Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma have revealed that they are aware of the so-called Zelda cycle in the latest Iwata Asks segment on The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. Aonuma sums up the Zelda cycle rather nicely by explaining that as time progresses, negative opinions about The Legend of Zelda turn into positive ones. This has in fact happened with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Aonuma: There’s a “Zelda cycle.”
Iwata: Yes. Bill Trinen-san at Nintendo of America—who always plays a big role in preparing the overseas versions of The Legend of Zelda games—always talks about the Zelda cycle.
Aonuma: Basically, as time progresses, negative opinions about The Legend of Zelda turn into positive ones. At first, I wasn’t sure about that, but seeing the response to The Wind Waker HD, I think it may be right.
Iwata: And it isn’t restricted to The Wind Waker. Every time a new Zelda title comes out, there’s no shortage of negative opinions, but a year or two later, people are revising their opinions, and its reputation goes up.
Aonuma: The response of fans in North America was like that for The Wind Waker. When we first announced the original version in 2001, the majority of voices we heard were against it. However, the responses for the Nintendo Direct we aired in January were incredibly favorable. Also at the Nintendo Experience event at Best Buy which was held at the same time as this year’s E3, a lot of people lined up in front of the single demo station for The Wind Waker HD in each store, saying they really wanted to play it. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Mario Kart 8.
Iwata: This might jinx things, but we weren’t able to expand the reach of the Nintendo GameCube hardware to the fullest, so even if people thought it looked good, a lot of them didn’t buy the hardware and decided to wait it out.
Aonuma: The other thing I could say is that we upended a lot of things with The Wind Waker, and we continued to do so beyond that as well. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had serious and photorealistic looks, and then The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had a painting like look with its half cel-shaded animation. It keeps changing with each new release.
Iwata: To that point, I think a part of the reason that the sentiment for The Wind Waker is increasing is that people have now seen both Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, and have realized that The Wind Waker did have its own appeal.
Aonuma: I suppose so.
First
Yes, now what? What do you want? Why did you post this? Why do you think we care? Are you just looking for “epic comments”? Why don’t you go on youtube videos then? When I came here this evening it wasn’t to view an advanced screening of “Autist From Outer Space” starring you. Faggot
Are you really that much of a tight faggot about me posting first ? LOL grow up man
Grow up says the man who declares victory on trivial Internet threads out of mere childish contentment.
When did I ever “claim victory” ? Don’t start making up stories man it makes you sound crazy
“First” -you thought ~ September 18, 2013 at 4:13 pm
Implying your comment won an insignificant race to post first. Also I said declares, not claim. There’s a difference whether or not you understand it. ;)
LMAO you don’t know what ur talking about I didn’t apply that I won anything that’s just your dumb ass assumption so the fact that you don’t know what I was implying just shows how much of an idiot your are XD
Your denial is next level desperate LOL.
No its just your mad that your assumption was wrong lololol
lol saying “first” is so childish. You are the one who needs to get a life
I don’t recall saying first means someone’s childish. That’s just your opinion on the matter which btw ima let you know it means nothing just saying
Ahaha I can’t believe you faggots are actually arguing about this
you thought,This guy is ether trolling you or he is just mad because he the real loser who was waiting to be first and you happened to beat him to it.lol
Lol thanks man and you know I thought the same thing too I was like hmm maybe he really wanted wanted to be first and proly had a temper tantrum that he wasn’t first. He proly broke some stuff he owns because he wasn’t first but oh well if that’s the case
THANK YOU. This site needs to clean up comments.
To denounce your hands yes…
To denounce your FAKE commander status
To denounce the EVIL from truth and love…
to expand our reach to the stars above
Jesse!
James!
Team Nintendo! Blast off into the games of night!
Then they will run Into Sony and loose the fight fight fiiight and you know that’s right ;)
Haha nice…
Whatever you say Sony’s ceeock.
Omg you actually stopped using ellipses. It’s a fucking miracle.
You really are aitistic lol
*autistic
To be a faggot
I miss the “you mad bro” guy :'(
I miss Ben Sanders.
Yay so many cookies for you! /sarcasm
Of course it does High Command…
These simple minds cannot comprehend the greatness of Zelda…
Zelda Wii U will blow away every hater more than Chewbaca can chew…
Stop always using ellipses as punctuation.
No…
Your grammar is nearly as fucked up as you are.
I haven’t even started yet…
You haven’t gone full retard yet? I don’t even want to know.
