Another Nintendo Warriors from Koei Tecmo? Fire Emblem?

The rumor mill will keep spinning wildly until Friday, where Nintendo hopefully will put all cards on the table. However, there is one rumor that caught my attention about Koei Tecmo working on a new Warriors game based on a Nintendo-franchise other than Zelda.

While it would be better, if they exclusively focused on Hyrule Warriors, it does make sense in the current situation. Right now it's best to wait, until Breath of the Wild has been released, before they plan and start a potential sequel to Hyrule Warriors. That way they can use content from the new Zelda epoch to create a true sequel. We're talking Hyrule Warriors 2 here and hopefully not some Hyrule Warriors - Extreme Legends Edition or whatever, where they present us the same game a third time and just add ten more characters and five more Adventure Maps. No, thanks. For the Switch it needs a fully blown sequel and that needs time. And in the meantime Koei Tecmo might produce a different Warriors title for Nintendo, because they are

(I'm personally not interested in another Warriors game, save for maybe One Piece - Pirate Warriors, because you only really need one Warriors game in your life. Last time I've checked, my Nintendo 3DS recorded 666 hours on Legends, while I was above 700 hours on the Wii U Version. That's crazy and I love Hyrule Warriors, but I don't really need another game like this in my life.)

So, what could it be? Koei Tecmo has expressed interest in other Nintendo franchises in the past, including Pokémon, Mario and even Starfox (the latter even had a prototype, which was rejected by Nintendo, see here). But they all feel kind of "odd" as a choice for a Warriors game, because you'd want a battlefield scenario and a wide roster of characters. How would Super Mario fit in that? Also, Mario has more than enough spin-off games already, it doesn't also need a battle game. Pokémon would be weird as well, while it got the perfect spin-off collaboration with Pokémon Tournament / Pokken already.

The best (and most obvious / boring) choice would probably be Fire Emblem...

Fire Emblem might not be the most popular Nintendo franchise, but it can easily keep up with Dynasty Warriors in terms of sales and popularity. It's a good match.

It already comes with the perfect scenarios for such a battle focused game and it would really enrich the Fire Emblem franchise, where you normally get tactical RPGs with a turn-based battle system. This way you could now really get into the battle action with your favorite characters, where the franchise offers plenty of them for a wide cast, maybe even more than the Zelda franchise has to offer (but maybe not with the same level of variety).

Additionally, there seem to be many attractive female characters, where Koei Tecmo can do their usual magic...

2017 Zelda Calendar

Originally I didn't want to get the new "official" Zelda Calendar for this year, because I never really have been satisfied with the quality of them. But it somehow felt like I missing something and these things are quite cheap, so I decided to get it anyway.

The selection of images feels richer than in the last two years, where the motives were rather bland, but it also somehow felt very familiar. And when I checked my calendar collection, it struck me that they reused quite a lot of the illustrations from the 2013 Calendar, which was the first Zelda Calendar that I got. In fact half of the motives simply got recycled, which is an even lazier effort than usual, especially considering the vast variety of artworks from the Zelda series that they could have used.

Another big issue with these calendars is the up-to-dateness, because they get planned over an entire year in advance. In fact you can already check out and pre-order the 2018 Zelda Calendar on Amazon, which looks like the best one in a long time. It has a nice selection of artworks (except for January, where they reused something from 2013 and 2017 yet again) and because they decided to use the E3 artwork from Breath of the Wild, it feels more up-to-date than usual.

Can't say that about the 2017 Calendar, though...

As you can see, this is all old stuff. Majora's Mask 3D is the newest title in there. There's nothing from Tri Force Heroes, even though that's a game from 2015, or Twilight Princess HD, which was released in March of 2016.

Also, it seems like Hyrule Warriors is on the ignore list. It might just be that they don't have the rights to use the artworks from Koei Tecmo, but it still would be nice to have something from that game.

It also would be nice, if they would stop having some intern, who probably never has played a single Zelda game in his life, randomly throw artworks together. These calendars are really just made for the quick buck, there's no soul in them...

Breath of the Wild: Release Rumors

It's freezing outside and currently some rumors about the potential release date of Breath of the Wild try to bring the sun a little closer. By three months.

Last year a potential June release for the game was in question and I was actually quite happy with that for personal reasons. Right after E3 sounds like a great time to play it, it's also a great time for me to take two weeks of vacation and it gives me enough time to replay all 3D Zelda games in the meantime. It feels like March is already around the corner and like I'm not ready for Breath of the Wild just yet. But that's just me.

There's also the question of Limited Zelda Edition hardware bundle for the Switch, which will most likely not be happening right at launch, but maybe some time later (like they did with Ocarina of Time 3D back in 2011). I don't want to buy the Switch (or any new Nintendo hardware), until the inevitable Zelda Edition finally becomes available. So, there's that.

