The world looks very impressive, but I'm not seeing much of what makes Zelda exciting to me. I want to see some of the dungeons I'll be exploring; the new items I'll be getting; the villains I'll be facing, the soundtrack I'll probably be hearing in my sleep. The things that make Zelda...Zelda.
An open world means nothing to me, to be honest. It's nice they're putting the effort in and trying to deliver a different experience, but it doesn't scream "awesome!" to me. It's just...nice. But I'd be just as happy with a smaller, more linear world, as we've had in the past. It wasn't broken, so they didn't need to fix it. There's nothing to say it'll be better this way, either. I mean, four to five minutes to reach destinations? In five minutes in one of the old titles I could travel across half the map and be stuck into a dungeon by that point, actually playing the game, not waiting to play the game. Sailing in Wind Waker was horribly tedious (although in the HD Wii U version it improved significantly by making it much faster) and I don't want a repeat performance of that; I don't want to spend more time waiting to get to places than actually exploring said places. An open world isn't very impressive if you don't add much to do into it. I expect there will be a fast travel system. But you've got to get to the places first, and games always like to disable their fast travel systems to keep you on track with the story at some point...which is fine in its own way, but at the same time it shows you that the freedom you think you have is just an illusion. Granted, it could be a lot better - there could be surprises under almost every rock, as there has been in the past. But...I didn't see any. They didn't point anything like that out; they were too busy showing off the wide, open, but utterly empty world. That was the point of the trailer, one might argue. But that isn't what they should be focusing on, in my opinion. What's IN this world? I don't know what to think of the game when they don't show me anything!
I honestly don't care about how big or open the world is; that isn't what I play Zelda for, and it won't be what I buy this one for. The exploration factor can be just as exciting in smaller worlds - I've always preferred the 2D titles on handhelds to the 3D ones in fact. When you have a smaller world, you have to cram more into it, which means there is more to do and more to explore. In larger worlds like that, things tend to be spaced out, meaning you spend a lot of time travelling across expanses of nothing. It looks more impressive, but then...FFXIII looked impressive as well, and that turned out to be a complete disaster. I think I'll be withholding my judgement on this until I see some proper gameplay. What I see doesn't inspire confidence in me, but let's face it, that didn't show much at all.
The question I want answered is: how much more is there to see? I'll make my judgement based on that. When all I see is trees, fields and rocks, with the odd enemy here and there...well, it doesn't inspire confidence in me, and I don't know what to think. The optimist in me says it's too early to say; that they're deliberately avoiding focusing on what there is to do. The pessimist in me thinks they're going to try and use the visuals to justify the lack of things to do, as a lot of sandbox games do, and that the reason they focused on how big the world is is because that's the only thing about it that is worth mentioning. The truth is probably somewhere in between; maybe some areas will be like Hyrule Field from OOT and be empty and boring, and other areas will be so packed with stuff you can barely blink before being assaulted by enemies, or finding a new cave, or whatever. Nintendo have never really let me down to the point that I never want to play another game (outside of Metroid: Other M, anyway) but...well, it's hard to know what to think when they do stuff like this. This is a very...Square Enix thing to do. It's not Nintendo; Nintendo are synonymous with excellent and exciting gameplay, not dazzling visuals. Why can't they have both, you ask? Well, maybe they will with this game. But I won't be holding my breath. Let's see some actual gameplay first.
I suppose its personal preference - my sense of wonder comes from unravelling the mysteries of the game, not gawping at the visuals. What they showed there WAS impressive, especially the views...but it wasn't what makes Zelda exciting for me. I don't get anything from travelling across a large map other than a sense of frustration and boredom as I wait for the next thing to pop up at me. Maybe that makes me impatient. But I don't think I'll be the only person who feels like this. I know its premature to rush to conclusions, but I can only go by what I saw in the trailer, which left the most important bit out for me: the destination. I don't care about how I get there; I want to get there and explore! I want to PLAY. That trailer just didn't look like playing the game to me. That's all~
Gotta say, the most exciting thing about that video is that Star Fox for Wii U will be coming out before this does. xD
This post is far too long for a trailer that shows practically nothing. But it does concern me, as I've been enjoying the newer Zelda games less and less - I didn't have anywhere near as much fun on Skyward Sword as I did Twilight Princess, and none of the 3D titles have been as fun as the 2D ones for me. I'm just worried that Nintendo are going to get so focused on trying to make Zelda different that they'll neglect what makes it special. On the handheld front I have no worries, as A Link Between Worlds was amazing. But on the console front, I've yet to see anything to quieten my concerns. Yet being the key word. I'm still waiting for a proper gameplay trailer.