The Box Art...

[Turo602]

Okay so I saw this box art yesterday on IGN and I got to say. I really like it. Link is posed exactly how Miyamoto imagined him. Pointing his sword Skyward. I already pre-ordered the standard edition for 38 bucks(more then a year ago) and I'm just happy to know that I'll also be getting the CD. I don't really care for other editions because they always come with unnecessary crap that I don't need/care for. I just want to play the game. Enough about that though, the box art isn't what I expected and it looks amazing.

 

[TheMinish]

Rather than discussing the possibility of 12 dungeons in this thread, it would be better to create a separate thread for it. This is for discussion about the box art, and this seems to be a topic that could be expanded on.

I just did
http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/showthread.php?22416-12-Dungeons-in-SS&p=334662#post334662

 

[Arbiters Ground]

As I find out more and more about the game, it seems like it's going to be a lot like the Wind Waker.

First off, it seems like they don't want to use the obligatory formula of dungeons. I've heard multiple Nintendo people say there will be times when the player isn't even sure they're in a dungeon. They don't want to do the whole "first temple forest, second fire, third, water, etc.". Kind of like Wind Waker. Your first dungeon was sort of not even a dungeon. The Forsaken Fortress did have a Dungeon map, but didn't have a Boss battle, nor a new item, nor a heart piece. The first full-on dungeon was more about Fire than anything.

Secondly, the box art most closely resembles Wind Waker too, with the Gold background.

Graphics have a Wind Waker influence, too, but we all know that.

The music. It's said it will have a lot more acoustic folk instruments in the playing, which is sort of similar to Wind Waker. Wind Waker definitely had an interesting soundtrack, like the opening title theme. Fiddle-playing, and it just sounded more Celtic folk-ish, as opposed to the more proper and classical soundtrack in games like Twilight Princess.

I'm expecting a similar Wind Waker experience. I think it should be a better game than Wind Waker as they aren't rushing this one.

Wind Waker was rushed to come out on a release date, and I think the developers didn't get to do everything they wanted to. Wind Waker really lacked on mini-games, and some parts just felt like "...Really?" (Triforce shards). Skyward Sword definitely wasn't rushed, and delayed sometimes.

The developers seem pretty confident with this game. The only thing is that with all the buzz for the Wii U, I don't think this game is going to be a huge sales-win compared to other Zelda titles, only because of the console it's being released on. The Wii is becoming an afterthought.

 

[Azure Sage]

When I first saw the box art on the site's main page...

Spoiler

... I began crying. Tears of happiness. It looks amazing. It greatly exceeded my expectations. It's perfect.

 

[BamaLynx]

Posted this in another thread, but wanted to get it in here also for all opinions.

Seems like there is some discussion of the outermost symbols and the possibility of them representing dungeons, and so I did some quick analysis of those outer symbols on the box. Honestly, I could find very few data points and very little evidence to support it, but you can see what I've done in the image below.

The only thing I could find to support it was that one of the symbols looks extremely similar to the symbol seen all over the Fire Temple from the trailers. The Sky Temple has an obvious symbol, but it is not seen on the box; which means either 1) the box symbols are unrelated to the dungeons, 2) the sky temple symbol can not be seen on the box in its current state, or 3) the sky symbol is not what I think it is.

Since there are not a lot of screenshots from other dungeons, there is not a lot of data to use, but if others have anything to add or correct to this, please fell free to do so.

In my honest opinion, I DO NOT think the symbols represent the dungeons, but I never rule out anything until the proof is presented.

 

[Caelus]

I don't think wing patterns on the entrance of the Sky Temple count as its "symbol", remember we saw a similar patterned Shiekah eye symbol on the stone of the factory temple, which could be one of the missing symbols. We have to keep looking, I'm watching Sky Temple vids right now.

 

[Mastik]

if you look closely, the circle does look like a clock: the outer circle is deviated to twelve parts, and the two round spiky things on phi's shoulders are looking like the clock's hands..

 

[zeldahuman]

I don't think wing patterns on the entrance of the Sky Temple count as its "symbol", remember we saw a similar patterned Shiekah eye symbol on the stone of the factory temple, which could be one of the missing symbols. We have to keep looking, I'm watching Sky Temple vids right now.

I've been watching all sorts of Skyward Sword videos, from Demos to the trailers. I keep pausing, playing, pausing, playing, because I wanna catch everything...

 

[person]

I'm expecting a similar Wind Waker experience. I think it should be a better game than Wind Waker as they aren't rushing this one.

Wind Waker was rushed to come out on a release date, and I think the developers didn't get to do everything they wanted to. Wind Waker really lacked on mini-games, and some parts just felt like "...Really?" (Triforce shards). Skyward Sword definitely wasn't rushed, and delayed sometimes.

The developers seem pretty confident with this game. The only thing is that with all the buzz for the Wii U, I don't think this game is going to be a huge sales-win compared to other Zelda titles, only because of the console it's being released on. The Wii is becoming an afterthought.

On the topic of "rushing", some investigation shows that Wind Waker only was in development for a little more than 2 years. Compared to other Zelda titles:

• Twilight Princess was in developement for a little more than 3 years (with signifficant issues at one point during the development process, giving Miyamoto way more work than he expected).
• Ocarina of Time was in development for a little more than 4 years.
• Majoras mask was in development for only 1 year, but it used much of the resources from Ocarina of Time.
• A Link to the past was in development for about 4 years too.

And the case with Skyward Sword; about 4 years again!

It should also be noted that the number of titles Miyamoto was involved in skyrocketed before the launch of the GameCube, and stayed that way untill the release of the Wii. Being invloved in on average 10 games a year leaves less time to focus on the indivudual games.

 

[Caelus]

Didn't they say they started in late 2006? So a five year game.... whoa.

 

[person]

Didn't they say they started in late 2006? So a five year game.... whoa.

They didn't confirm anything before some time into 2008, but it's estimated that the initial planning and idea phase started in late 2007.

 

[Vibed]

They didn't confirm anything before some time into 2008, but it's estimated that the initial planning and idea phase started in late 2007.

I remember them saying around E3 2009 initial planning began February 2007, I'm having a hard time finding a source though.

 

[EternalNocturne]

Ohh, something new I noticed about the boxart! The North American version differs from the PAL version for some reason:

Spoiler

I know that they scaled everything down so that they could fit the "Special Edition CD" down on the bottom, but why is that symbol missing?

 

[Locke]

could be because they didn't have the full symbol, and they wanted to add it to the bundle box:

Spoiler

and they obviously couldn't have half a symbol there above the wiimote. But then they must have removed it first, and then used the new image for both boxes...

more likely... "These guys always overanalyze things. This bit doesn't seem important. Let's get rid of it and see them go crazy. trollface.jpg"

 

[person]

I remember them saying around E3 2009 initial planning began February 2007, I'm having a hard time finding a source though.

That may well be. I read that it started just after Phantom Hourglass was done, and I calculated out from the date of release. It's obviously clear that a game is usually "done" quite some time before it arrives in stores.

Still, the development time doesn't nessecarely make a game good or not. The key factor in the development is the process, of which I know all about after a 2-year course in Visual Arts. It's all about analysis, experimentation and good planning. Putting it all together and polishing it up is just the final part in a long process.