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[Updates] The First Ever SandCast is Up!
11 Jul 2009 — by kamakaziplumber
So in this episode of the SandCast we discussed TDC itself, Zelda Wii news, and Nintendo's alleged hint system that has everyone worked up so much. It was a great first show, and I think you'll enjoy it! But, as promised, here's the picture we discussed (as if you need to see it again):


Tacheon is working on a transcript, so that'll be up soon! Oh wait here it is:

<Gerudo’s Valley Song for introduction>
KP: I’m Kamakaziplumber.

T: I’m Tacheon

MF: I’m MagmarFire

WS : I’m Wintersink

N: And I’m a ninja.

KP: And this is the TDC Sandcast.  Broadcast by members of the Desert Colossus.  For those of you who don’t know, TDC is a rather old Zelda fansite created by it’s founder, Zach O’Reily, some-odd years ago.

T: Most commonly known as Jack.

KP:   Yes, most commonly known as Jack.  And I’m the newest webmaster, KP.  And basically, what we hope to  bring you is a podcast discussing various Zelda news and Desert Colossus news.  And hopefully you’ll enjoy it.  Now, first of all, we do have some news around TDC.  For those of you who don’t know, TDC has been a host to it’s very own RPG called Hyrule Adventures 2.  It was originally created in 2005 and has been running on and off ever since. But most recently, we’ve had a spike of activity with the opening of South Hyrule.  Which… well, Hyrule Adventures  works on the basis or areas represented by thumbnails, and… you’ll see if you go to it, it’s available on our site.  You should definitely check it out because we need members pretty badly right now.  BUT…  South Hyrule has been a pretty big deal, it’s been on the horizon since the game’s starting, and it’s only opened about a week or so ago, and we’re all pretty excited about it, those of us who are members, we’ve seen a LOT of members return, uh, Wintersink is an example, he just came back, he was there when, like about a month after HA2 opened, and he just returned, basically, to experience, so, but we’re HOPING to attract some new members.  So hopefully, if you’re into RP’ing, and it’s a text-based roleplaying, so if you’re into that, please join, and you’ll find yourself with a pretty good community, and have a lot of fun.

T: And it is, it is, uh, statistical-based, it isn’t , you know, just random freewriting, so I mean, it does actually require some skill to do…

KP: Yeah, there are some stats, but you’ll notice that a lot of people, myself included, a lot of members…

T: …just don’t really bother using them.

KP: Pretty much, yeah.

T: Unless it’s something official.

KP: You set it up, and then you update it every time you level, and you spend some talent points, but you don’t to focus on it yourself, and for the most part you can completely ignore it and the mods will take care of using your stats when you actually participate in an official event.  So don’t let the stats scare you, I mean, the people there, we want members, we don’t want to scare you away, so we will help you set you up, and if you just want to RP on your own, you’re more than welcome to do that.  If you want to participate in events, then we’ll take care of the stats.  You just have to write, and basically just have a, you know, slightly know what you want to do as far as attacks and stuff.   It’s pretty lax.  You should enjoy yourself if you like roleplaying at all.  If you’ve ever played D&D or anything like that, ti’s pretty much that, on a forum, Zelda-themed.

MF:  And if you don’t like it, you don’t want us to sic Alpha on you.  So have fun, or else you’re gonna have to face some dangerous shadow balls of DOOM.

KP: You will be doomed.  You will be doomed as he will…

T <overthrowing the previous conversation>:  And besides HA2, there are also some other, uh, fascinating aspects of the site.  Specifically the forums, run by myself and Gamefreak… actually, I should mention Gamefreak first; he’s my boss.

KP:  Gamefreak, might, maybe we can get him for an interview one day.

T: That would be awesome!  I mean, it isn’t necessarily the most active place, recently it’s gotten  a spike in activity, but it’s very very close.  It’s a great place for conversation.

MF: Yeah, and I’m a moderator there.

T: Yes, Magmarfire is an excellent moderator, as well as, uh, Shikamaru and… some other people… there’s Darth Wyndisis... I should know the mod staff better than this. I’m totally blanking right now.

KP: Okay, Twilight Wolf...
 
T: Yeah, TW, TW, DW, MagmarFire, and Shika.  And that’s it.

KP: Wait, whoa. what about HnS?

T: HnS is…

MF: He’s a clan leader.

T:   HnS is a clan mod, that’s it.

