Update: Seems that the first title to use this system will be New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Additional compatible titles are planned.
A patent filed six months ago on the behalf of Shigeru Miyamoto himself has bubbled to the surface of the US Patent website, and offers a tantalizing glimpse of what could be cooking within EAD's Zelda team.
There are three main items of note:
While these items offer some neat options for replaying content that you've already seen without having to start a new game, their main purpose is to encourage a daunted gamer to progress when they might feel like giving up. The chapter-skip in particular is designed to become available part of the way through the game, allowing those who are starting to find themselves lost or uninterested the freedom to progress without struggle. That said, when playing via digest mode or chapter-skip you can't save your game, so as to not discourage the traditional start-to-finish experience.
Admittedly the patent never outright names the Legend of Zelda, but illustrations and charts feature Zelda-like locales, a nondescript character with a sword and a shield, and a title screen referencing "Legend of OO." I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that we are indeed looking at ideas that could make it into the next Zelda title.
Check out the full patent details for more.
A patent filed six months ago on the behalf of Shigeru Miyamoto himself has bubbled to the surface of the US Patent website, and offers a tantalizing glimpse of what could be cooking within EAD's Zelda team.
There are three main items of note:
- A system whereby a player finding themselves vexed by a puzzle can access an "approach movie" that will appear in the corner of the screen and illustrate how to solve the puzzle. The movie could be of the developer playing the game, or of another gamer that uploaded how they solved the particular puzzle.
- A "digest" mode where the game effectively plays itself, showing "main content" (storyline / flow of scenario), but allows the player to interrupt at any point and decide that they want to start playing the game for themselves at that particular point.
- A scene-skip mode where you can choose from a menu any point in the game's progression and choose to begin playing from there. "Chapters" would become unlocked and available for playing based on how long the player has played, or how far they have progressed, to keep them from jumping too far too early on.
While these items offer some neat options for replaying content that you've already seen without having to start a new game, their main purpose is to encourage a daunted gamer to progress when they might feel like giving up. The chapter-skip in particular is designed to become available part of the way through the game, allowing those who are starting to find themselves lost or uninterested the freedom to progress without struggle. That said, when playing via digest mode or chapter-skip you can't save your game, so as to not discourage the traditional start-to-finish experience.
Admittedly the patent never outright names the Legend of Zelda, but illustrations and charts feature Zelda-like locales, a nondescript character with a sword and a shield, and a title screen referencing "Legend of OO." I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that we are indeed looking at ideas that could make it into the next Zelda title.
Check out the full patent details for more.