Says the one coming here out of nowhere to bash people instead of posting something relevant atleast…
Lol really. This guy says only irrelevant things and is very angry. Must be a personal problem
Probably why he calls himself “Polarity”…
N.C Didn’t you even read the story?Zelda U will only blow the haters away 2 to 10 years after it’s release.lol!
If it comes to that, High Command issued an order called P.N.03-N Classified…
Top Secret plan…
You really do need to stop using eclipses in every sentence. Do you even know what they’re meant for?
Of course I know what it means, but we are not in school right now are we?…
But do they realize that a pretty big chunk of the fan base wants a more realistic art style resembling Twilight Princess ?
MM aside, they seem to go ‘realistic’, stylised, realistic, stylised- as far as the major titles go. With SS being the last major title and stylised, and now WW HD (which being a remake, I wouldn’t call major, but perhaps semi-major), I think they’ll opt for realistic now. They’re showing us how good stylised Zelda looks in HD with WW HD, they’ll show us a realistic look in HD next.
Also ‘realistic’ is a dumb way to put it. What about fighting Moblins atop giant Boars is realistic? The enemies, NPCs, and much of the environment is as fantastic (in a literal sense) as they are in any other games. It’s perhaps darker, or more mature, but not realistic.
I’m sensing a style between Pixar animations and realism…
I’d want to see something par to the Wii U Tech Demo.
By realistic, he just means the look. As in he wants the graphics to look as real as possible (not the story or villains). Basically, he wants Link and Zelda to look like real humans. Nothing to do with the monsters or anything like that, just the art style. Not being rude or anything, simply explaining what he means.
It doesn’t really matter. Game developers can choose any style that they want. Just be thankful that there are Zelda games being made in the first place.
Go play Skyrim then.
Such arrogance… Zelda has been falling every installment and they think people just grow fond of it? You’re losing the fans that state their negative opinions, leaving you only the positive ones, that’s why sales numbers are down
pfft, says the one who would not buy a link between world just because it got new mechanics, fuck off
lol Dayum!
I feel like the only game that got initial backlash was WW. TP isn’t horrible, but feels too much like OoT, and SS has it’s own share of problems, like in this day and age, why the hell do we not have voice acting yet? I can understand with franchises like Mario and Kirby, but Zelda, with it’s grand story, NEEDS voice acting to help tell the story.
NO!
Plenty of game franchises made the jump to voice acting, some rockier than others (Sonic…). Other M did have HORRIBLE voice actors, but Kid Icarus: Uprising arguably had good voice actors. This is how it is with Nintendo; when it comes to modernizing their consoles (online multiplayer, voice chat, reliable online shops and services to transfer games without having to send in your system) and games (voice acting, visuals, releasing more than 2 first-party games at launch), they just suck. They can still make some quality games, but they’re behind with the times.
Kid Icarus could pull it off because the last game we saw from it was in 1991 if I remember correctly…
Zelda is a franchise that works the way it is…
Metroid almost got destroyed by voice acting…
Atleast no voice acting on main character…
That kind of attitude is backwards. With that mindset, we’ll be getting tired sequels of Mario like “New Super Mario Bros. 3D World Advance Turbo HD Remix Deluxe For the Sequel Ultimate Edition.
The difference is that Zelda games always deliver something new and fresh…
I agree when it comes to Mario games though…
They could spice things up by making the bosses harder atleast which is really my main problem with all main Mario games…
With handheld Zeldas I agree. I think the console games need better stories to pair up with the fresh gameplay. First give me a story and characters I could give a care about like the ones in Majora’s Mask, then we can talk about voice acting.
As for Mario, we need to get away from the “New” and “3D” series after this year and bring something new to the table; similar to Galaxy but different enough to stand on its own.
Agreed, MM had the most appealing characters of any Zelda game that’s not just concentrated on the main ones…
I would like for the main Mario games to focus a bit more on bosses and increase their difficulty and AI by atleast 4 times…
i actually don’t think metroid other m had bad voice acting per se, it was more the monologues and the constant yapping of samus which was bad, people just had certain views of samus as a character which when realising that she was not the way people thought, it caused out rage, the game was ok, but was a bad metroid game with its linear progression levels, and also the story overall was garbage, and so was the lack of upgrading suit etc!
Anyway i think the monologues were what peed off people the most, she just kept going on and on, and the way the script was written was stupid, this is what caused people to get mad about other m!
The actual voice actors were fine, it was the script which was garbage!