KP: Discuss clans, guys.

T: Oh yeah, the clans are actually a recent addition to the forums, the goal was really just to get a little bit of rivalry going on, you know, just something a bit more fun.  Uh, the Wizzrobe clan’s currently dominating just in terms of sheer members and it’s generally a more active board, actually, but the Armos and the Darknut Clan, as you can see we’ve got, you know, another neat Zelda thing going on there other than the whole Wisdom, Courage, and Power which I was trying to avoid.  Um,
<Unintelligible speech>

T:  Actually, uh, MagmarFire can tell you better about those clans than I can.

MF:  Uh, well, uh, the Armos Clan... Well, I am also, uh, a clan leader, along with DW, who is also a moderator at the forums.  Uh, we’re both, uh, clan leaders of the Armos clan, uh, the clan of defense, mainly.  And one thing that the two of us and, you know, the other two members, uh, were working on (we haven’t worked on it in quite a while, due to, uh, certain circumstances, which I won’t discuss) we’ve been working on like a kind of an RPG-like thing--like uh, also stat-based, kind of like HA2, only it’s more like a linear forum interface; it’s not area-based like HA2 is, so…

T:  …which is confusing all get-out, but yeah…

MF:  …yeah, so you don’t have to memorize areas, really, but… other standard rules apply, but we have our own, uh,  formula system, we also have a program, you know like a Java-based thing, well a Javascript, I mean, you know, that can calculate the stats for you during an attack, so, yeah, hopefully that’ll… that’ll help, too.  And… yeah.  Not much else; we only have four members.
<nervous laughter>
So we need more members, please. If you’re interested, please sign up.  Armos rule, we have really awesome shields and we attack people if they come too close.  So, yeah.

T: And if you join the Armos clan, there’s a distinct possibility that you’ll see MagmarFire’s face before anybody else.

MF: Heh… uh...

T: I mean, if he does decide to show his face, which is sort of a, uh, you know, a point of contention amongst the forum members, it will probably be to the Armos first.
<laughter>

MF: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  So join.  If you wanna see my face.

KP:  Yes.  Well.  One of the main reasons we started this podcast, besides discussing Zelda—

WS <interjecting>: Is to see Magmar’s face.

KP:  Yes, is to see Magmar’s face over audio, BUT, really it’s to draw attention to the Desert Colossus because we’ve been in kind of a rut.

T: A slump.

KP: Yeah, a slump.

WS:  …I’d just like to say that if you put your ear to Magmar’s face, you can hear the ocean…

KP:  All right…
<giggles>

KP: Yeah, but, what we really want to do is attract people to TDC because we do have a lot to offer.  Our communities are pretty tight, I mean…

MF: Plus, we have a compendium, too.

KP: Oh yeah, our Compendium is…

MF:  Like an encyclopedia.

KP:  Yes.  We need a reason to work on that again.

T: I mean, we’d love to have more writers if you’re interested in writing for the Compendium, um, a few of the articles are less than… satisfactory…

KP: …and less than recent.  But…

MF: Also, we have Ask Ezlo…

KP: We have the Caption game.

T <a little late>: Yeah, and the caption game…

MF: Oh yeah, we haven’t updated that in a while…

KP:   We have a basic additions to the site.  We hope to attract you with this podcast, and today, we’ll be discussing the next Zelda, basically, for Wii.

T: The elephant in the room, yeah.

KP:  Yes.  What has been, you know, the topic of discussion in the forums pretty recently… and if you check the front page, I just recently posted a news post… I’m saying post a lot… but, it discusses, uh, I don’ t want to butcher his name... Miyamoto.

WS: Yeah, that’s how it’s said.

KP:  All right, thank you.  Anyways.  Uh, he basically is claiming, and I say claiming because I hope it’s not true, or it doesn’t end up being true, but he is claiming that the next Zelda Wii will not differ that much from TP.  So we would like to discuss that, and afterwards we’ll discuss the other… pretty…

T: The possibility that a game could…

KP: Play itself.

T: Play itself.

KP: Thanks to the patent that Nintendo released quite a while ago, and there’s been recently with E3 some more discussion that’s cropped up on it, and it’s actually the source of a lot of, uh, how would I say it?

T: Strife.

MF: Resentment.

