June 17, 2014 by Ryan Ward
The Legend of Zelda is a long-cherished franchise from Nintendo, so it’s no wonder hype about its next iteration has already reached fever pitch. Zelda was one of the first titles used to show off the Wii U’s next-generation graphical capabilities, but since that initial showcase not much has been shown…until now.
The new trailer for Zelda Wii U shows Link atop a horse in what looks to be a Hyrule field. However, this isn’t your Ocarina of Time Hyrule field. The blades of grass in the foreground sway in the wind with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. Soon a monstrous creature comes barreling towards our hero. Link is chased down a narrow pathway to a dock area and begins to attack his foe with exploding arrows. Over and over Link lets arrows fly until he leaps from his horse and delivers the final blow.
Many people who watched this trailer were excited by the promise that this Zelda title is fully explorable and no longer has a built-in item-gating that restricted many other Zelda titles like A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time.
This new trailer was immediately criticized as being pre-rendered and not gameplay footage. However, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that the incredible E3 trailer showed actual gameplay:
“Many people from the media kept asking me if the footage from the new Zelda game for Wii U is just a promotional movie, but that really is actual gameplay on Wii U,” the exec said on Miliverse. “Also, I wasn’t kidding about how you will be able to reach the mountains that appear in the distance if you should choose to!”
The Legend of Zelda for Wii U is set to launch in 2015.
