Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Wind Waker HD: Lots of Small but Great Improvements

So, I've been watching Cosmo's Livestream all day and he showed us several new and improved things. Also, there has been a video from GameXplain, which showed some previously unannounced improvements:

- you can now change directions while swinging
- the Pictobox now adds a "Carlov Sigil" to Pictographs that will get accepted by Carlov
- Carlov accepts multiple figurines per night!
- Deku Leaf now uses the Tingle Tuner reticle to show your position
- much faster screen text
- options for HUD and camera controls
- Forest Water lasts 30 minutes, shows timer on item
- hints from Fishmen can be viewed in the map menu

All great stuff. Well, the extension of the Forest Water's time doesn't seem necessary now that we have the Swift Sail, but whatever... I really like how they improved the figurine collection. This might now actually become a very fun and enjoyable sidequest, instead of being the most tedious sidequest ever. For example you can now easily make a picture of Cyclos and the camera tells you that it's okay - so you can shoot him and teleport to Forest Haven right away. No need to take his picture, travel back to Forest Haven and then face him again. And that you don't have to play the Song of Passing 24 times per run is a huge relief.

The 2nd Quest sadly didn't get mirrored. It would have been nice to see the world in a mirrored version. Imagine Outset in the southeast and Dragon Roost in the northwest. I kind of like that thought.

Cosmo is also looking for Knuckle and Tingle Statues, if they're still in the game (I believe they are) - so stay tuned. I might have been right that you need to throw Tingle Bottles at the places, where the statues used to be.

Apropos Tingle Bottles - they are all over the place and it looks like collecting them is a lot of fun. They also add to the sea travelling, because you can find them everywhere on the ocean.

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