Zelda.in

In light of the upcoming holiday season, several industry a analysts have put in their two-cents concerning this year's line-up. Both the 3DS and Skyward Sword were mentioned. If Nintendo's upcoming 3DS software can deliver, analysts think the system should start to pick up, but the iPhone and the PSVita will start cutting into the 3DS's potential sales market. The comments related to Skyward Sword were not so positive. More inside....

One of my main niches in the Zelda fandom is the fan art community. I am an artist, I like Zelda, so I like Zelda fan art. I'm also growing increasingly inpatient for Skyward Sword, especially since we don't even have an official release date that we can count down to. As a result, I've been coping with the waiting by looking at a lot of Skyward Sword fan art. I've collected some of the best of the best and complied them in one lovely post. Jump inside to check them out....

Last night we managed to get you a good chunk of a recent interview with Eiji Aonuma that was conducted by Nintendo Power for their August issue. It was one of the richest interviews in terms of story details that we've had the pleasure of experiencing since last year's E3. Today we've managed to get hold of the rest of the interview. If you're not the interview reading type, I'll pick out all of the juicy details (and some of the not-so-juicy ones in case you've missed them) and line them all out in my usual breakdown fashion. Here's a brief preview of what you'll find out, but you can check the rest of the info after the jump. This is definitely the "longest and deepest" Zelda experience yet. Aonuma and Miyamoto still haven't been able to look over all the content. Aonuma would like to make a Zelda movie if the time and resources were available. Part of the challenge with creating Zelda on Wii U will be finding ways to distinguish it from handheld games now that games like Ocarina of Time 3D are playable on a portable system. My personal favorite detail from the interview: The...

Recently one of our mainsite commenters and forum members discovered a suspicious-looking emblem in the E3 2011 Skyward Sword trailer. You can probably recognize it in the article banner displayed above: it's the Sheikah's symbol... sort of. It's got all the components of the shadow clan's emblem - the eye in the center, the stylized upper lashes, the long "teardrop" at the bottom - but it seems to have been modified to fit the context of Skyward Sword. What could this mean? It seems likely that we'll see something related to the Sheikah in this game, whether it's one or more of their members, Sheikah artifacts like the ones we see in Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, or just ancient ruins tied to their tribe. But given what we know about the clan from Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, how might the tribe factor into Skyward Sword? Jump inside for the rambling thoughts of an old theorist....

This song sends chills up my spine. Helps that I was in the center of the fourth row and thus in a positively prime spot to hear it when it was performed live. It's been a hassle trying to track down a quality video so I can give it a second listen, so I'm grateful that now the song's been uploaded for all our listening pleasure. Of course, this is just a taste of the Zelda symphony action that's going to come with the 25th anniversary concert tour, which kicks off in the fall with a show at the Los Angeles Pantages Theatre and will arrive at other locations throughout the world in 2012. You can follow the Zelda Symphony news here or at the concert's official website at www.zelda-symphony.com. But you're here for the song, right? You can give it a listen after the jump....

Again, nothing new here, just a nice direct feed of some combat game play. Honestly, from all of the videos today I can safely say any worries I had about the control scheme has essentially been put to rest. Things seem to work great, and while I may have to recalibrate the controller now and then I think it will be a minor annoyance for what will otherwise be a very fun control scheme. Our own Alex Plant said the controls work well, while Zelda Universe's owner Jason has voiced major concerns with the controls. However, most people have reported how well the controls work. I still have concerns the controls won't truly be mainstream, but that doesn't make them bad. We'll see what happens, but for now the combat looks fun and engaging....

Again, this isn't "new footage" in comparison to E3, but it's direct feed without any interference. No interview happening over the top, and no background noise. It's all about pure Zelda action here. While I have seen each one of these puzzles in various videos over a month ago, this time around it just feels extremely refreshing. These puzzles aren't necessarily difficult, but being that the Sky Temple is the first dungeon in the game things really shouldn't be that hard to figure out. That being said, if you hadn't seen these videos prior it could of very well taken you a little bit to realize you had to fly the beetle out of the room and or down an non accessible hole in the wall to hit switches you can't see. Classic block pushing puzzles are in full swing it appears, but it felt right in watching this. Again, I can't stress enough about how much I like this dungeons music. While the music here and for Ghirahim are not "great examples of excellence", it's the fact that they are completely new to the series that excites me the most. It always feels like most the music in...

So a lot of people were upset with the new Skyward Sword trailer. With only a few new scenes and glimpses of characters, it is understandable. But we have good news! A recent interview by Nintendo Power and Eiji Aonuma has finally given out some new information on Skyward Sword. Curious to see how the harp is being played in the game? What about whether Ganon will be taking a role? The game is in its last stages, but Miyamoto is still working out a issues to make sure everything is perfect. Localization is only a few steps away as well, so if you haven't preordered this game you might want to! I've already done so myself. To see part of the interview, and a quick rundown of what I've found, hit the jump!...

Bill Trinen, one of the biggest and most influential people at Nintendo of America's localization divison, sat down with GameSpot at Comic-Con to talk about Skyward Sword. Most of this is old news, such as explanations of the Ghirahim boss fight, the dual-overworlds of Skyloft and the surface, and so on, but there are a few details that, while they've been alluded to in the past, haven't been discussed quite as directly before. One of these is the system for item upgrades, which Trinen confirms will involve Link collecting items and Rupees in order to enhance existing items: What I can say though is what we have done with the game this time that I think a little bit different is... They've built an entire upgrade system into the game. So for example, right now you can see that Link has his traditional shield, but he actually will get a lot of diferent shields in the game. He will start off with a very basic one, and then as you fight enemies, you will recover these kind of treasures or artifacts that you can then use as resources to upgrade your items. And you can do that with your...

Theorizing is back, baby! E3 2011 brought with it a lot of new Skyward Sword details, including a number of tidbits about the game universe and storyline. We've gotten our first real look at the relationship between Skyloft and the surface world, the Loftbirds the cloud people use to travel, as well as experienced one of the game's dungeons. We've learned a little about Ghirahim, spotted evidence of other Hyrulean tribes, and heard whispers about a mysterious Siren World. Speculation is a risky business, but with so much juicy info it's impossible for longtime theorists like me not to get the idea cogs turning. I started an article series poring into some of the possibilities that Skyward Sword could bring (and that Ocarina of Time 3D might have brought). I talked about whether Ganondorf might make an appearance, how the Sacred Realm might be tied to Skyloft, examined what we know about the creation of the Master Sword, and even looked at a possible connection to the Messenger to the Heavens mentioned in Twilight Princess. But with what we know now, some of these topics could use a second look, and there are a whole lot more now open...