Where is all the hype for The Legend of Zelda U coming from?

I find this very interesting- System Wars, Game Informer, Eurogamer, GameTrailer, the GameTrailers audience, you name it, you have it- The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U is topping the most anticipated games lists everywhere. People are hyped for the game. People are hyped enough to place this game at the top of their lists, they're hyped enough to vote for this game over other excellent games that are coming out this year.

My question is: why?

Now, don't get me wrong. I am extremely hyped for this game as well. And I love the Zelda series, it is my favorite game series of all time. If I were to make a top 10 games of all time list without the one series one game rule, Zelda would hold seven of the ten spots (hell, I put that rule into effect because of Zelda). So I'm not hating on Zelda here at all. I am just trying to figure out why everyone is so hyped (including me).

You see, so far, this is all that we know about the game:

1. It exists, and is coming on Wii U
2. It has an open world and implied non linear progression
3. It looks pretty gorgeous
4. It is slated to be coming this year

That's pretty much it. We haven't actually seen any combat, any towns, any NPCs, any dungeons, we don't know what the story is about, we haven't even heard the music. So where is the hype coming from? Blind trust and faith? I understand that, of course- Zelda's pedigree is ridiculous and completely unmatched, and I can understand just the hype of a brand new Zelda. But is blind faith and trust enough to hype this game, which we have seen almost nothing about, so much that it tops all these lists? Over other games that we have seen a lot of, such as Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, Persona 5, Xenoblade X, Final Fantasy XV, or Fire Emblem If? Is the goodwill for Zelda really that much?

i'm just asking everyone here to explain their hype for the game. Is it just the idea of a new Zelda game, and on shiny new HD hardware?

The simple fact that Nintendo made it clear there is a drastic change coming.

Is it really only 720p?

It's Zelda.

Actually no, I don't know where I got that from.

I removed it from the topic.

Blind faith. They've shown nothing, so I'm not hyped for it.

Zelda games are always enjoyable experiences for me. the most I've been disappointed with the series were the DS titles and even then I still got some semblance of enjoyment from them and didn't entirely hate them.

I just have a hard time seeing them screwing up Zelda U that badly. Even if it doesn't end up being the most amazing Zelda ever I do atleast expect to enjoy it quite a bit.

Uh, its a 3D Zelda game, dude. Thats all anyone really needs to know.

Well for my part, more often than not I find Zelda games to be great. Even the worst ones I've played are usually still good. The larger scale open world, if done right, could truly be amazing for this series. Also, this game isn't tethered to motion controls and the game pad just seems like a perfect fit for Zelda. Plus I just dig the art style.

Basically any console Zelda is going to be on my hype list, it's always been that way.

Which means it will be inferior to the 2D zeldas....

Unlike some other gaming companies... Nintendo never hypes any of their titles, and they usually deliver greatness. That, and ALBW was a template of change to come to the series.

That's the other thing- the last 3D Zelda game that wasn't divisive at release was released twelve years ago- Twilight Princess and Skyward Slope have both been considered disappointing upon release. So is that kind of blind faith warranted?

I've loved every 3D Zelda title so far, each of them being some of my favorite games and one of them, Twilight Princess, being one of my favorite games of all time. Even if Skyward Sword was lackluster, it was still a stellar game that I greatly enjoyed. A new Zelda title excites me because I know a new journey is coming, a journey I should enjoy.

EDIT: Hype also works in mysterious ways. You list a few other games that we actually know more about (and one, Persona 5, that I'm not sure we know that much more than Zelda U at this point. :P ). Well the more we find out about certain games, the more we get a better idea of those games; this can increase hype, or even sometimes it can quell it. I'd argue that this happened a bit with The Order: 1886 from when it was first shown to subsequent info dumps.

But at the very beginning, when we know very little about the story, about the gameplay, about the limits of the game, our minds can run wild thinking about the possibilities of what the game could be, what it could achieve. That excitement of what we hope for it to be is hype right there.

@charizard1605: We have seen a lot of Fire Emblem If? Persona 5?

Since when?

We have definitely seen more of them than we have of Zelda U, which is my point.

It's Zelda bro. You know what's coming. Just because now it will be open world is not like Link will talk, the story and characters will be more developed or that there will be no dungeons where you'll find the same old tools. I heard the game will be less reliant on puzzles this time around which to me is great. Less tedious gameplay because no more systematic puzzles in dungeons.

