Though we’ve already expressed how we feel Nintendo underwhelmed at E3, looking back. we might have overlooked a few things in our sadness that was for the no-show of Zelda Wii U.
The other new Zelda title for the 3DS (aside the Hyrule Warriors port) is The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (get it?). A spiritual successor to the Four-Sword game series, this game focuses solely on three heroes coming together to overcome puzzles and dungeons together.
This game requires stable communication between players, as well as every player really needs to know their role and what they’re doing.
“In a lot of multiplayer games there are a lot of people, but they’re not really playing together. That was the main focus – building a multiplayer game that requires cooperation,” says Tri Force Heroes and A Link Between Worlds director Hiromasa Shikata.
.Acknowledging Four Swords as a “party game,” Shikata feels the focus in Tri Force Heroes needs to be on cooperation and communication to advance. You have to tell your teammates what to do. Form a totem. Throw a bomb so I can use the Gust Bellows on it. This is a whole new way to solving typical Zelda dungeons that we’ve only sampled with use of the Dominion Rod (Twilight Princess) or the Command Melody (The Wind Waker).
Most chatter on the floor at E3 has likened Tri Force Heroes to being like Destiny and that games cooperative raids. But unlike Destiny, Tri Force Heroes will have no voice chat. Instead, the bottom screen of the 3DS will have Link displaying various emotions such as frustration or joy. It’s not exactly telling your teammates what to do, so this can add to the challenge of the game as well.
“It’s actually creating a new form of communication. I believe it might be a little bit stressful for players to try to figure out how to communicate what they want to do, but I think that because of that feeling, when you’re able to do it successfully, there’s a level of satisfaction you don’t find in other games,” says Shikata.
Though the overall feeling is that this would make for a great multiplayer game, there’s something to be said about being in the same room with two of your friends to take on these new challenges.
What do you think of Tri Force Heroes? Is this really the Zelda online game we’ve been secretly waiting for? Tell us in the comments below!
