This weekend, fans in attendance at Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds panel at New York Comic Con got a wealth of insight into the game's development, along with a bounty of new details about its story, setting, and new features... and even some vague hints about the future of the Zelda franchise. And it all came directly from the mouth of longtime Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, for whom the panel presented a first-ever opportunity to interact directly with fans.
Aonuma began the discussion by thanking attendees for their enthusiasm, then took a brief moment to praise the artistry he's seen in Zelda Miiverse posts on the Wii U. The audience seemed to hang on Aonuma's every word, and he clearly enjoyed the attention, grinning earnestly at with each frequent round of applause he received.
After a few brief notes on the recently released The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Aonuma switched gears to the main topic of the panel: the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Over a montage of newly revealed production art, Aonuma used a discussion of dual worlds in previous Zelda games to introduce Lorule, an alternate dimension that exists alongside Hyrule in Link Between Worlds. Despite earlier speculation, Aonuma insists this isn't the same Dark World that existed in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (with which the new game shares a nearly identical map of Hyrule), but it does appear to serve the same narrative purpose. Lorule is a dark reflection of Hyrule: the kingdom has fallen to the forces of evil, and the people are in despair.
Hyrule and Lorule.
Ruling over this fallen kingdom is Princess Hilda, a dead ringer for Princess Zelda in all but the color of her hair. According to a new trailer that debuted at the panel, Hilda lures Link into Lorule and forces him to do her bidding by kidnapping Zelda and holding her hostage. Whether or not she's acting out of evil or altruism for her kingdom is unclear at this point. Also unclear is the exact nature of Yuga, a sorcerer who possesses the ability to turn people into paintings. We're guessing from his orange hair, large nose and slanted eyes that he may be related to Ganondorf, but whether or not that turns out to be the case, he's almost certainly responsible for Lorule's sad state of affairs.
Hilda and Zelda.
At some point in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Link will gain the ability to turn into a drawing of himself, allowing him to merge with walls. This makes for some interesting puzzles like those first revealed at E3, wherein Link can walk along walls and slip between the bars on dungeons windows, but the so-called Merge ability is also used to move back and forth between dimensions. In a newly revealed gameplay segment shown at the panel, Link uses the Merge ability to slip through a crack in a ramshackle building in Lorule, only to emerge inside a locked house in Hyrule where an embarrassed woman is modeling a new dress. According to Aonuma, there are many such places that can only be accessed by slipping through the cracks between Hyrule and Lorule, and this should make for some interesting new puzzles.
During a stage demo, Aonuma also revealed the existence of smaller dungeons scattered throughout The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Link will plunder these dungeons for huge stashes of rupees, which are more important now than ever before. This is because, unlike in previous Zelda games where essential tools are locked deep inside dungeons, nearly every item tool has been made available for rent or purchase by Link from the very start. For example, the bow can be rented for 50 rupees, or purchased for 400. While having all of Link's equipment available for purchase up front sounds hauntingly similar to something that might've been born at a PopCap planning meeting, it gives players the unique experience of being able to complete the game's dungeons in any order they choose.
That's a concept that hasn't been seen in this series since the very first Legend of Zelda, and it's lead to some interesting questions for a company that has been criticized in recent years for holding players hands a little too tightly. How are new players going to cope with a game that is so wide open? And how will Nintendo balance the game's difficulty between those who need frequent help, and those who want none of it?
As Aonuma explained to a fan who brought up these concerns in a post-panel Q&A session, the difficulty in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds comes from learning how to use the right tools to solve specific tasks, and then re-learning the same tools when new challenges require a different way of thinking. This might sound like a headache for players used to the "Zelda 64" school of design, but longtime fans are sure to appreciate how shameless A Link Between Worlds is about throwing Navi out with the bathwater.
Due to time constraints, the Q&A session had to be cut short, but not before an exuberant Aonuma got a chance to drop a few tantalizing hints about what's next for the series. In response to a fan who asked what to expect from the first original Wii U installment of the series, Aonuma responded only by suggesting players look to the unique design elements of Wind Waker HD and A Link Between Worlds for an idea of what future installments might be like. And for fans eagerly awaiting news of a Majora's Mask 3DS remake, Aonuma had only this to say: play through A Link Between Worlds, and you might get your answer.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds launches in North America and Europe on November 22nd.
