(WARNING: THESE SUBTITLES ARE NOT FINISHED YET) [Beta64 intro music] The Legend of Zelda series is one of my - you know, wait - do I really need to explain Zelda? I mean, we all know how for 30+ years Nintendo has been giving us incredible games in the Zelda series filled with action, platforming, puzzles and adventure. And with Breath of the Wild, we've never had so much adventure in a Zelda title. And now, after so much waiting, it's finally happening. The release! But how did this game come together over the four years since it was first announced? Where did this art style originate from? Why are there spaceships attacking Link in a tracksuit? And what changes were made during development? Because there are quite a few to show you. Thanks in part to the help of both Zelda Dungeon and Nintendo Everything, whose websites' links are in the description, and I highly recommend checking them out. So let's not drag out this intro any longer. Because on this episode of Beta64, we're going to learn all about the development of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. [Breath of the Wild Theme Music: Beckoning Winds Breath of the Wild technically began its development in 2011 while creating the Zelda HD Experience for E3 that same year. Do you remember it? It was that cool little tech demo for Wii U that was talked about all the time back then. In fact, Miyamoto even confirmed during E3 2011 that Nintendo was already planning out the first HD Zelda game. But that's all we heard about it until January 23, 2013 during the Wii U Direct presentation. While Aonuma couldn't describe the game in very much detail or show off any visuals, he did discuss the driving theme behind the game's development. The mission of this new game was to "rethink the conventions of Zelda". Conventions like having to complete dungeons in a specific order, or that you have to play the game by yourself. The team had decided to set aside these conventions and instead go back to the basics to create a newborn Zelda game. He explained that they had also wanted to implement this with Skyward Sword but they weren't able to put enough effort into changing the linear structure of the game. And speaking of past Zelda games, after the team behind the Zelda HD experience had showed off their tech demo at E3, the team continued converting past Zelda games into HD in order to find the right art style for this new Zelda game. While converting Wind Waker to high-resolution graphics, they noticed that the change had completely transformed the game beyond cosmetic differences. So because the new Zelda game was going to take some time to develop, they decided to remake Wind Waker on Wii U to help hold over fans until the new game's release. Due to the fact that this new Zelda game would be rethinking every aspect of past Zelda titles, they didn't reveal any more info on the game during this Nintendo Direct. However, at E3 2014 we got our first look at the game. Or, at least, a cinematic of the game showing Link riding a horse while fighting a Guardian. Though some at the time speculated that the guy riding the horse wasn't really Link. After all, he's not wearing his signature green tunic. And plus, Aonuma had been quoted saying "No one explicitly said that that was Link." That created quite a bit of speculation as to who this new character was and whether "he" might have actually been a "she". But that wasn't the case, as Aonuma later said that that was simply a joke and that this person riding the horse was actually Link. It turns out, though, as revealed in a much later interview, the team was actually considering having a female protagonist for a time with the simplest option in their opinion as having Zelda herself as the main character. But in doing that, a new question arises: What would Link do? And plus, the team also had to consider what they called "the bounds of the Triforce". So, taking into account both of these issues, they decided to just have Link as the main character once again. Going back to the video, as Aonuma explained, this new Zelda title was meant to bring Zelda back to its roots. Like in the original Legend of Zelda for the NES, where you could explore all the world around you wherever you wanted. However, as time went on and the series switched to three dimensions, they just couldn't do that anymore. With Wind Waker, they tried to accomplish this by patching together small bunches of islands, however you still had to enter and exit specific islands in order to explore. But now, with the new Zelda game for Wii U, they could finally achieve in 3D what the original NES game already had: an open world where puzzles start immediately when the player tries to decide where to go. No longer is there a set path; the player is now free to explore. At the end of the trailer, it states that the new Zelda game is set to release in 2015. However, as we know, that wasn't the case. But that release range was kept for almost a year, including in the next footage that we'll see. At the Game Awards 2014, the first gameplay video was shown with Miyamoto and Aonuma playing the new Zelda game together. The gameplay shows off some basic things, like Link exploring the world on foot, using a sail cloth and riding a horse. One of the main things we learned about in this footage is that the horses actually have the ability to control their own movement which leaves Link to freely focus on attacking and aiming his bow, which has always been a difficult thing to do in past Zelda games. Plus, to make attacking even easier, you can now bolt off your horse and shoot arrows in slow motion - much like in the E3 2014 teaser. Enemies also now have a life meter above their head after attacking them, much like in the Wind Waker when equipping that weird-looking Hero's