KP: Yeah, resentment, strife,
<unintelligible>

KP: Pretty much bad things.  Nintendo does not need that right now, BUT, well, we’ll see.  Anyway, so, this is the Sandcast, and we’re gonna switch to round table mode if you will, so, start the discussion.
<<STENO’S NOTE:  SENTENCES THAT WEREN’T COMPLETE OR MADE NO SENSE ARE NOT INCLUDED.>

MF:  All right, well, Zelda Wii, um, I mean, of course not much of it  was revealed at E3…

KP: There was that picture.

<Excited agreement>

T: Most of what we’re talking about here is based off of the uh…

KP: That one picture.

<Yeahs>

KP:  And the subsequent Miyamoto interview.

MF:  Yeah, and uh, okay.  As you look at it, if you’re new to Zelda at all, or, well, except for Twilight Princess of whatever… if you haven’t seen the picture yet, go ahead and look at it.

KP:  I will include it in the news post for the Sandcast, it’ll be in the read more, so, if you haven’t seen it, which is, well, but if you haven’t, it’ll be there so you can look at it.

T:  Yeah, and I mean, for sort of a brief sort of picture of it, it’s a photo of Link in sort of TP-esque gear and TP kind of style of drawing, along with a very ethereal-looking little girl.

KP:  Girl, man… we all have different theories on it.  It is someone silvery.

T: Someone silvery, looks sort of feminine features with a  pointy head.

MF:  AND, she bears a really shocking resemblance to, uh, the queen of fairies from TWW, actually.

KP:  And the Master Sword.  Which is pointed…

T:  Yeah, I mean if you look at a bunch of the details, they sort of are very reminiscent of the Master Sword.  In fact, it sort of seems they’re trying to go for the concept of that, but…

MF:  And that’s also further supported by, you know, how Miyamoto was quite reluctant to address, well, to further discuss about the fact that Link does not have a sword in the picture.  So yeah, so, fans  do theorize, and it is a really interesting theory, that…

T:  And I mean, it does have a decent basis in fact, so…

MF:  Yeah, so, basically it’s like, it’s theorized that she is the manifestation of the Master Sword itself, which is really interesting.  It’s kind of like  a Kingdom Hearts-esque plot.

T: Yeah, I mean it could definitely add a more interesting sort of, you know, flow to the game.  It can make it a lot different, which would be weird because he said it won’t be different…

KP:  Yeah, although unless they play it like Midna was to Link, in which case it wouldn’t be all that different.

T:  That’s true, but I mean if it’s the sword, it’s clearly integral to the plot, so it’s possible that it’ll switch control entirely over from Link to the, um, physical manifestation of the master sword.

KP:  Interestingly enough, I think ti was today I was discussing  WM+ <<Wii Motion Plus>>, and I came up with this very very stretch of a theory.  Perhaps, okay, let’s say  this figure is the Master Sword incarnate.  What if, when she is in her form, it’s 3rd-person.  But when Link has control of the sword, it switches to first-person view and you use M+ as sort of a  sword-fighting mechanism.

MF:  That would be interesting…

T:  Interesting, it would kind of work with a third-person view as well…

KP:  well, that’s true.  Very close up, though.  Kind of like over the shoulder…

T:  So you’re saying that it would switch to kind of like a, um, oh god, what was that horrible samurai game for the Wii?

KP: Oh, uh, Red Steel?

T: Red Steel.  It’d sort of turn into a Red Steel-esque interface, when you switch.

KP:  I think so.  I think that would be interesting.  And especially because the Wii Sports Resort would come with a sword fighting game.  I don’t know, I’d like to see it.

T:  I mean, I’d definitely be interested in seeing it.

KP:  Yeah.  So I mean, I dunno.  I just thought of that, it was an interesting kind of…

MF:  Yeah, it would definitely be a good addition, because, uh, as you all notice, that with previous Zelda installments, it was, uh, they all had something unique to add to the table, for the most part.  Like, the original LoZ was, well, it basically set the stage.  Zelda II wasn’t really touched upon that much, but it added the magic system.  OoT went into 3D, which implemented the targeting system, TWW, I’m not really sure… well, it introduced the Cel-shading style which we all know, love, and maybe hate.

T: Yeah, I’m part of the hate crowd.

MF: Twilight Princess was more cinematic, and with this… oh, and MM introduced the time-based system, which we (a lot of us) most likely love.

T: Oh god, I loved that system.

MF:  I know, I loved that system.

