Zelda Dungeon Talks: Should Breath of the Wild Have a New Partner, and If So, Of What Kind?

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midnaBreathe of the Wild has presented us with a massive world full of life and wonder, from giant, laser-shooting creatures to vast landscapes to evil monsters waiting to be hunted down. But something we have seen little to none of is people. Link, the Old Man, and in a way, the voice from the Resurrection Chamber are all Nintendo has shown us in terms of other signs of civilization. There will be towns and such later, but or all we know, they could be rather small. What might this mean for Link’s potential friends he meets along the way? Specifically, what about a partner? Most Zelda titles involve Link gaining a partner that follows along with him throughout the adventure, but this adventure, so far, seems to be one of the occasional outliers. Do you think Link will have a companion on this new, open journey, and if so, what do you expect from them? This week, the ZD staff take a look at this topic and give their thoughts.

Hit the jump to see what they had to say. Read more…

ZD Top 5 – Shops

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gfs_336995_2_1We all love to go shopping now and again, and Link is no different. Any good adventure will likely require stopping at a shop or two for some cool new supplies, but some stores are better than others. This week, the ZD staff takes a look at some the best shops in the whole series. There are quite a few, but if you think back, no doubt, some will really stand out.

As always, make sure to leave your own favorites in the comments below, so we can hear all your thoughts! Read more…

Zelda Dungeon Talks: If You Could Ask The Developers One Question About Breath of The Wild, What Would It Be and Why?

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neon_0001_largeIt’s that time of the week again! Today on ZD Talks, we are once again talking about the upcoming Breath of the Wild, but this time, we are asking something a little different from the usual specifics on what we expect from the game. If you had the chance to interview a member of the Zelda development team, or even Eigi Aonuma himself, one question about the game, what would you ask? Sure, there are plenty of things we still want to know about the game itself, but there are also any number of concerns regarding its development and marketing. Today, the ZD staff has a chance to discuss those very qestions.

Hit the jump for their responces, and make sure to discuss your own concerning questions in the comments! Read more…

Breath of the Wild: Rediscovering the Art of Discovery

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zelda-breath-of-the-wild-featured-1200x630-cThe Legend of Zelda, the original NES adventure that set so many standards for not only the series, but for adventure titles as a whole, brought about a true sense of discovery for its players. As someone who was not around at its time of release, and started the series with later games, I cannot say I know exactly what it felt like to dive into that exact kind of world for the first time with no concept of what it would be like. That being said, not only was A Link to the Past – a generally similar game – my first adventure title I ever played, but The Legend of Zelda is incredibly easy to read in terms of what made it so revolutionary, so I think I can get a rather good idea. And from what I’ve learned, it is all about the idea of discovery. And now that E3 is over and Nintendo has given us a good, long look at Breath of the Wild, it is clear that they are ready to recapture that glorious feeling of discovering the unknown that was brought about 30 years ago on the NES.

Hit the jump to join me in exploring Breath of the Wild‘s throwback style to the series’ original game, and what elements its players might recognize from that age-old classic. Read more…

Zelda Dungeon Talks: Knowing The Various Aspects of Breath of the Wild, What More Do You Expect From The Story?

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Welcome everyone to the latest Zelda Dungeon Talks! Now this week’s question is quite interesting. We have seen quite a bit of Breath of The Wild footage so far and the game looks amazing. The vastness of the Great Plateau is incredible and apparently that is only 1% of the map. If that turns out to be true then this game is going to be huge! From such a huge game we can expect an amazing story, or can we? There has been very little story detail given out thus far and we have been told that the game can be beaten without experiencing the whole story. With a path like that we can only be left wondering how many paths we can take throughout our BoTW experience. What sort of narrative can we really expect once the game releases? While it is already confirmed that the game is not story driven, I really hope there is still a strong story line in place as I believe the story is one of the most captivating elements of a Zelda game.

In this week’s edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks, various staff members will share with us their opinions on the topic. As always feel free to share your own opinions in the comments section.  Read more…

This Is Why You Should Watch Phantom Hourglass At This Year’s Marathon

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PHantom-HourglassIt’s the start of the marathon!

Phantom Hourglass is the unexpected MVP of the Zelda Dungeon Informer marathon. Phantom Hourglass is how we kick off the marathon every year and this year is no exception. If that’s the case then what’s the deal? What makes it so special that we absolutely need to clear our schedule for the game? Other than kicking off the marathon with a full playthrough of Phantom Hourglass, we will be playing the multiplayer battle mode of Phantom Hourglass for the first time this year! Read more…

The Schedule for the Zelda Dungeon Informer 2016 Marathon is now Public

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We’ve got 5 days left until the start of the Zelda Dungeon Informer Marathon so get ready to mark your calendars so you won’t miss any of your favorite games. We have just published the schedule for the weeklong+ marathon of The Legend of Zelda. The link to the schedule is right here! and will be updated if there are any major changes to the times. Keep in mind that all times are subject to change, but the schedule you see will be the one that we follow. Also, keep in mind that the posted times are in US Central time, so plan out your viewing times accordingly. If you miss out on any of the games, we will be saving highlights on our Twitch.tv page so don’t worry if there is a game that you really wanted to see, but missed out on due to work, school, sleep or other obligations. You can keep up with all of the action by following our social media pages Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and by following us on our Twitch page. We will be going live at 3AM US Central time with Phantom Hourglass.
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Breath of the Wild: E3 Hands-On Impressions

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imageConsidering that we are nearly a month removed from E3 2016, I’m — admittedly — skirting the edge of timeliness here. Heck, I’m probably well past it. In any case, I had the opportunity to spend about half an hour with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at this year’s expo.