The newest rumors now put the game back at launch in March - at least for North America, but for Europe it still sounds like it's coming in June, because the localization takes too long. And that's really the worst case scenario, it's even worse than the Twilight Princess launch ten years ago! There I adopted the European GameCube version, which came out one entire month after the North American Wii version. More than enough time to spoil the final boss for me.

And we're talking about a three month gap here... It might be that the Switch is region-free and people in Europe can just import it, but Nintendo would want to avoid this. Remember, when The Minish Cap was released two months later in North America. People could just have imported the European version, but Nintendo of America advertised, how the North American version will have additional features (even though these features just turned out to be bug fixes, like the Shop's Bomb Bag upgrade). It might be a similar scenario in Europe, where we're getting the game later, but we will get the already mentioned Zelda Special Edition hardware bundle to make up for it.

I wouldn't be buying the standard Switch at launch anyway, so I'd have to wait in any case, since the Wii U version will still be region-locked. And in those three months I'd have to put this website on ice and avoid any other Nintendo and video gaming sites, because I really don't want to get spoiled. And that would suck.

We should know more next week with the Switch presentation on Friday the 13th, though this date doesn't strike me as particularly promising.

Dawn of a New Year – 2017

Nintendo started the year 2017 with the above artwork, which remakes one of the most amazing original artworks from the first The Legend of Zelda game in the style of Breath of the Wild:

If you can see the background image of this website, you should notice that this very artwork means a big deal to Hyrule Blog and me personally. It depicts the excitement of freedom and adventure better than any other artwork from the series. The world of Hyrule is at Link's feet and you're eager to explore it all.

Now, ready your Sheikah Slates! We expected this game in 2015, we expected this game in 2016, but it's pretty safe to say that we're going to play Breath of the Wild in 2017. Finally! This is what we've been waiting for and this looks like the next big step for the Zelda series. There doesn't have to be anything else in the year other than that...

But there will still be some additional goodies with the rest of the 30th Anniversary, like the Hyrule Encyclopedia book. Breath of the Wild will also have its own small amiibo line, as well as a nice Piggyback Collector's Guide (goody bye, Prima!). And there will probably much more stuff, for example a Zelda Special Edition of the Nintendo Switch wouldn't be surprising.

It would be nice to learn something about a potential Hyrule Warriors 2 in 2017 as well, though it's probably too early for this. And at some point there has to be a new Zelda Picross game, right?

Anyway, this is a good start to the year 2017! Hopefully this will be the year, where the Zelda franchise truly reaches new potential.

2016 – The Year of Legends

Another year went by, much has changed, much was announced, but one thing is for sure: this was another good year for the Zelda franchise despite the fact that we're all still waiting for the main dish. Ever since Aonuma had announced the next big The Legend of Zelda game for Wii U in early 2013, Nintendo and friends made it their mission to keep us Zelda fans entertained as much as possible in the meantime. New handheld games, remasters, spin-off titles, DLC, merchandise, concerts... The last four years always gave us something new to look forward to and 2016 was certainly no exception. Here's an overview of the most important things that we got throughout the year:

• Twilight Princess HD + Wolf Link amiibo
• Twilight Princess Picross
• Hyrule Edition New Nintendo 3DS XL
• Hyrule Warriors - Legends
• Hyrule Warriors "Legends of Hyrule" DLCs
• Breath of the Wild E3 Demonstration
• Twilight Princess Manga
• 30th Anniversary amiibo
• 30th Anniversary Game Music Collection (in Japan)
• Hyrule Graphics (in Japan)
• Symphony of the Goddesses 2016 Master Quest Tour

It's also been the year of the 30th Anniversary, however, Nintendo had been a little late to the party and when compared to their efforts of the 25th Anniversary, it felt rather rehashed and unexciting. New books, more concerts, some amiibo... Because Breath of the Wild had been pushed to 2017, Nintendo probably didn't want to go too far with the marketing, but it's great that they at least acknowledged the 30th Anniversary with a nice logo and devoted some goodies and events to it.

Interestingly enough, the month right after the anniversary date (February 21st, 2016) featured a total of three different game releases, but none of it was officially linked to the 30th Anniversary in any way. We got The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD together with the Wolf-Link amiibo, My Nintendo Picross - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and also Hyrule Warriors - Legends, all in March 2016. That's one strong month!

Hyrule Warriors - Legends was also the real star of the year and of the 30th Anniversary. Koei Tecmo really was celebrating 30 years of Zelda with this game by making all sorts of different characters playable. It kept the fans entertained throughout the entire year with new DLC packs releasing every two months until the end of October. You can easily spend hundreds of hours on this title and it can keep you playing Nintendo 3DS on a daily basis. Other than what was already achieved with the Wii U version, the game set its focus on the Wind Waker at first and and afterwards on various Zelda handheld titles with the DLC. And with Linkle there also has been a new original character, where the whole discussion around a female Link has seen quite some controversy this year, but she's overall a very cheerful addition to the game.

