr. Nate Bildhorff to the stage. So his job is to localize the game.
(The English version is not done yet, says Nate). So today we are playing the Japanese version.
We are viewing a scene near the start of the game. It’s an area near a volcano.
These two members of a race that lives in the area (called tenatively Mogmas), have a key to open this door which is now broken up into five pieces and buried in the ground.
Five sort of sounded like a good number (laughs). But looking for it is fun.
So you may have seen this character that is here now that was also shown in that piece of art released a couple of years ago. This is the spirit that lives in Link’s sword. She sort of appears throughout to guide you (Navi-like).
So Link is going to use his sword to sort of dowse the environment to find these pieces of the key when are needed to find.
So you hear the beeping get more and more frequent as you approach something buried. This can also include rupees and stuff as well.
The second piece is buried under some sort of tower. But we can’t bring the tower down by just bumping into it. So we need to take one of these bomb flowers and throw it down the hill.
Third piece… seems like that bit of the wall over there might be hiding another piece.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we can see it from here.
(Nate rolls a bomb down the hill and breaks open the wall.)
You have to throw it underhanded to reach that wall (cool!).
So you see another new item now: these metal gauntlets which sort of let him dig in the earth and the environments.
So now I’d like to introduce another new element in Skyward Sword, which is tentatively named the Siren World.
So I’ve mentioned before that this game sort of paints the story of the creation of the Master Sword. He has to go through trials to do this.
So here is one of the entrances to the Siren World. You thrust your sword into the ground and you’re transported there. So this forest environment sort of changes into this. When Link comes to this world, which is sort of like a separate dimension, he has to collect these items scattered about.
You have to gather these tear-shaped items which are scattered throughout the stage.
So in this world, these guardians which sort of protect these things will do him in in one hit. He’s sort of unarmed in this world. They’re strange creatures.
Here is where gameplay starts.
So as soon as you step out of that environment, the guardians start coming for you.
As you saw right now, when Link collected that droplet, it returns the guardians to their original positions and state.
So picking up one of those items starts a timer that is represented by the flower in the upper-left corner of the screen. As the petals fall, the time runs out, and the guardians eventually wake back up.
See these round white items we are picking up–what these do is highlight where those tear-shaped items are that you need to collect to return to the other dimension.
Obviously this is the same environment that you traverse in the real world. You are going to remember some of the same elements from the real world, so taking the time to ingest the world before entering this Siren World is going to pay off in the long run.
So last year I mentioned I wanted to try some different ideas and gameplay elements. This time, the different environments that lead to the dungeons are in themselves dungeons which you have to solve.
And so typically, in most Zelda games ,when you get to a different environment, and you do the events, you get to the dungeon and then you sort of move on, because you’ve already expended the use of that particular area. But this time, you will return to previous areas often as there will be more to do as you progress.
The biggest hallmark of gameplay in SS really has to do with being familiar with your environments and understanding how you have to move through them.
This is a game that you can play for a very long period of time, and it’s one where understanding the map of the world is going to make the game very interesting to play, so we have spent a great deal of time on improving the map system as well.
(Nate dies and a joke is made.)
So shall we move on? (Applause).
(Koizumi is brought to the stage.)
Koizumi:
So I work in Tokyo at the EAD Tokyo department, and we currently are working on a 3-D version of Super Mario. I was also involved in the production of Galaxy 1 and 2. And I’m very excited to present today the gameplay in Super Mario 3-D for 3DS.
This is a working title right now. I wish I could have shown you the actual title, but I am afraid we’re still talking about it. And the reason we’re still talking about it is all Mr. Miyamoto’s fault. That’s a joke (laughter).
But we have some ideas on what we may use for the title, and you might find some visual clues judging by the logo behind you.
All right, so let’s get right into the game.
So we’re going to do some basic explanation of some of the 3-D elements in the game. I think you’ll notice that it’s a bit of a departure from Galaxy, and is more of a return to the original Super Mario Bros. gameplay.
In Galaxy, Mario went to space, and that really gave me an opportunity to explore what Mario is all about. So I had a great chance to research what gives the game a sort of tempo that it requires.
So we decided in this game to think about what are the most Mario-like elements. So we wanted to create the most “Mario-like 3-D Mario game.” I think that’s the best way to put it.
So Nate is playing and he is using the B-dash. It’s not actually a B-dash, but an X or Y button, but it’s the same feature you’re familiar with from the classic games.
And that’s Tanooki Mario (Nate almost dies, but wall-jumps to safety and is met with a round of applause).
As you can see, Tanooki Mario has a slower fall speed, which allows some expert players like Nate to execute some cool techniques.
Another Mario-like element is the flag versus the star to end the level.
So next we want to show off the 3-D capabilities in a level that works very well in 3-D. This is the airship level. (Jokes about why this is not in 3-D right now.)
(Comments on the large skewers found in SMW which are also in this level. ) Nate, are you surprised by this? Maybe not since you’re such a super player.
So in the E3 version, there are four courses. And hidden somewhere in there is a secret word. And the keyword if you’re looking for it is “hurdle.”
You might see some debugging screens in there in the meantime.
So this is a side-scrolling stage, which is one of the easier to understand Mario playing types. Until now, we haven’t really been able to show things coming out of the background toward you, which is sort of taboo in 2-D game development.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, we decided to create a very unique stage. So this is a Zelda-style Mario level (it’s overhead, with Zelda enemies!)
So I really wanted to create a sort of top-down Zelda view, and I was really able to do that with3DS.
Mario lights torches with his fireballs.
This is really cool!
Mm: There is one last thing I want to talk about.
Luigi’s Mansion 2! A lot of you are probably wondering why Nintendo would leave Pikmin behind and work on LM2. But the discussion of Pikmin is prohibited today (laughter). Really the reason we made this is because I wanted to (laughter). When we first started experimenting with the 3DS screen, one of the first games we experimented with was LM2. So I’ve wanted to make it ever since then.
It’s being developed by Next Level Games.
They have been a great partner, so when we asked them to make Luigi’s Mansion, they got very excited. The entire company got behind it.
So technically EAD is not overseeing this project, but I basically have been overseeing it. But development is coming along smoothly, so you can look forward to it. (Speaking to NLG employee) We’re good right? (laughter).
Now they are going to show a video–this is the only place this video is currently available.
If you keep an eye on the top screen while playing on the bottom screen, you’ll find that there are a lot of secrets to be discovered.
Ice stage is shown.
Luigi is looking in a toilet in the next (last scene). You are looking for ghosts which only appear in the mirrors in the background to help Toad out.
In the previous game, you had the flashlight, but the flashlight also have a strobe function this time. So you will be flashing it at the ghosts. So the feeling you get when you flash the light at them and then reel them in is really neat. I hope you will enjoy that.
[continue to Part 3…]