Hi Malstrom,
Probably you are inundated with notes about the Nintendo Direct. I thought the announcements about Zelda had a real “fire and ice” feel when viewed through the Malstrom lens: on the one hand they played straight into your prediction of HD GameCube games with The Wind Waker HD (and the worst possible game to remake, too!) On the other hand, the things they had to say about the next real Legend of Zelda seemed to be in the direction you’ve been talking: specifically that they’re trying to make it non-linear and multiplayer.
I imagine your take is that any Zelda game headed by Aonuma is going to stink even if they get certain elements right. What I didn’t hear was “no more puzzles” – which is one more thing we need to see – or maybe “more combat” would be another way of putting it. I’m not surprised because I think Nintendo and a lot of their fanbase do believe puzzles are “critical” to the series.
Actually that seems to be the problem for Zelda in general nowdays. Nintendo seems to be constantly searching for a winning formula but it refuses to question certain supposed basics like “Should we keep using the Z-lock 3D camera system from Ocarina of time?” or “Should we get rid of puzzles?” or “Should it be a 60-hour game with huge map full of scavenger hunts and other side-games?”
Oddly the overworld is not on Nintendo’s “basic” list even though it was a critical feature starting from the very first . Maybe Nintendo should make a list of what they consider basic to the series and then replay the games to discover when it really did become “basic”. Of course that would require Aonuma to beat an Octorock. ;)
The purpose of the ‘multiplayer’ in Zelda U is for the developers to do less work. Do not doubt me. Just like Miiverse is for Wii U users to entertain each other while the developers don’t have to work as hard, the ‘multiplayer’ for Zelda U means there doesn’t have to be as much development work. Think of it like WoW trying to get everyone to PvP because when everyone PvPs, they don’t have to make as many new dungeons and raids.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Zelda U is ‘integrated with Miiverse’ in some godawful way. Their multiplayer could be something as absurd as other players acting out the NPCs and we get to ‘pretend’ to do content, a sort of make-believe in a Virtual Environment. I expect the worst from Zelda U.