KP: I know I lost a lot because of that system, but…

T: And you can’t forget PH, which instituted a lot of the touch systems.

MF:  Yup.  And with, uh, with Wii Zelda, uh, a one-to-one swordfighting system would be, would be another good thing to add to it.

KP: But the only thing is that if they do tie it into the story, how much of a chance do we have of seeing it in the future games?  Then again, when Majora’s Mask introduced time, and then you pretty much… lost it.  So I dunno.

MF:  Even though, even though it was kind of like, uh, kind of reminiscent of Phantom Hourglass and the Temple of the Ocean King.  You know, when you had only a limited amount of time when you’re not in those safe zones.

KP:  That is true.

MF:  So, it was kind of like that, only there was no crashing on you if you didn’t succeed.

KP: Yes…

MF: Even though that would be kind of cool… but… but anyway, but still, yeah, one to one motion control  would be awesome, like in TP for the Wii, it was kind of disappointing in a way, in the end, it was kind of tacked-on even though it was truly expected since it was just a Gamecube port, ported to the Wii.  But with WM+, it would be really awesome if we could get some 1 to 1 based gameplay and hopefully add maybe one to one swordfighting, you know, with, against another player, like…

<Agreement>

T: Here’s something to think about, and I just randomly thought this up:  With the introduction of WM+, and sort of tying in the possibility of having the game play itself… during certain cinematics, you could use WM+ to sort of control the camera…

MF: Sort of like Call of Duty in a way?

T: Yeah, sort of like Call of Duty and Mario 64…

KP: Oh, M64 had the best camera.

T: Definitely.  I mean, sort of just how you could uh, like, remember how you could plug it into like the second or fourth slot or whatever and you could control the camera through the cutscene in Mario 64?

MF: I never knew that. I never knew that, actually… whenever I play SM64, I’m stuck with one GameCube controller.

KP: GameCube?

MF: Yeah, I have it on the Virtual Console.

T: Speaking of which, they just released Majora’s Mask for the virtual console, I’m so excited.

KP:  I will not buy that, because I have it.

T: Yeah, I still play it on the N64 a lot.

KP: I never owned it for the N64, but let’s not get into that discussion, haha.  Anyways, but um, I am kind of, I’m a little bit disappointed that they’re claiming that it’s not going to change much, because, and I hate to bring this up.

MF: Well, actually, what he said was that it wasn’t going to differ too radically.

KP:  Well, actually, that is, I hate to bring this up, but everyone knows I really like the idea of Valley of the Deluge.

MF: Oh, yeah, that really was an interesting idea.  It would be kind of like Majora’s Mask, in a sense, where instead of a MOON crashing onto you, you’d have to escape the flood water.

T:  I mean, it’s a brilliant concept, it was a wonderful hoax.

KP:  Yeah, I mean, I hope Nintendo was listening.

MF: Even better, it would be awesome if they didn't have it in TWW style; like, if they had it in the TP style or another anime-based style because...well, I mean, Spirit Tracks, for instance? Oh, yeah, we should probably talk about ST, too...

KP: Oh, we could always save it for another show, guys. <unintelligible>

MF: Oh, true. But, well, anyway, uh... I guess I'll go stray off-topic for, like, a little bit. But with, uh, ST, uh...the style seems like a little bit, uh...like a bit of an overkill, kind of--like a bit overused.

KP: Well, yeah, to some extent. But it's an interesting--consider this--it's...the first...third...sequel. "Threequel," or whatever, in the Zelda series. I mean, you have directly following, which something would never happen before, really. So what are they leading us to?

MF: Actually, it takes place a hundred years after PH, I heard, so I don't think it's a direct sequel.

KP: There's nothing in between, hopefully. I mean, for once.

MF: It would be kind of hard to fit anything in.

T: And you have to keep in mind that with Zelda games, it's sort of like...

KP: All over the place.

T: Yeah, they really don't state how long the time is, but a lot of it is based off of the descendants of Link, so there's obviously a bit of a time differential there. So a hundred years is NOTHING in Zelda time.

KP: Yeah. And I think...yeah, the art style is gonna get old fast, but if they take us in that direction, where they're actually doing it for a reason, it would be interesting to see what comes out the other end.

T: Yeah, I mean, if there's actually some sort of linear progression, where it, like, fills some gap, it'd be fascinating, but if it's just making games for the sake of making games... I mean, I think they can definitely get an even bigger audience by...

