There's a barrage of new information on the game taking The Legend of Zelda into a brave new world, Hyrule Warriors, thanks to a massive blowout of the latest issue of Famitsu magazine - story, characters good and bad, weapons, and a whole lot more. Read up on all the details below.
Koei-Tecmo Partners With Team Ninja for Wii U's Hyrule Warriors
First, the story. We've known that that the main villain this time around isn't Ganon, but a witch named Shia, who has kidnapped Princess Zelda. According to a translation of the Famitsu, her motivation for doing so isn't conquest. At one time, she was in charge of protecting the equilibrium of the Triforce. But because of a penchant for green tights, she developed feelings for Link, and becomes jealous of his relationship with Princess Zelda. That's apparently enough for her to turn her over to the dark side and send Hyrule into chaos.
With her former role revealed, and the fact that Princess Zelda has been a holder of a portion of the tri-force in countless games, there's a theory that Shia is actually Zelda. The similarity of the witch's name to Zelda's Ocarina of Time alter-ego Shiek has been raised, and "Shia" would be just another alias for the Hyrulian princess.
Shia was also formally revealed in the mag, and she's not a witch in the "traditional" sense. No scraggly hair or warty nose. If you'll look below, you'll notice she's more of a witch in the Bayonetta sense, and a definitie departure from anything ever done before in The Legend of Zelda series.
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Yeah, Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo's traditional designs are really starting to "burst" through...
Shia's not working alone either, counting at least two major subordinates in her ranks: Valga and Wizro (seen below from left to right).
Longtime fans may notice something a bit familiar about the appearance, as well as the names of Shia's two lieutenants, pointing to characters from Ocarina of Time. First, the name Valga is reminescent of Volvagia, the dragon that served as the boss of the Fire Temple, and was defeated with the Megaton hammer. Valga's physical depiction is a noticably similar to Volvagia - his helmet stands in for the horns, a similar fiery getup and possible abilities, a leathery wing shield emblazoned across his chest, etc.
As for Wizro, both the name and appearance are fairly similar to the franchise's recurring Wizzrobes enemies, but with a touch of the design from Ocarina of Time's Lens of Truth item, and by proxy, the Shadow Temple's boss, Bongo Bongo.
Given the Legend of Zelda series complete refusal to adhere to a chronological timeline, trying to force a connection between these characters is damn near impossible, and hence, is likely purely coincidental, or a way of making "new" characters seem familiar.
So there you have the evil team, but Famitsu also dug up some more enough info on the hero, namely, Link.
Instead of the "chosen one" once again, Link is little more than a soldier-in-training, under the tutelage of Impa, another longtime character of the series that's typically portrayed as always having her eye on Zelda in one way or another.
In Hyrule Warriors, she appears as captain of the Royal Army, and will be a playable character. She appears very much like she did in Skyward Sword, and wields one big mama of a sword. She and Link will be joined by an additional playable character, yet to be revealed.
There are also character descriptions for Shia, Link, Impa, and more over at the game's official site. It's all in Japanese, and my language knowledge only extends to English and bad Spanish, so we'll provide a translation as soon as we find one.
That's all the hefty information, but there's also a scattering of random details. Check out the list below for that:
- Presumably, a special edition of the game, or, "Treasure Box" will be available on Amazon and Tecmo Koei's online store
- Another first for the series, a two player mode has been confirmed in which one person plays on the GamePad and the other plays on the TV. The GamePad acts as a menu when playing alone.
- Characters can be equipped with different weapons to change the way they fight. What weapons exactly haven't been revealed, but ways they can effect combat included one-handed swords as faster, while heavier weapons cause more damage. Weapons can also be upgraded, as can characters.
- Besides weapons, items like bombs will also appear. It also seems like Hyrule Warriors isn't focused strictly on combat, as it's been said that bombs won't be used just for attacking enemies.
- The game is currently 70 percent complete, and will be playable at this year's E3.
If you missed Hyrule Warriors' reveal, check out the announcement trailer below and see if you think the game has what it takes to help pull the Wii U out of its slump.