But I remember when we only had a red image of chairs with balls and chains on them of Persona 5. Hype was pretty big then. Or when we got an animated cutscene of the main character on a train. No real gameplay, no too much to go on. Hype skyrocketed with that and the game immediately went on several peeps must have and top games of the year. WHAT SAY YOU!?!?

This is all purely anecdotal though so I may be remembering that wrong. And again, my feelings on hype were listed above. ^_^

@inb4uall: Eh, never got the 2D ones. Didnt like A link Between Worlds.

@charizard1605:
I loved TP until that game breaking glitch. Never played SS, but it looked pretty the few minutes I spent with it on dolphin.

It's a Zelda game. Does it really need explaining? The meta scores for each Zelda game speak for itself.

I guess you are right. Maybe I'm just a little more hesitant on Zelda U so far because Skyward Sword was really not a game I cared for much, as well as the fact that the one real time gameplay demonstration that Zelda U got was... underwhelming.

I didn't even realize TP had a glitch haha.

Have you played any of the other ones?

I honestly think it's a lot to do with the potential the series has on HD hardware. Yes the Wii U us considerably weaker than the PS4 and XBO but its the first Zelda game built from the ground up for HD hardware. If you really think about it Zelda was basically stuck on 2001 hardware.. 14 years. This is basically the biggest technical push it has received in a long time. I know graphics aren't everything but the idea of seeing the biggest and best looking Zelda game is pretty exciting.

@charizard1605: We did? Just one trailer with barely few shots of gameplay snippets?

We had a trailer AND a gameplay video for Zelda U where Miyamoto actually talked about the game a bit. IIRC, Persona 5 nor Fire Emblem 5 had that.

@charizard1605: I played most of oot on the 3ds. Quit at the water temple. **** that. Same thing on the n64 version I believe. Played a lot of Links Awakening which is really good, but got bored. Ill get wind waker on the wiiu one of these days. Im drowning in backlog.

The glitch. I dont remember exactly, but there was a part where you had to be fired in a cannon to get to the next temple. If you saved in that room, the guy you had to talk to wouldnt load into that room and the game wouldnt let you leave it until you did. So lame. And that was far into the game.

I'm not hyped for it, not in the sense it's on my mind and I'm just counting the days down until it releases. I know I'm going to get it day one and that's about all the thought I need to put into it. However, I rue the day it releases, as it's likely to be the Wii U's swan song.

ZeldaU = The True Sequel to OOT

Thats where this is coming from

Majoras mask was too weird and not epic enough

Wind Waker was too cartoony

Twilight Princess was steps in the wrong direction

Skyward Sword = wii moteified zelda ugh

ZeldaU = the return to glory THIS IS The true sequel to OOT

its over folks this is Zelda OOT SKyrim open world

the hype is the real the legend is real IMO IM In AAAA hype level

whos with me?

"Zelda's pedigree is ridiculous and completely unmatched".

Nonsense.

just look at those colors man.

For one thing, there's no official release date set yet just to get excited, everyone pointed out that it's a Zelda game which anyone can tell you it's first day purchase, and it's March bro, just wait until E3 2015 and there will be hype for the new Legend of Zelda showcase on stage. I'm sorry but there's really nothing to discuss until E3.

Zerudaaaa!!

Doesn't this happen everytime a Zelda is announced?

This. This every time.

@charizard1605: ALl Nintendo franchises are... tired. Do we really need more Zelda and Mario?

The characters are just catalyst to the gameplay. Nintendo fans do love the characters, but it is the core design of the games that bring them back. I suppose that is the difference between Nintendo fans and those of Sony and Microsoft.

I'm interested in it, since it's Zelda. I'm not all that excited, though. We have seen nothing good at this point.

Sheep need something to look forward to. So they place their hope in Zelda.

@SolidGame_basic: Honestly, I'm more interested in the new Star Fox then I am for The new Legend of Zelda Wii U.

Just at a glance, it's a huge departure from Skyward Sword. Not in terms of art style, but structure. Skyward Sword placed players in small, tightly controlled areas that they eventually had to backtrack through. It attempted to compensate for its small world by forcing players to revisit previous areas. Every area in the overworld felt like a shoehorned puzzle. The world was also wholly uninteresting and painfully linear.

In contrast, Zelda U features a massive, open world and allegedly nonlinear dungeon progression. It casts off the shackles from the previous console release.