Anyhow i think talking in zelda would be fine, if done properly, none of this stupid monologues or talking in the third person etc
Other M suffered from Samus’ speaking. That’s not going to be a problem for Link, who is mute. Then again, Samus was mute, too…. Uh-oh.
The first Dead Space had a silent character for the whole game, and it felt immersive. In Dead Space 2 Isaac starting talking all over the place and it really pulled me out of the experience, especially since he says sarcastic stuff and there was no indication of that character attribute in the first game. I think it could end up being pretty dire if Zelda used voice acting.
Damn looks like even Nintendo doesn’t see the fail they have been bringing. Zelda hasn’t been the same since twilight princess IMO
Of course it hasn’t because unlike your pathetic leaders, our empire actually does new things…
What are you talking about man ? Seems as tho your implying I’m a anti Nintendo person and love Sony or Microsoft which would be false so just stop you FAKE COMMANDER that doesn’t own a Wii U lmao
Then stop bashing them all the time and start destroying Xbots…
I like Nintendo which is why i own a 3ds its just i hate the Wii U right now and the shitty steps Nintendo is taking with it and how they are slaying there fan base
Something I can partially agree with…
The only thing between you and me then is that I’m holding my judgement until I get one and until the summer of 2014…
Oh no!!! please don’t say you aren’t buying this Zelda game, without your 50$ Nintendo will be bankrupt…
Go jump in a flaming ditch you whiney bitch, your foolish opinion does not matter, you know what mr. “you thought”, I thought I saw a smartass retard… oh no its just you… never mock something without looking at yourself first, you can whinge and moan about Nintendo till the cows come home (oops didn’t mean to bring your mom into this) that doesn’t change the fact that Iwata is probably eating at a gourmet restaurant, while you probably are sitting at home, watching porn with your hand grasping your little dick, and you have the nerve to criticize Nintendo’s “failure” while you are one yourself… it amusezes me. you have the right to mock Nintendo ONCE that are declared bankrupt, but it aint over till the fat lady sings.. (Oh No I didn’t mean to bring your dad into this)
SO listen good
Don’t be an Internet Retard
Haha another angry fanboy gotta love the sheep talk. You don’t know anything about me so your assumptions about my life are just LOL to me. Next thing is I played all the holiday season Wii U games at certain events so I can judge and mock the game all I want to bitch. Also your jokes are bad man like really bad. Lastly if you don’t like what i have to say oh well bitch i will comment what i want anytime i want and there is NOTHING you can do about it
sheep, really that’s the best you can come up with… my assumptions are just lol to you… they are meant to be insults you god damn moron, lets hold on and give you an award for playing Wii U games at “certain” events, god knows no one ever plays demos at “certain events” your the first, so your prize is a flying fuck,.. certain events is that your elegant way of saying your local bestbuy… what a fucking joke you are lol!!!
Lol man you lost your mind and seem to have anger issues if so I feel sorry for you man and you don’t even know what your typing and no your jokes are like a second graders jokes so yes they are LOL to me. Actually you are just LOL to me
I can accept that im LOL to you, if only you can accept to me your a disgrace of human flesh, peace out scumbag, Reply to this again and I will deem you King of Internet Retards and Foe to everything Nintendo, hopes this makes you LOL ya worthless sack of shit
Lmao again I fact lolololololol I’m laughing my ass off to your irrelevant reply’s. Your just LOL man that’s all. Your insults are baby insults and are making me laugh.
its official you are truly king of retards, laugh all you want dipshit, doesn’t change the fact… your a giant douche hahahahah
Your the douche look at your comments you just a big LOL man nothing else lmao
cool bro go suck your mom
yeah thatts what I thought take your sorry little bitch ass to bestbuy and say hi to your mom for me… she still owes me change
your jokes keep getting worst man Lmao
You really should calm down. He actually doesn’t hate Nintendo, but even if he did, there’s no need to go off like you did. He merely posted an opinion about Nintendo. Relax.
Asides from the portable games, which have their own problems with touch screen controls, you’re right on the money. Zelda hasn’t “evolved” since Majora’s Mask, and all Zelda games should strive to have stories like the one’s the characters in that game had to tell.
By “many fans” I’m sure you mean yourself and nobody else…
Agreed. They release a 10 year old game that looks exactly the same as it did 10 years ago. They couldn’t even bother to up the polygon count in characters and the environment. The only thing that changed is the resolution. They added the letters “HD” at the end of the title, that’s it.
