A roundtable featuring the men behind The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess took place today. The footage can be found over at IGN, but for those without broadband (or patience), I figured this would be a handy reference. I'll discuss what went on during the gameplay a little, but you'll see better and more in-depth coverage from our E3 staff. So, while certain gameplay element are mentioned, the main focus here will be the Q&A. I should also note that this is NOT spoiler free. Nothing major is said here, but I figured I should warn anyone who might care.
The roundtable starts off with a couple introductions, then cuts to direct-feed footage of Nate Bihldorff playing. We learn that the E3 demo features four areas: A town, a horseback battle scene on Hyrule Field, a dungeon and a boss battle that follows the dungeon. For those who don't remember, this is very similar to what the E3 2002 demo for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker had. The demo starts with Link riding his horse around a small village known as Tauro Village, which has a goat ranch. We see that he's attempting to herd goats into a barn. We're told that Link starts off as a "cowboy" because they wanted to bring back the horse, which you can name yourself. Also, since the world is so large, they wanted it to make sense that Link would need the horse to ride everywhere. In order to possess those skills, it made sense to have him work as a ranchhand or shepherd, as they refer to him as. Interestingly enough, the word "shepherd" isn't understood by most Japanese, so the development team used "cowboy" instead.
The town is actually some distance from Hyrule because they wanted to setup Link's identity away from the main world. In terms of the storyline, this is a different Link than in Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. In fact, TP falls between OoT and WW, a few decades after OoT. The motivation for Link's journey occurs later on when a young child from the village, Colin, is kidnapped by a boar rider in a forest near the village. The fact that Link can turn into a wolf is mentioned and we learn that Link can communicate with animals while in the form of the wolf.
After the forest kidnapping scene, they cut to a horseback battle scene (Horse Battle in the E3 demo) in Hyrule Field, where we see Link attacking boar riders, with the option to hit with his sword, defend or use items. And while you don't see it in the footage, they mention that the AI of the boar riders is quite impressive. If you stop to watch a boar rider that's been knocked off, he'll get up and try to get back on. For an idea of scale, it's noted that this is only one small area of Hyrule Field.
Following this is a battle against the lead boar rider that kidnapped Colin, which takes place in the form of a joust. This scene takes place further on in the game and not immediately following the Horse Battle area in Hyrule Field. There are also said to be lots of horseback elements in the game, not just combat ones. Not all items will be useable on the horse, but any that would make sense to have on a horse will be useable.
Next, we cut to a dungeon titled the Forest Temple. Much like OoT, most dungeons will be theme based. On the subject of sword combat, the battle system uses an enhanced version of the one found in WW by expanding the combo system. They say it's basically a new engine because of all the changes that had to be made.
In the dungeon, Link acquires the Gale Boomerang, which is the familiar boomerang that we're all used to, but when thrown, it produces a whirlwind, which can be used to rotate dials like the ones found in WW. In fact, many of the items you're used to seeing will reappear in TP with new usages. Naturally, there will be new items as well. The item selection screen has been changed to a circle-format selection screen. Their reasoning is that this will eliminate the knowledge of how many items you have left to uncover, thus not giving away how far into the game you are. They say it won't clutter the screen and all the items will be easier to access now.
Finally, we cut to the Temple Boss, which requires the use of the Gale Boomerang. In the battle, you lock onto a monkey carrying a bomb who is swinging from side to side, then lock onto the boss and release. Then, the whirlwind from the boomerang picks up the bomb and carries it over to the boss, blowing up and causing it to fall. Once fallen, you can move in and hit it with your sword. The boomerang will be used to carry items in other areas of the game as well and you can pretty much lock onto anything, they say.
At the end, Miyamoto is asked what items he feels would be needed in every Zelda game to retain the proper feel. He says that he likes the horse for the "big Zelda feeling". Aonuma is asked how many dungeons there will be, to which he replies that he wants to surpass OoT, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they need to surpass the number of dungeons. The content of those dungeons is what is most important.
You can expect in-depth coverage of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess after E3 here at N-Sider, so be sure to keep checking back, even after the show's over.