I'm not hyped for it yet. At one time in the past, I may have given the Zelda series blind faith, but there have been too many disappointing Zelda games post-N64, so Nintendo now needs to show me something impressive before I get hyped and thus far they haven't shown me anything to prove that the game won't suck like Skyward Sword.

This, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword had ridiculous amounts of hype. Both disappointed me so I have very little hype for ZeldaU.

The fact that almost every Zelda game has been a 9 or higher, the way it seems Nintendo have learned from their past mistakes and look like they really want to deliver something special this time... It's all indicative of another great game in the making, and we all know they don't tend to fail, so we expect something great and get hyped.

I didn't enjoy SS much, but I consider it the bad apple on the Eden-worthy tree, so I'm hyped for this. Nintendo deserve this amount of hype for their games.

Mcshea killed the series long ago with his review scores, probably why he's no longer with us.

Zelda brought a lot to the table for it's time, set a lot of new gameplay standards and got the perfect scores to back it.

Nowadays, shit's either too hard, or too easy, or just average. Too bad you can't please everybody..

Simple, because it is the best game series ever created. For me, at least.
That's why I will always be hyped for a new Zelda game.

They have rarely ever disappointed me. Hell, I found Skyward Sword amazing despite some glaring faults.

Sheep actually have games to play. Lots of them.
What are you doing besides playing the next big flop or HD remaster?

It's probably to do with the pedigree of both Nintendo and the Zelda franchises coupled with the open world that the gaming community always wanted for the series.

That open and explorable world was probably a huge part of what attracted people to the NES original, A Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time.

I'm oldschool, so to me, TLoZ was the first open-world non-linear adventure game. What they showed off at E3 was what my imagination essentially wanted the first LoZ to be if it could be done in some grand 3D and immersive style. Nintendo seems to have captured the essence of that and are making it happen. I want to get lost in Hyrule again. Just like I did when I was 8 all over again.

Nintendo fans never played an Elder Scrolls game.

It's a new first party game. All games like that get lots of media attention.

@charizard1605 said:

I find this very interesting- System Wars, Game Informer, Eurogamer, GameTrailer, the GameTrailers audience, you name it, you have it- The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U is topping the most anticipated games lists everywhere. People are hyped for the game. People are hyped enough to place this game at the top of their lists, they're hyped enough to vote for this game over other excellent games that are coming out this year.

My question is: why?

Now, don't get me wrong. I am extremely hyped for this game as well. And I love the Zelda series, it is my favorite game series of all time. If I were to make a top 10 games of all time list without the one series one game rule, Zelda would hold seven of the ten spots (hell, I put that rule into effect because of Zelda). So I'm not hating on Zelda here at all. I am just trying to figure out why everyone is so hyped (including me).

You see, so far, this is all that we know about the game:

1. It exists, and is coming on Wii U
2. It has an open world and implied non linear progression
3. It looks pretty gorgeous
4. It is slated to be coming this year

That's pretty much it. We haven't actually seen any combat, any towns, any NPCs, any dungeons, we don't know what the story is about, we haven't even heard the music. So where is the hype coming from? Blind trust and faith? I understand that, of course- Zelda's pedigree is ridiculous and completely unmatched, and I can understand just the hype of a brand new Zelda. But is blind faith and trust enough to hype this game, which we have seen almost nothing about, so much that it tops all these lists? Over other games that we have seen a lot of, such as Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, Persona 5, Xenoblade X, Final Fantasy XV, or Fire Emblem If? Is the goodwill for Zelda really that much?

i'm just asking everyone here to explain their hype for the game. Is it just the idea of a new Zelda game, and on shiny new HD hardware?

It's simple, the Wii U's situation is pretty bad. To the eyes of gamers this game could redeem the console, and it could finally be the game that makes people run out and buy it. To be blunt, it's basically the only game that can change the Wii u's current image. An HD Zelda game with large open worlds, with hopefully a stable frame rate, may be just what people are looking for. If it's a success, it will rub off on Xenoblade X possibly.

I guess it's just a case where i vehemently disagree with the TC that there *is* hype for this game. I have only seen interest from the die-hard Nintendo fans.

There is hype for it because

1. It is a Zelda game.
2. Open world, which is this gen's big deal
3. A Link Between World was boss
4. Non-linear progression
5. Excellent visuals
6. Will probably release this year

TES has been Trash starting with Oblivious.