KP: If they introduce a story that's coherent?

T: Yes, if they do a storyline, do some...put some actual thought of content into it. 'Cause I mean, it's really <unintelligible>.

MF: I'm sick of enemies only doing a quarter of a heart or half a heart of damage. That's like...WTF?

T (or WS?): Yeah, but then you get the Iron Knuckles, who take out, like, three-quarters of your health.

KP: Can you imagine what--

N: Some of them are, like, three hearts.

KP: --one-to-one swordfights with Iron Knuckles?

WS?: Oh, man...

T: Well, here's something to think of: Like, um, they do have basic fights where you're in third-person with your sword.

KP: True.

T: And you can still control it moderately well. And you also have certain cinematics for, like, special fights or whatever where it actually goes into first-person, and it's sort of...your movement is rigid, and it's just using whatever weapon you have.

MF: Uh, kind of like in Link's Crossbow Training in a way, only without the crossbow?

T: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

MF: So it'd be like Survival, then? Yeah, I think that would be doable. That would be good; that would be kind of cool. And it would give them an excuse to use the crossbow again. It was kind of cool, especially when you got one of those enemies where you could do a rapid fire kind of thing, so it's like you have a machine gun, even though you were, like, in the medieval times.

T: Yeah. Or rapid-fire Deku Nuts.

KP: What happened to Dekus? Were they even in...? I can't remember at this point.

T: No, they weren't in TP, no. I mean, TP focused mostly on the humanoid races. It's almost like they replaced the Deku with the Koroks, and then... If you think about it, it's like it's introducing a growing-up thing because it's like the, um...the Deku really represented...sort of youth. And as the games progressed, you see that Link's sort of losing that touch with that, you know, his younger side. He's sort of reacting less immature to certain situations, so it's like...he's growing up.

KP: What are they leaving behind? I mean, they have some... I don't really want to get started on the lack of Dekus in HA2. I'm not saying there isn't one, but I mean...I dunno.

<unintelligible>

KP: So what are we gonna see with (fairies?)? I hate fairies.

<laughter>

MF: I don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in fairies.

T: That ruined fairies for everybody here. (?)

KP: Pretty much, yeah.

WS: I wish they had a more dynamic, um, set of personalities. They all look the same in Majora's Mask.

KP: That's true, like, with the Deku, they didn't get one.

MF: Except for the Deku King and the princess.

<something about there being exceptions>

T: I mean, when you think about it, most of the Gorons and most of the Zoras looked alike, too.

KP: That's true.

WS: Yeah, the Gorons...they were just so much more interesting.

T: Yeah, they had so much personality.

WS: Yeah, and the history; we have almost nothing about the Deku history.

KP: That's why I'm sad to see them go, you know? Like, there was so little about them. I dunno. Oh! I think that we...I'm optimistic. The same time I hope they change a good amount of it because I don't want to see a TP clone.

T: Yeah, a clone's never fun.

KP: Yeah. It's weird, too, for a change because we have TP. That's pretty much formulaic Zelda. And the only one before that was TWW. PH, okay, but the next one's just a sequel of its sequel. I still see it that way.

T: Yeah, I mean, the first one to really break from the mold was MM. It seems that it went off so much (?) that it got negative feedback from non-hardcore gamers, and [Nintendo's] just really afraid to stray from the basic formula. But I think now that they have the play-by-itself system, that could mean a great thing for hardcore gamers because it means that they can do things that could present more of a challenge and won't have to be afraid from those who say, "It's too hard!"

KP: This is an excellent segway! That's why I love that system. To me--I forget who said it; it was a comment somewhere that I read. I do read comments. They make me sad all the time. But someone pointed out that to have a system like that is just like letting an older sibling play the game for you. What's the difference? I mean, when you were little, you got stuck, and your older brother or your older sister came in and beat a part.

T: I'm sorry, but I was a hardcore kid from the day I was BORN, so...

WS: Yeah, my mom helped me out maybe when I was five. That's about it.

MF: I can just play the games with my mind. I can just look at it and beat it myself.

KP: Well, you just told a story about the Shadow Temple, so...

MF: Well, then it's obvious that I'm just kidding. <laughs>

KP: Yeah. <laugh>

WS: [This system?] should only have to be necessary if they decide to make games harder.

KP: But that's what we want. That's what we're looking for.

