Fans of action-adventure or medieval-fantasy already call it by its acronym, “ToTK”, for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The latest adventures of Link, on the Switch console, from Japanese Nintendo, were released this Friday, May 12 all over the world. An event.
On this weekend eve at the Italy 2 center in Paris, people of all ages took advantage of their lunch break to go buy fissa the new Zelda, sometimes with the same excitement as in the days of the Super NES. We were there, we saw them. They were many!
In the queue, Keo asks Sébastien if he prefers to download the game, given the crowds at the checkout. Clear answer: I prefer the cartridge. Will she go on the shelf to join those – golden – of her very first Nintendo, the “NES”? That’s what happened to us.
” My brother Olivier, he’s already on it, he’s 50 this year, says Sebastian. My other brother too. It’s incredible, they manage to keep us in it. I play like someone my age now, who works a lot, but it takes me back to my years as a total gamer! »
“ It’s a game that renews itself, he continues, that’s why it crosses the generations. The last was very modern, but he remained attached to his values. It kept the magical side, the princess that must be saved, by incorporating new things, the graphics of today. »
It is true that the more the years pass, and the more Link, as well as his acolytes, in the cinematic scenes, look like characters straight out of an animated Hayao Miyazaki. But it’s him. ” Heroic fantasy is the immortal genre, which does not age concludes Keo.
An important issue for Nintendo
Since 1986, with Mario Bros. Or donkey kongThen Pokemonfrom console to console, Zelda made the reputation of the Japanese group Nintendo, which once rivaled Sega and continues, today, to make its way between the PlayStation, from Sony, and the XBox, from the giant Microsoft.
But things are a bit different this time around. Because the previous Zeldareleased at the launch of the Switch, six years ago in 2017, was a hit. Breath of the Wild sold 29 million copies. No other installment in the series had even come close to such success.
To compare, Zelda, in all, 125 million copies have been sold worldwide since the beginning of the adventures of the little man with the shield. Also, the pressure is great and the economic stakes are high, with this new opus, Tears of the Kingdom.
Nintendo is counting on its green hero to support its activity, while sales of its console could observe a decline of 16.5% this year, to 15 million units, according to its forecasts. The ultimate dream of the Japanese, basically, would be to reach the billion dollars with him.
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Zelda, ancestor of “open worlds”
Certainly, to meet a recurring request from the most fanatical of its faithful, Nintendo created, a few years ago, through the intermediary of a book, a chronology supposed to explain when each of the episodes takes place in the long fresco of Hyrule Kingdom.
It would nevertheless be lying to say that this timeline has any consistency. Because with each new medium, from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the GameCube via the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy, the DS, etc., Link has a new look: it’s about reinventing the myth.
In 2017, nostalgics will therefore have gone to look for their sword in the forest again, as in the days of A Link to the Past, released in Europe in 1992. Then, they will have found, with tears in their eyes, their friends the Gorons, or the Zoras, wondering where the Piafs came from, when they had missed The Wind Wakerarrived in 2003 on the Old Continent.
Zelda was, in a way, the first “open world” game, offering a map to be explored as you go along, according to the player’s desires and not in a pre-established order. GTA, Assassin’s Creed : the greatest hits on PlayStation follow no other pattern. A video from the newspaper The world will help you grasp our psychology.
Revamped map so you don’t get bored
The problem is a little specific with the latest addition to the line. Because as for The Adventure of Linkreleased in 1988, it was a question of making a sequel on the same medium as the previous video game, a particularly delicate exercise in the great epic of the world of Zelda.
Because precisely, the map of Hyrule Switch version, the player already knows it, he has even spent dozens of hours wandering there to discover all the corners, in search of dragon scales for example, or to arm themselves, before going to face the Scourge. So what to do?
” Breath of the Wild was indeed a very horizontal, very planar game. When we thought about something new for the sequel, we thought the space that was left was the sky or the underworld. “, explain to Gross Hidemaro Fujibayashi, creator at Nintendo and director of this latest opus.
And this is how the gamer will dive back into the universe created in 2017, largely redesigned to incorporate flying islands, through a scene propelling him with Link and Zelda into the underground bowels of Hyrule Castle, at the rediscovery of the origins of the Kingdom, as indicated in a presentation video commented by Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the game.
Keep the community awake
Where his predecessor respected the canons, Tears of the Wind must therefore take up the torch of Majora’s Mask (released in 2000): enrich the universe of Zelda without being able to rely on a simple “remake”. It’s off to a good start: Friday morning, it posted an average score of 97/100 on Metacritic.
We started ourselves, and we are now waiting to finish this article to continue. Especially since Ganon, the big bad of the series, the number one antagonist of Link, our worst nightmare, is back, while the Scourge was only borrowing traits from him.
New game also says new “gameplay”, new way of playing. While retaining what made the strength of the previous one. Because Breath of the Windengine side, is a masterpiece: it was possible to make Link do everything that would have been impossible for him, big or small, in Ocarina of Time.
This is also one of the successes of the previous Zelda : even today, people share their little experiences on social networks, in droves. Who thought of going to cut the tree with an ax to make it fall into the water and use it as a bridge? I show you !
The “walkthrough” is not allowed
In the world of video games, the precursor Nintendo, champion of innovation since the beginning of its adventure, is apart, remained childish, lending itself well, especially since the Wii, to family practice. Mario Kart in particular accompanied many people during the confinements.
But in the world of Nintendo, both console builder and video game creator, The Legend of Zelda is also a world apart. This Japanese franchise has inspired entire generations of gamers, from childhood, and generations of video game creators, too.
” In Zelda, a villain is not just a boss like Ganon, it’s also all the puzzles that will be on your way. A good villain is someone or something that will block your progress and requires you to use your imagination to triumph. sums up Hidemaro Fujibayashi.
The time for us to remember that it is strictly forbidden, in Zelda, to seek the solution of an enigma, the “solution”, on the Internet. Assume that it is not enough at all to type the name of a place in Hyrule on Google to find out how to get out of the bad situation it has reserved for you…
Full of existential questions
Who doesn’t know Zelda? Who does not know the music of Zelda, sublime in the latest opus? Link is a universal myth, whose return was expected in the four corners of the Earth. The Japanese were, due to jet lag, among the first to be able to get the game in stores. Some have, as always, lined up at dawn.
In other countries, some stores have decided to open at midnight to pay homage to one of Shigeru Miyamoto’s most famous creatures. This was particularly the case in a Parisian brand, where 150 people went in the middle of the night to buy the game.
At the moment, the craziest must already share with their friends their experiences in this or that “temple”. What is the key for, which I found while burning a wall covered in vegetation? How to melt the block of ice to release the switch that is visibly below, and open the door?
What’s in this chest? Did they keep the famous “jingle”? What happens if I cook mushrooms with milk, adding a bat wing? Can I use this hen to fly? Is this pebble stronger than my blade? These are the questions that any good Zelda player will ask themselves this weekend.
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