Going into the show, Link’s next adventure was just about the only game on my mind. I mean, I was looking forward to other titles, but my drive to attend E3 for the first time stemmed mostly from the chance to experience the future of Hyrule. Head past the jump to check out my full thoughts on what was unveiled!

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Meet the Roster of the 2016 Zelda Dungeon Informer Marathon

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marathon_victory1 We have an all star cast of players for the Zelda Dungeon Informer Marathon for this year! We’ve grown the team this year again and wanted to give a little introduction to who you’ll be watching when the marathon starts on July 16th at 3AM US Central time. The Zelda Dungeon and Zelda Informer team spans the globe, and we’ve got a good mix of Central US, Eastern US and Canadian members who will be making an appearance at the marathon. If you have a favorite ZD or ZI team member you’d like to follow along during the marathon, check out what games they will be playing at the marathon this year! Be sure to check us out on our Twitch page!

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This Is Why You Should Watch Twilight Princess HD At This Year’s Marathon

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1447382104-the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd-logoWe’re stepping into HD with Twilight Princess this year!

We will be unified under one platform for Twilight Princess HD this year. We can finally retire the scratched up disc that killed Trevor’s Twilight Princess race against Caleb from a few years back. Gone will be the funky resolutions of using both the Wii version and GameCube version on one stream. Everything will be the same resolution with the crispiness of Twilight Princess HD (On the Vizio D Series.) The amount of Wii U’s that will be hooked up is going to compete with the power requirements we needed last year for our Twilight Princess run. In case you forgot we had a whopping 9 players in last year’s marathon! We’re tacking one extra player onto the roster this year for an astounding 10 players playing Twilight Princess HD head to head for a ludicrous amount of time. This race has the potential to steal the show this year.

Last year’s race was an absolute blast because of the sheer craziness that happened once every player started the game. To keep things ultra competitive we will be eliminating players as they fall behind in the boss battles and other events in the game. To see the epic race from last year take a look at the highlight from our Twitch channel. Read more…

Zelda Dungeon Talks: What Do You Think Breath Of The Wild’s New Amiibo Will Do?

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Within all the brilliance of Breath Of The Wild’s E3 show, Nintendo managed to make it even better by giving us new amiibo. So far we have seen Link, Horseback Link and a Guardian. We also got to see the function that the Wolf Link amiibo would have in the new games and I must say it’s a pretty awesome feature to have Wolf Link alongside you to help out. We have still yet to hear about any functionality of the new amiibos so its time for our team to speculate.

In this week’s edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks, the ZD team will share with us their opinion on the topic. As always, feel free to share your own opinion in the comments section. Read more…

This Is Why You Should Watch Tri Force Heroes At This Year’s Marathon

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zelda-tri-force-heroes-49I’ve already stated that the sleeper hit game of this year’s marathon will be Tri Force Heroes. Tri Force Heroes is a fun experimental game that is difficult to experience to it’s full potential. It’s similar in many regards to Four Swords Adventures because it requires multiple players with multiple sets of hardware to play it to maximum potential.

If you play Tri Force Heroes just as a solo experience it can be very frustrating and necessarily difficult to complete due to the Dopple mechanic. It’s tough to get two other friends to sit down and play Tri Force Heroes who are only familiar with the single player mode, and playing online can be laggy due to Internet connectivity or can be even more frustrating because other players may not take the game as seriously as you are trying to. To provide the best possible viewing experience we will be capturing three separate 3DS inputs with every player’s display being shown. We have captured all of the player’s screens for Four Swords Adventures, Four Swords, and Tetra’s Trackers but this is our first year of playing Tri Force Heroes so we want to do things in a big way! We’ve upped the amount of 3DS capture cards this year to accommodate our four player Ocarina of Time race which gives us enough capture card 3DS systems to bring Green, Blue and Red Link together for everyone to see. Read more…

This Is Why You Should Watch A Link to the Past At This Year’s Marathon

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A-Link-To-The-Past-Title

We’re going to have two races this year!

At the ZDi Marathon this year we’re going to be mixing things up yet again for A Link to the Past. In previous years of the marathon we have raced A Link to the Past with six or more players which created an incredibly fun and hectic competition. The wrinkle to the race was throwing a ton of players together and doling out punishments for the amount of money we raised during the race. This led to some hysterical antics like sending Mases out to McDonalds for a fast food trip, and having to do pushups, or having Blake play with his feet! The wild card was how much the chat favored a certain player, or how much they wanted to punish a player that gained the ire of the viewers.

That’s not going away this year, but there will be some changes. To make the race closer we will be having some of the not as experienced Link to the Past players competing in the ‘Mario Kart’ style complete with punishments and the like. To supplement this, we will be having another race which will be a 100% completion race between the Link to the Past veterans; Bomby, Blake and Mases. The pros will be completing the game with incredible efficiency and clear the game incredibly fast. For a glimpse at what to expect, take a look at Bomby’s recent run of the game that was broadcasted on the Zelda Dungeon Twitch channel.

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The Importance of One-Offs in Zelda

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RabbitLinkOne-Off: noun. Something occurring, done, or made only once.

For being relatively common, one-offs are rarely given any spotlight in the Zelda franchise. This is unfair; the importance of singular moments with different mechanics or a different tone from the rest of the game cannot be understated. From the Romani Ranch side quest in Majora’s Mask to The Sand Sea in Skyward Sword, I’m going to take a look at some of my favorite unique moments from the history of The Legend of Zelda and briefly show their importance in the game as a whole.

Hit the jump to join me! Read more…