T: Even if they don't make games harder, it still has the potential--you know, some people, like Hylian Dan especially, they go through the game specifically for lore and that kind of thing. And if you're actually focused on playing the game, you know, you can get so into it that you sort of forget to pay attention for certain things. So I mean, it is sort of like watching a movie. You can pick up more things that you maybewouldn't have noticed if you were just trying to play it through.

KP: Yeah. I think it's gotten some bad attention, but I think most of those people aren't looking past the idea of games getting easier.

T: Definitely. I mean, I know that I was sort of taken aback at first; I really disliked the system for a while just because I didn't think of what it could positively offer. I thought of it as...making the games...you know.

KP: That one step easier.

T: Exactly, and really, it has the potential to make it much harder.

KP: Yeah. And who knows what'll happen? I would love to see...maybe games would have--would be less linear. You know, maybe there'd be other ways to beat it. Easier ways...more completely different ways... What happened to that? [There used to be] multiple pathways, but now most games are from-point-A-to-point-B.

T: Well, that's because they spend so much time focusing on the graphics and making them pretty that they really have to sort of force players through set places to go; otherwise, they'd have to make things much more intense.

N: You also have to [realize?] that the more narrative you have in a story, the more linear the game will be.

KP: But how much narrative have the Zelda games had? I mean, they've been there...

<unintelligible>

KP: That's true. I think...I dunno. Like, I like being able to find extra things or maybe just...or maybe even making the game a little bit...bigger. Like, to entice you to play--just making the world a little bit more open so that.

T: I agree. TWW <unintelligible> way too small.

KP: I love TWW for exactly that same reason. The world was huge. Compared to everything else.

MF: Well, to be fair, most of the overworld was water.

KP: Yeah, but to me, just being able to go out and find things that you don't need at all for the game, like, just little islands on the middle places...

WS?: Like the cow mask in MM?

KP: Yeah, MM is a perfect example.

T: No, all the masks in MM had a specific use to them.

KP: But you didn't need them for the game itself. It was this larger story, this umbrella, over the entire concept that you could go back and play through it again. And if they go back and introduce a way to play through the game, they could counter it with more things like this. You could have Link run directly to the next temple, or you can take control and go directly to the right... We lost Mags.

WS?: Uh-oh.

KP: He's dead. He's gone. I'll fix it... All right, we have technical difficulties! All right, Mags, are you back?

MF: Yeah, I'm back. I'm back. What the heck happened? <laugh>

KP: Yeah, this is our first show for those of you who are just tuning in.

<laughter>

KP: Going back...

MF: Wait, are we still recording?

KP: Yeah, yeah. Anyways, uh... I hope that they would introduce more things that you can do so that you won't just say... 'Cause whenever I play a game and I see, like, a doorway somewhere that I can get to, but not by following the linear path, it always kind of, like, goes back to the back of my mind, and I'm like, "Where'd that door go?" You know? So I find that I have to get to it. If they include that in a game where you could just let it play itself, you're not gonna want it play itself as often.

T: Definitely.

MF: But of course, the thing is optional, first and foremost.

KP: Yeah, that's the biggest...

MF: So you don't have to use it at all.

KP: Not at all. But, I mean, it's more of a question of will, really. I mean, are you gonna sit there and...say, "Wow. This is available to me, and I'm lazy. I just want the game to play through this platforming part so I can get back to killing things"? You know?

T: Another thing is that they might not even use it introduce the system in Zelda. I mean, they definitely used a Zelda-esque drawing to [show] it, but if anything, it's probably going to be used for Mario.

KP: Yeah, but we'll probably see it. It'll probably be introduced not even in a mainstream Nintendo title. It'll probably be in some third-party, or maybe just...

T: Maybe smaller titles so they can sort of analyze that, because if you move it to a main franchise really quick, it could mess up the marketing because you don't want to mess with what you know's going to work.

KP: Yeah, which is...

T: Disappointing.

KP: Yeah. That's, to me, that's the one thing I dislike about the most recent Zelda games. It's that they're very formulaic.

T: Yeah, it's like they're going on an automatic, like they're spending less time trying to turn it into a money maching--just selling it!

KP: Yeah, I mean, hopefully, they won't. I dunno.

MF: In my opinion, TP was incredibly beautiful. I mean, I liked that game a lot.

KP: It was GOOD, but it was good to us because we're all Zelda fans. But how different is it?