While Breath of the Wild wasn't released in 2016, it was finally shown again after one year of silence with a huge demo at E3 2016, where for the first time Nintendo devoted an entire E3 just to one game. That's how big it is. And it certainly made the Zelda fans talk. Could there be a female Link? When will this game take place in the timeline? How big is the world really? Rarely a new Zelda game spawned this much discussion upfront and we will see, how it will hold up next year.


On Hyrule Blog

With the 30th Anniversary at hand, it's only natural that this was one of the strongest years for Hyrule Blog, in fact with a total of 222 post it's the second strongest year only after the 25th Anniversary in 2011. This is not a coincidence and isn't just due to the anniversaries, because between these dates I've been writing news, reviews and guides for the German fansite ZeldaEurope.de, which took its toll. Earlier this year I decided to stop and leave the site, which I haven't regretted. Now, when it comes to Zelda, my entire focus lies on this blog (and a little on GameFAQs), so it's getting a lot more attention.

But on the other hand this also has been a very eventful year. Replaying a majority of the Zelda series, playing lots and lots of Hyrule Warriors - Legends, talking about Breath of the Wild and doing some other fun stuff, like watching the Animated Series, led to an eventful year on this site. I can't promise to keep this up, but I will certainly try, because my love for this franchise is stronger than ever.



Happy New Year, everyone!

Midna's Christmas Spirit

Merry Christmas, everyone! The above artpiece is Midna's Christmas Spirit by VanEvil and one of my favorite fan arts out there. It's five years old now, but it's still worth sharing. Princess Midna is just perfect for that Sexy Santa look.

Hyrule Blog will be on hiatus next week. I'm currently preparing my end-of-the-year review, which will be published on December 31st, as always. Don't expect anything else in the meantime, but do enjoy the holidays!

30th Anniversary Replay List, 3rd Update

2016 is almost over and in this year The Legend of Zelda became 30 years old. To celebrate I've decided to play through many Zelda games again, which I used as an opportunity to clear my backlog on both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. I'm not in a hurry, I just want to entertain myself with as much Zelda as possible before Breath of the Wild comes out, the next big milestone in the series. And wrapping up everything the series currently has to offer, feels good as a preparation for this milestone.

Anyway, I already was done with the Nintendo 3DS library at my last update in August. Here are all the posts in chronological order:

On Nintendo 3DS

• Oracle of Ages & Seasons
• Link's Awakening DX
• The Legend of Zelda
• Four Swords Anniversary Edition (Realm of Memories)
• A Link to the Past
• A Link Between Worlds
• Ocarina of Time 3D
• Majora's Mask 3D
• Four Swords Anniversary Edition (Hero's Trial)
• Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest
• Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

Right now I kind of want to return to Tri Force Heroes as well, not to replay it from the start, but maybe to help some people out there with their challenges. I might also go through all the Capcom Zelda games for a third time, but let's see about that.

Nintendo doesn't like to acknowledge it, but there is still the Wii U, and here I was busy with the Virtual Console and the following titles:

On Wii U

• Phantom Hourglass
• Spirit Tracks
• The Legend of Zelda
• A Link to the Past
• The Minish Cap

I haven't touched Zelda II - The Adventure of Link yet, but I'm not opposed to replaying that either, after I just recently rediscovered my "love" for this game. However, since my last playthrough on 3DS wasn't that long ago, I still might wait a little.

I've also played through the BS-X Zelda games on emulator again, this time with full fan voice acting, which was pretty nice:

Other

• BS The Legend of Zelda (Dubbed)
• Ancient Stone Tablets (Dubbed)

Now, what's left? As a countdown to Breath of the Wild, I want to play through all 3D Zelda games again on my Wii U, probably one per month (I suppose the June release is pretty realistic at this point). So, this is the list:

Planned

• Ocarina of Time (Wii U VC)
• Majora's Mask (Wii U VC)
• The Wind Waker HD (2nd Quest)
• Twilight Princess HD (Hero Mode)
• Skyward Sword (Hero Mode)

With The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD this will actually be "new" territory, because I haven't played the 2nd Quests yet. I want to get a nice new TV early next year and then enjoy these remasters in HD glory for the first time. With the N64 games on Virtual Console I want to see, how well they hold up, after (re)playing their remakes on Nintendo 3DS, and I also want to experiment with Restore Points a little. And I haven't played through Skyward Sword since early 2012, so this will probably be the most interesting replay experience for myself. I'm keeping that for last.