Charm. When comparing this footage to the final game, we can notice quite a few changes that were made after this build was shown. First off, the HUD is very limited, missing many of the elements from the final version. However, it does almost resemble the final "Pro" HUD mode, which removes many of the onscreen elements like the minimap and the temperature meter. But even after that, the HUD is still different because of that magic meter. Now, I've looked through hours of footage of the game and haven't seen any magic meter. Even when using what seems to be magic-based items like the Fire Rod. So it looks to have been cut, much like what happened with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And speaking of cut HUD elements, the entire gamepad functionality that was shown in the footage, with its map features and all that, have been completely removed from the game because Aonuma stated that it was disrupting the gameplay experience, which I can completely agree with. Later in the footage, during the horse riding sequence, there are some other HUD elements that were changed, removed and added in. First, when choosing to get on the horse, the buttons that appear look slightly different. It's a black button with a white outline in the early version, but it's a white button with a black outline in the final. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Japanese text next to it says which means to get on, or in this case, to mount. Once riding the horse, you should notice the controls in the bottom right were changed before the final version. Because instead of a box with controls in it, the controls are lined up on the bottom of the screen. Looking at these controls, they look to be roughly the same, like "Whoa" is activated by pulling the left stick back, and "Yah"-ing is mapped to the A button. Except this version says "Go" instead of "Yah". However, there's that R button too, which isn't used in the final. But after looking super close at that really blurry Japanese text beside the buttons, It turns out it reads which means "to soothe". So originally the "soothe" button was going to be mapped to the R button instead of the L button. Also, you should have already noticed that the "Yah!" meter is missing from this build, and there's actually a reason for that which I'll talk about a little bit later. For now, notice what happens when Link pulls out his bow on the horse. It shows an image of an arrow on the upper left corner with the amount on the top right of it. On the bottom left of the box, it shows a D-pad which looks like it would have been used to change the arrow type. In the final, though, this entire arrow box isn't used at all. Instead, it will show the number of arrows on the crosshairs and you can change the arrows in the same kind of way that you change weapons. Some other various changes to the HUD include the Heart Meter's color which changes between a dark and light red over time in the footage, though it stays the same color in the final. Not to mention there's no stamina meter in this build either, because when Link jumps off the cliff with the sailcloth, the meter doesn't appear as it does in the retail release. Now, speaking of Link jumping off the cliff, notice his sailcloth and compare it to the final game. Notice how it's completely different. And more elaborate in the final, versus the simple cloth design in this footage. Going back to the latter half of the footage, there's a couple of changes that I want you to note. First off, you can "Yah!" as much as you want in this build, and by that I mean you can keep boosting the horse's speed without tiring it out. Likely this was done to allow Aonuma and Miyamoto to quickly move around the map in the footage and was definitely going to be enabled in later builds. Now, how do I know for sure that it's unlimited? Well, if you listen in on the footage, you can hear Aonuma basically spamming the "Yah!" button. And on an interesting note, Link saying "Yah!" is different in this build compared to the final. Take a listen: Yah! Hah! Hah! Hah! (same sound plays) Hah! (same sound plays) One other thing that's sound related is the metallic sound that plays when you hit an enemy with an arrow. The way Aonuma puts it The sound means your arrow has hit the right spot, and damaged your enemy. This was removed from the final game for good reasons. Because as you'll hear now, it sounds very out of place. Oh, I heard a metallic sound! That sound tells you that your arrow has hit the right spot and damaged your enemy. After showing the footage, Nintendo re-affirmed that the new Zelda game was indeed going to launch in 2015. But fast forward to March 27 2015 On that day Nintendo shared a video with Aonuma Regarding the new zelda game release date which he explains has been pushed back indefinitely. The reason? Well over the 3 months, since the Game Awards, the development team had come up with several new ideas for the game. And working towards them, had created even more new ideas too. So instead of focusing of that 2015 release, the team was now focusing on making the game as best it could be. To create the "Ultimate Zelda Experience" But not only was this new Zelda game pushed past 2015, but the fans were also told not to expect at E3 that year. However at the convention thou, Reggie, the president of Nintendo of America, stated on in an interview to expect the to launch in 2016 instead. In March of 2015, Nintendo first announced their new dedicated gaming platform. The NX later called the Nintendo Switch. This created a mountain of speculation wondering if Nintendo was even going to release the new Zelda game on Wii U or releasing solely on NX.
I think it's this one, but in a different rendition: https://youtu.be/cPWBG6_jn4Y
That part should be around 1:07