MF: I mean, it seemed that it was reusing quite a bit of the stuff--I mean, the feeling was a bit, you know, recycled, in my opinion. So when I look back, I think it was kind of disappointing in that sense.

T: Yeah, but I think here's the main question: If they were going to release a game that would have an absolutely amazing storyline--you know, very engaging--with OoT graphics. For the Wii. Would you play it?

KP: We'd all play it.

T: Yeah, graphics are nice, but they should spend time working on it and making it unique fun, engaging, and less time making it pretty, or else...

MF: Or else it's not that much different from a movie. Like, if you just play a game for the graphics and not for the storyline or the gameplay, [it's not that much different from] going to a theatre.

<unintelligible>

KP: I wish that the downloadable content for Wii would be used to kind of bring out games like that. The most recent Megaman was NES styled, wasn't it? And it was still--I mean, I have a friend who's a big Megaman fan, and...

WS?: I love Megaman.

KP: Yeah, I mean, total hit with him, but...you know, it was a throwback to the originals, which, in some ways, when you consider, there haven't been that many great Megaman games most recently. I don't think. I don't know how to follow the series that much.

MF: Neither do I. <laugh>

KP: But, what are we seeing? Are we seeing a return to that? I hope so. I'd like to see that developers are more willing to return to older styles and better gaming if there's the market for it under Wiiware and such.

N: Definitely. You have to remember that you can return to the older game and play without getting rid of most of your graphical enhancements. Games like Street Fighter IV are still the same-old two-dimensional gameplay with all these updated graphics to make it seem really good.

T: I was going to say that if they remade OoT with TP graphics, everyone would play it. But then I realized they already did--[it was] called TP.

<mild laughter>

KP: What would you guys prefer? OoT with TP graphics, or OoT portable on the DS?

MF: Oh, DS, totally. Yes...

N: I don't own a DS.

KP: Well, even if you don't own a DS.

KP?: I think I would have to go with TP. Not on the DS because I think the controls for the DS don't compare to the Wii.

T: Yeah, that's true. That would be lacking something.

MF: I think they would think of something to do. I mean, to get around the, uh...

KP: I want controls to be the best part. I want controls more than graphics.

T: Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, you want to have better control than be able to see things look better.

<unintelligible>

MF: If you can't control the camera, then it's like you can't really see the good graphics anyway, right...?

KP: That goes back to WM+. Hopefully, we'll get better controls and that it'll be a little more engaging in itself. Like, we won't have to change the gameplay at all. I mean...really. If you can control--the Wii already has some games that have been released on all three consoles. And I've played it on the Wii with reduced graphics, but the Wii motion controls have made it that much better.

<agreement>

KP: Yeah, hopefully, that will improve the Zelda game a little bit. I mean, people want to play it for the experience, which is really what gameplay is all about.

MF: And I also wouldn't really mind them, like, taking more risks like they did with MM and even TWW. Like, uh, I mean, some formula is all right, definitely.

KP: It's always good.

MF: Yeah, it's always good, really. I mean, nothing succeeds like success, as they say. But if they took risks, then they'd be setting themselves up for another potential blockbuster like OoT was. I mean, it was like what Walt Disney did. Like, he took a lot of risks, despite what--I think it was his brother who recommended against taking those risks--but look at how big Disney is today.

KP: And what has come of it.

MF: Uh, yeah.

<laughter>

KP: Yeah, let's not discuss that. This is not the podcast for that. Um, you know, I think I'll just discuss the future of the podcast.

<agreement>

KP: Uh, in future podcasts, we hope to introduce a system for user input through instant messaging or through e-mail where you can suggest topics, ask us questions. We'll answer them [on the air?]. Hopefully, it will be as close to real time as we can get. If not, we'll set it up some way. But this has been our first show, and we hope you enjoyed it. It's been probably a little bit shorter than most future shows will be.

<unintelligible>

KP: Well, I don't know how long it's been, so I'm-- All right, well, that's good.

MF: But we need to start somewhere.

KP: Yeah. We'll see where it goes, but for now, we hope you enjoyed it. This has been the TDC SandCast, and we hope you'll come back for the next show.

MF: And remember that if all else fails, use fire.

KP: Yes.

<goodbyes>

<Gerudo’s Valley Song for outroduction>
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1 Comments

by NewLink @ 11 Jul 2009 02:27 pm
Man that was great Guys I cant wait for the next one I already listened to this one twice!



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