Exactly the same low polygon models they used for the game 10 years ago. Primitive low polygon trees, primitive low polygon environments. The same primitive water/particle effects they used 10 years ago. Same primitive audio effects they have been using in their games for the last 30 years. The only ones excited about this game are the Nintendo fanboys who never played the game before (or the ones so obsessed with it that they think it is a new game when it looks exactly the same, Nintendo couldn’t even bother to add those dungeons that weren’t included in the original).
YESS everything that I wanted to say about this FAKE ASS REMAKE the sheep don’t examine things like that so it seems new to them lol what a shame then they’re going to pay full retail for a half ass remake. The nintensheep buy anything Nintendo especially fake HD remakes SMH
… Did you just comment on your own comment with a different name?
Huhh no ? And Sounds like another awful assumption *sigh the people here are all the same. They say the same bad jokes, use the same bad logic, and ask the same bad questions
yes
They also added a “glowing” effect! (everything is brighter and more glowy)
Don’t you want to pay full price to play the same game with added glow and Miiverse?
What’s wrong with you!?
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=222
Lol, well, yeah, I meant Bloom.
thank you
Can you please go away, Katarmari? If you hate Nintendo so much then why are you even here?
The reverse cycle has happened with Twilight Princess. When it came out, it was hailed as the next Ocarina of Time. Today, very few people prefer it to OoT or Wind Waker.
TP is just a copy of OoT, it is practically the same just a little mor “dark” so the core gamers wont feel ashamed of playing it, but yes it doesnt bring anything new to the zelda series,
Implying all Zelda games are very different.
Precisely. There are all very different except not so much Twilight Princess.
Skyward Sword is somewhat a disappointment. It’s definitely different from OoT and TP, but certain things just sorta…feel weird. For example, why does this game not have voice acting? Also, is it me, or does Mario Galaxy and Brawl look better graphic-wise? Finally, the sword combat is precise, but…maybe a bit too precise; it’s not something I’d lose sleep over, but the fact that Link still moves like a tank in combat doesn’t help.
Only the art style disappointed me. I prefer dark Zelda. The lack of voice acting is a series staple that serves to reduce characterisation so that players can better identify themselves as the hero Link. Though I can’t explain why the NPCs don’t have voices.
The low graphical fidelity may be attributed to less loading areas. Some locations are quite open and rich in content. As for sword controls, I didn’t have any issue other than that Link looks weird when he holds his sword still while running.
Lmao “practically the same” saying shit like that makes it seem like you have never played the game.
Well then they’re just as retarded as everyone else.
The Zelda Cycle doesn’t exist, it never has and never will.
Skyward Sword has got nothing but praise from nearly every reviewer and fan alike since the day it launched, just because a few people on a forum don’t like the controls doesn’t mean the majority of the fans hate the game.
Fanboys have been grasping at straws recently to make people think it’s real too.
They have always only counted console games as part of the cycle but the day LBW was announced all the fanboys sang “SEE LOOK NOW EVERYONE LOVES SKYWARD SWORD”
It doesn’t exist, it never has existed, it never will exist. It’s just retarded Nintendo fanboys who can’t deal with the fact that some people don’t like their games. If you think otherwise then look at reviews from every console Zelda game ever and you’ll see that nearly all of them are 10/10.
What are you talking about?
It can be said though that Wind Waker has aged definitely better than Twilight Princess. Only time will tell with Skyward Sword.
the only thing unique and cool about windwakers is the cel shading graphics and the sea exploration was pretty cool but not cooler than a horse other than that it was a big disappointment compared to OOT i can still remember the pain Nintendo caused its fans that day many years ago.
And check out some of the reviews for future titles. They all got five stars… -_-
I really enjoyed WW on GC, and I’m sure I’ll like it even more when I play the new HD version. However, I think that a few years from now, I’ll still be disappointed with Skyward Sword.
that may be true. though going from oot to ww the art-style change didn’t bother me one bit cause I knew the game was going to be a blast to play….and it certainly was. since skyward sword was the last new console zelda, the next one needs a realistic art style approach.
Dear Sickr, Alba and shadowdragonfly publish Japanese media create and Famitsu entertainment sales. We are ready to Sony bash lol.
Me gusta
news to me …almost every Zelda game that ive played is good…….
The people who say that TP is the same as OoT amuse me. I get the point, but what they don’t say is that it’s the same except better in every single regard. For sure, OoT was more revolutionary for its time, but if OoT invented the formula for a 3D Zelda, TP got near to perfecting it.
I agree… Well, actually I don’t understand.
I thought the dark tones and story in TP were great.
