Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Item Shop and Other World in A Link Between Worlds

As I thought, today's Nintendo Direct mainly focused on the Dark World. Though Nintendo just calls it the "Other World", which is weird. Well, technically the Dark World from A Link to the Past shouldn't exist anymore. But everything in the video looked exactly like the old Dark World. Same visuals, same enemies, same music. (I love how they made the abysses.) But Aonuma mentioned that this other world has its own kingdom...

Also, Iwata confirmed that the Dark Triforce in the logo is actually a thing! How exciting! I wonder if it uses Sorrow, Despair and Destruction from the flames in the Oracle games or some dark virtues to mirror the Triforce.

Well, and my theory that you would use the painting Link to enter the Dark World was confirmed. But instead of mirrors on the wall it's dark cracks in the wall.

The much more interesting stuff was posted on Miiverse. There Aonuma presented the new item shop:


He doesn't say what's this all about, only that this item shop is a very important place, the rest up to our imagination. Sounds like a job for Hyrule Blog!

Well, we clearly can see that this shop is selling the Bow, the Hammer, the Boomerang, the Fire Rod, the Ice Rod, the Hookshot and the Bombs. There's something like a book that I can't make out (the Book of Mudora? a sold-out item?) and something that looks like a mix between the Whirlwind from Spirit Tracks and a magic rod. I had already suggested that we might see something like the Gust Jar return as one of the two new items, but I guess the "Whirlwind Rod" (Wind Rod most likely) makes the most sense for this game.

So, what does this mean? Instead of getting all these items in the dungeons, you will buy them in the shop. And depending on what you buy first, your path through the game will look entirely different. I guess there are different obstacles everywhere. Like those poles that can be only pushed down with the hammer. Or ice walls in caves. You have to chose, what you want to overcome first. And depening on your choice you will play the dungeons in very different orders. Each playthrough might be very different depening on what you buy first.

If this is how it is, then I'm suddenly very excited for this game. This would be an all new approach to Zelda, but something very true to Zelda's exploration theme. It's a very nice way to make Zelda non-linear again, without having an open and confusing world full of dead ends. You directly chose your own path!

This could be very interesting.

What's suspicious is the shop owner, who looks like Nabbit from NSMBU, a stealing rabbit. It might be that he's stealing your items at some point? Or might it be that these are the items from the legendary hero in A Link to the Past, which Nabbit "found" somewhere? It's speculated that this is actually Link's old house. So, Nabbit nested himself in Link's old house and sells the items to the new Link. :D Link's house would basically be the central point. In the demo you've started at Link's house after buying the Hammer basically.

And it might be that in the Dark World there's a similar shop (where the Bomb Shop used to be), selling a new set of items.



So, Bill Trinen said that there will be a very good use for Rupees this time in the game, so I think those items area actually bought normally with Rupees. We've also seen that you get large amounts of Rupees inside dungeons (like 100 per chest). So, I guess the items will have massive price tags on them, like 1000 Rupees for the Hammer. You could grind all the Rupees to buy more at once, but the easiest is to use your newest purchase to proceed in the game, where you get enough Rupees to buy the next item. This would be somewhat similar to Tingle's Rupeeland, where you had to "buy" the tower expansions to proceed. But it was your choice, whether you would go through the next main quest or get the necessary Rupees otherwise. Of course I don't think that you will be able to entirely skip a dungeon in ALBW, but at least postpone it, if you want to.



PS: these news also come with a small fail quote from Aonuma:

That’s right, shops in the past Zelda games sold things that would run out once you use them like arrows and bombs, items that needed replenishing. They have never sold an item that doesn’t go away after each use like the boomerang or the hookshot.

Never? They never sold items that don't go away? Like never?

How about the Blue Candle, the Blue Ring or the Arrow in The Legend of Zelda? Or the Shovel and the Bow in Link's Awakening? The Shovel and the Arrow are even important items, which you need to finish the game. And even Aonuma's games do have one time purchases like in Beedle's Air Shop in Skyward Sword. So, he should be a little more careful with his wording, or else it might look like he doesn't even know his own game series.

1 comment:

K2L said...

Looking forward to this game. I can't wait to play it. =)