Miyamoto: Next Zelda will use MotionPlus for more realistic swordplay

by Randy Nelson on Nov 3rd 2009 5:30PM

Nintendo's resident legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, has revealed that the next installment in the Legend of Zelda series on Wii will make use of Wii MotionPlus for more realistic sword combat and targeting. "In this (installment of the series), we're using MotionPlus to make you feel much more like you're actually fighting while holding a sword in your hand," Miyamoto disclosed during an October 30 Q&A session, as translated by GameLife.

"In the previous game, you aimed at things by pointing at the screen, but this time we'll use MotionPlus to create a much more convenient targeting system and a more pleasurable playing experience," Miyamoto added.

Despite these revelations, Nintendo has yet to officially state whether Wii MotionPlus will be an option or a requirement for playing the game. When this next Zelda was announced during E3 2009, Miyamoto could only say that MotionPlus-exclusivity was "possible." These gameplay elements -- especially the swordplay -- only make it seem more likely.

[Via GameLife]

Source

Tags: legend-of-zelda, Legend-of-Zelda-2010, motionplus, Nintendo, shigeru-miyamoto, Wii, wii-motionplus, zelda

Reader Comments (134)

'More realistic'

"In this (installment of the series), we're using MotionPlus to make you feel much more like you're actually fighting while holding a sword in your hand,"

Except for the combat. Since once you hit an object, all immersion is lost.

Add voice acting and a sweeping orchestral score and my Wii will be back in action!

Subtract voice acting and add a sweeping orchestral score and my Wii will be back in action!

Zelda doesn't get voice acting. It's a damn rule.

I'll have to buy another Wii for this :D

Zelda with realistic swordplay? Nintendo, you just made a Zelda fanboy happy

...unless you have to move your arm a lot

Fuck it. I really don't give a shit about motion controls.

Haha. You just went from loving the motion controls to not giving a shit about them in 6 minutes. That might be a record for indecisiveness...

Haha, thanks for the laugh.

Wait another 6 minutes and he will start hating Zelda altoghether!

that's what i call cheezy

I got a major deja-vu from back in the day before Twilight Princess was released, when they promised the exact same thing, and we hoped for the exact same thing.

So.. Only took 4 years before the bloody thing did what it was always supposed to do.
Let's hope they get it right this time.

I will never hate Zelda. NEVER
The original Zelda was my first game and still love that game to this day.

Wow, A.D.D in written form. I never thought I'd see the day.

@BananaBoat
I don't have A.D.D, but I have to agree that my first 3 posts made me sound like some kind of retard :P

I just want to play a new zelda game without this waggle stuff or stylist crap. Its fun for a bit, but I never finished phantom hour glass because it felt more like a hassle.

phantom hourglass didn't feel like a hassle....it really was a hassle. The temple of the ocean king made it that way. Still fun. Just tedious. :P

It's a water temple. It's historically been tedious.

Stylist crap? Was there a hairdresser in Phantom Hourglass??

Don't do it Miyamoto! Don't turn one of the few hardcore franchises that Nintendo has left into a casual experience.

This is pretty much what anyone would want out of a sword-fighting game. How is "more realistic" swordplay (as long as it's done well) "casual"?

If any game is going to pioneer "realistic" sword-fighting (Red Steel failed by the way, in case you're wondering where I'm coming from), it SHOULD be a Zelda game.

And how, pray tell, would that be the case. Motion != casual. If anything, this would make the game more advanced, rather than just "tap B to slash"

Just wow... I really hope you've been sarcastic.
If not, then you consider MadWorld and No more Heroes as casual games?!

Ummm... have you even used the motionplus? This actually sounds to me like it would make the game -more- hardcore... in that you'd have to decide where to swing in order to damage an enemy instead of just blindly flailing your arms. So in my mind this could end up being very cool, but I'm really scared about the motionplus needing calibration every 30 seconds. :/

The motion controls in Madworld weren't exactly perfect.... it was iffy.
Good, but still iffy.

Zelda is as much of a sword-fighting game as Metroid is a shoot-em-up.

Wrong choice of words of my part.I would rather they just spend all their time perfecting the actual game(story, graphics,characters) not have to worry about making the perfect controls.Then again I'm part of the ones who thinks that the Wii would have been fine and more fun with just regular controllers.

The fact that you use "hardcore" to describe games automatically invalidates your opinion.