And MIDINA!!! <3
can we seriously ban all these idiots Sickr…. when new people go through the register, make them take a hater test and a psychology test. theres way to many a-holes and childish idiots around here
This is the reason why I don’t always go to the comment section of this blog. The offensive languages used by its users, the insults, the racism, the violence, the discrimination, It’s just… disgusting, at least to the reader’s perspective. Sometimes there are no ways to make a constructive and open dialogue in this community, the lack of criteria of their users, the lack of respect and fanboyism from X, Y, and Z companies (and yes, there are Sony and Microsoft fanboys in here as well), is more than a big fail, is repulsive, is gross. Every single day you will find a person that always makes an offensive or flaming comment, and the lack of control in the comment section is miserable, from the Editors perspective, this should be a real issue, but the slow progress of the control and treatment of the users is also very sluggish. I have more than 2 years supporting this gaming blog, a Nintendo related blog, and is just the same thing over, and over, and over again, from me, a reader, is a failure.
not even just racism, the homophobia and sexism REALLY makes me loathe the community aspect on this website
Me too…
I’m just here to defend and love Nintendo from the haters…
Nice to see fanboys/trolls still using the same “put downs” from twenty years ago, takes me back it does…
Still a bunch of fails from Hourglass, Tracks, and the Four Swords games that have only gotten worse with age.
Is he aware of the nsmb cycle?
im sorry changing the art style but hardly changing anything about the adventure isnt new…. new graphic style = new fun different game. no it doesnt, from what i remember everything past WW sucked and felt dull. oh yeah and gimmicks just make the game worse, not bring a different fun game fro the rest. more truth, you fanboy scum. its so hard being so retarded in life that you have to cling on to a company and pretend its a friend or like a family member!!!! you fanboys will except if nintendo made a human centipede out of you guys. while reggie and iwata watch the disgustingness they created, you fanboys, and yet you will claimer it!!!!
Well you see this is where i destroy your arguement.
Alot of people say “oh it’s the same”, but what idiots like you don’t realise is that the hidden secret behind games like Mario, and Zelda and Metroid, isn’t actually gameplay. It’s level design. Level design takes the centre stage in every, or most, Nintendo game.
The difference between 64, Sunshine and Galaxy? Level design.
Zelda is the same. Zelda will do more, like impliment more items, and systems that pass onto each one, or are unique to that one game, but the same rule applies. If the level design is good, it doesn’t matter.
mario is all about levels design…. yeah thats all mario is,only has levels, but zelda is an adventure, not just temples(which most are shit and boring now, been there done that.) improved?? the overall games feel exactly the same, since after WW, why because they hardly try to change anything. nintendo makes the zelda games feel stale and boring, there is a reason. if it was so creative they would have created something like WW and MM again and take risks, something fresh an interesting, different.it just feels repetetive now. kinda pathetic for zelda but thats the way it is now. oh yeah the handholding and how easy it isnintendo makes it stale and unoriginal , but this time make it easier!!!!
all they do now is try to recapture OOT, but make it even more linear and uninteresting, oh yeah they gimmick it too.
also they are uncreative with 3d mario now too, lets make a 3ds game a wii u game!!!! no nintendo hasnt been good or creative since gamecube. also the new ips or even old franchises where are they??? (wii sports, shut up man) i could go on all day on this. monolithsoft and retro is nintendos best and thats it. the rest are becoming crap or unoriginal. nintendo has become lazy.
that was me of course, forgot to log in.
So much anger in this one… why don’t you make yourself useful to the world and, I don’t know, join the foreign legion or join the cutting-edge human-to-manure processing industry.
Skyward Sword isn’t going to have a cycle. Unless they do a complete overhaul of it.
But this means Twilight Princess is next, which aside from looking a little muddy, id say is my 2nd favourite behind WW
I know many of you don’t believe in the Zelda Cycle, but it made me laugh because I didn’t know it was even a “thing.”
I’ve been through it twice.
Windwaker, I hated the cell shading, but game play was so fun, I loved the game.
Link between worlds, I was not a fan of the retro graphic style, but it really looks nice, and I’m very excited for it now.
so yes, some of us go through the “Zelda Cycle.” ;)
yeah not me, ever. im thinking about the game not being stale crap.
Well at least there is a disorder you DON’T suffer from. ;)
LoZ: The Wind Waker was my first game and will love it forever!
I’m excited for when everyone likes Skyward Sword again. By the way, the HD remake of that game is going to look awesome!
What is this so-called “Zelda Cycle” they speak of?
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