It all needs to be carefully implemented, though. An item as integral as the sword, requiring realistic movements on a constant basis, might get cumbersome. I for one wasn't bothered by it in Twilight Princess because it was just waggle, you didn't have to think about it

There is a trade-off somewhere, that while this could be endlessly awesome for miniboss/boss fights and certain other enemies that go armed and armored, to have to really think about your movements all the time could detract from the game

Or add to it, i suppose. It all comes down to design of gameplay mechanics, a realm where i have total faith in Nintendo's ability to deliver

This. All this.

The swordfighting in Sports Resort was absolutely awesome, but after hacking my way through dozens of enemies in a minute or two, several times, my arm got pretty tired!

I think it'll work well as long as they make sure the battles are not too frequent. Usually in Zelda games there's a lot of walking around and figuring things out and whatever, and not so much of the 'hacking your way through dozens of enemies' so really it could be fine even if implemented pretty much the same as the Sports Resort version. (Assuming that the 'normal' enemies just take a few swings to deal with, in other words.)

Given how good I'm not in the frisbee game in Sports Resort, I'm much more concerned with how they implement the boomerang...

I hated the waggle in Twilight Princess. 20 hours in I was wishing I could just push the damn 'A' button.

This new Zelda better have an option for both.

ZELDA NEWS!

I'm excited and I don't really know why! He's confirming something I would have expected! YES!!!

This just in! New Zelda to feature Link!!!

I want Miyamoto to confirm a remake of A Link To The Past and Links Awakening.

WHAT? THAT'S BS. No Zelda game has EVER had Link in it. Oh wait.

Graphical update, please.

No "Oh we should make it a Wii game with motion controls!"

Otherwise I will mail anthrax to Japan. (We're past that whole "OMFG did he say 'mail anthrax'?! Call the police!" irrationality, right?)

"Graphical update, please."

If it helps comfort you, the Zelda team was scared by Monster Hunter Tri's graphics and decided to work on improving Wii Zelda's graphics a while back. Considering how great the art style is in MHT, I'd say you should expect some real eye-candy with Wii Zelda.

@Mr. Fister:

I hadn't heard that before, where did you read that?

As far as the whole motion control experience goes - I think it'd be best if they dedicated a button for preparing the sword for "realistic motion". Maybe something like holding down the B button? Otherwise you'll be running around and the sword will be picking up all your subtle movements and it'll just be weird.

I hope they bundle the MotionPlus with the game if it's going to be that much of an integrated feature.

Most likely, that's what they'll do: Make the game available both with and without a MotionPlus bundled in. It'd be silly of them not to, especially with a high-profile title like Zelda.

Thank goodness! I hated how generic the waggling was for twilight princess.
People said it added to it, and I thought "Add what? Swinging the sword in the wrong direction?"

If it's at least as good as Swordplay in WSR, I'll be happy.
Basic sword fighting at its best. Those who complained about "you win by just shaking the wiimote frantically" either has never gone to the later levels of Showdown or never faced a good opponent.

GOTY

I'd imagine that as a great possibility. Given proper implementation, this game could be the holy grail of motion controlled gaming, the definitive proof that motion can take games far beyond what they once were, and even the largely anti-Nintendo gaming media will have to acknowledge it as such

Given proper implementation, of course. We'll need to see some sort of media to confirm that.

If they can port the sword and bow mechanics from Resort and expand upon them, then there should be no problem. My only concern is that some people, such as lefties, may not be comfortable holding a virtual sword in their right hand, and Resort required righties to hold the bow in your left hand. They need to address those problems.

It would have to be way more accurate than WSR for most people I know to get excited.

@Shag:
This is true. I was... disappointed with the shield-bash/stab combo in Twilight Princess since half the time it would only register the shield-bash. Even Wii Sports Resort with the MotionPlus didn't register 3 out of the 10 strikes in the Kendo game. I've actually tried this for a whole hour and the input loss of 30% of the strikes is something that's very specific.

The MotionPlus has a hard time tracking movements that aren't fluid. A fluid stroke is a sword slash that can easily be converted from one strike into another strike. Think about how you would keep a whip in motion and constantly on the attack and that is what a fluid movement should be like.

When performed in very rapid succession, repetitive strokes such as swinging your blade up and down, somehow confuse the MotionPlus into occasionally losing track of your strikes. You can try it out at GameStop and see for yourself.

"I'd imagine that as a great possibility. Given proper implementation, this game could be the holy grail of motion controlled gaming, the definitive proof that motion can take games far beyond what they once were, and even the largely anti-Nintendo gaming media will have to acknowledge it as such"

Great points indeed Khan. This could do for Wii/Motionplus what OoT did for N64/3-D gaming.

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Miyamoto: Next Zelda will use MotionPlus for more realistic swordplay

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