Twilight Princess...botched?

With the ever-growing possibility that Twilight Princess is going to be pushed even further back as far as a release goes, you have to wonder; why? Well, when we first learned of the delay from December to sometime in the Q2 2006, we were told that the reason was, and I quote-

"After much discussion, the Zelda development team has requested extra time to add new levels, more depth and even higher quality to Zelda: Twilight Princess," said Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan. "Consequently, we're announcing a new global launch in 2006, after the conclusion of this fiscal year (March 31). We'll provide a specific date at a later point in time. While this may come as a disappointment to many eager fans, it will absolutely enrich the game and make it a multi-million seller."

Logical, yes? It is, but now as rumors spread that we'll see it at an even later distance in the future, there's a very terrible idea that was first brought up at the first delay. It wasn't really thought over all-that-much, and even now I suppose it could cast aside, but it's still something to think about. This is exactly as the member Erro put it in the original thread for TP's delay-

Originally posted by Erro

Well not necessarily, because they might have encountered some problems and had to go back a loong way and redo a lot of things to apply it.

They would and should have planned a lot of the game out already, so adding new things probably not the most logical explanation for the delay. Because they have encountered something unexpected and have to change things accordingly, and with mini games you wouldnt have to do that as much, and dungeons not way too much either. I think it's more of a game feature that is encountered more in the game or something else way more significant that affects the whole of the game.

Or they could have just overestimated theirselves.

What about that? Did Nintendo seriously screw up so badly that they needed several months to fix it? Is it still such a problem that they need even more time to correct the mistake to simply make the game run decently? It makes you stop and think for a moment. As horrible as the idea sounds, especially now where it's possible that we won't get the play the game for a longer stretch of time, it's an idea that you could meditate over for quite a while; as it's something that could've very happened, or still is happening.

I don't have an opinion on it just yet, but I just felt this'd be an interesting topic for a thread. I'm not trying to preach that Nintendo has messed up or anything. As I said, it's just a very thought-provoking situation.

I was thinking about that. It is a possibility and would be a great excuse for Nintendo keeping us in the dark for all this time.

It's possible. Certain areas of the game look amazing. Certain areas look dreadful. Some of the animation is natural and seamless. Some of the animation is decidely sketchy. The strike pause effect looks out of place in a realistic world, and is distracting in my opinion. Certain things don't seem right. Some of the game seems bland. What if EAD got a bit too ambitious? Just look at the size of the overworld . . . can they really fill that whole thing with high quality areas? Are they so hell bent on surpassing OoT that they've overlooked some things? Is this wolf concept half-baked? Because, in my opinion, from the *admittedly small* amount we've seen of it, I'm not impressed. It looks jerky and overly simple. It is true that more development time typically means a better game, but when it gets passed a certain point, things begin to fall apart. Just look at Star Fox Adventures and Fable.

I'm sure the game will be amazing, but I do have a bad feeling about some things. The sword fighting in particular does not look right. Merely dropping that ridiculous flash effect would make me feel better. That, and touching up some things graphically. No stupid collision detection glitches. No N64-esque grass smears. No clay wolves. Less blah colors. Cel-shader lovers, this is not a submission. Twilight Princess as a whole looks much better than WW. It's just that cel-shading by passes some of these problems, but ultimately are not as rewarding.

Remember that OoT was delayed ALOT. I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed again (relieved too, as I've got an impotrant test in early may). All the dreadful things we've seen will be ironed out, I mean you just have to look at the Metroid Primes to show you nintendo still know what they're doing.

You're right. Metroid Prime did look pretty bad at one point in time, and it ended up being the arguably the best Gamecube game.

Ya know I don't think we need to worry about the quality at all. No matter what this thing will be a good game. I mean seriously if it was going to be that bad someone at e3 would have cried by now. Anyways I don't think they would push it back any further because then it might interfear with holiday sales. Thats revolutions big piece of cake right there. If everyone got zelda instead it would be a devistating blow to nintendo.

You do bring up a good point Mirren, perhaps somthing did go wrong with TP, or , like Erro said, Something needed to be added to TP that would consequently force the developers to add this new feature to every aspect of the game.

Adding new dungeons and polishing up a game really doesn't take all that long, 5 months is more than enough time. Somthing BIG happened with TP, and we're all dying to know what it is.

I doubt we'll ever really know, but I certainly wouldn't discard the theory. Certainly if it were true nintendo would have to announce the delay, but they wouldn't give a real reason why. "TP has been delayed because we screwed up somewhere and need more time to sort it out now". Doesn't instill a great deal of confidence if they said it like that, better just to be as ambiguous as possible in our statement, yeah, that'll do it!

I'm sure though that if it is a problem with the game which is the reason for the delay, they will rectify it, even if it means they need even more time, I'd rather wait for the game to be in my hands working rather than rush a buggy version out onto the shelves. My main concern is if the devs can't seem to fix it how they want, panic due to time constraints, and end up compromising with a half assed solution to the problem...

While this is a great arguement that certainly could end up being true, I still believe that Nintendo just realized they couldn't make the projected November release without doing everything they could to make the game as good as they wanted.

I think the game was pretty much ready to go, but Nintendo only wanted to add more.

Remember that Zelda 64 was delayed many times. Ended up being the best game ever.

They said they weren't happy with the wolf's gameplay mechanics and they went back to fix it.
That may be the only real problem they ran into.

Other than that, I have faith that they just really want to make this game perfect in every way. I mean, it's the GameCube's last good game, it better be damn awesome, and they know that.

Does anyone remember the early screens of OoT when it was in development? I know I do. I was so excited at the time. If you go and look back at some of the early TP screens, memories of the early OoT shots come to mind. Some of the areas/concepts from the first trailer may not even make it into the final version we get to play. Some of them might even have just been constructed for the purposes of the trailer only. Everyone has pointed out the bugs in the city screenshots released back when they hit us with the delay. Clipping issues, npc repetition to the point where it's really noticeable, that sort of thing. I don't know how easy it is to fix issues like this with TP's engine, but the second issue would almost certainly require a few new models, and modeling a humaniod can take a while.

I think this could very well be the reason for the delay, not that total load of fei hua about Revo controller options. Of course it may be that when TP comes out, I'll have to pick up a fork and eat every word that's just come out of my mouth. Sorry for the profanity, by the way. Goddesses, I hope no one here speaks chinese... Aaaanyway, yeah, I'd say there's a good possibility that TP had some major bugs in it's system, and that's why it's been delayed. And who knows how long working out any problems might take. They might have to decompile the whole thing and pull the whole thing apart and whatnot, it's not my job to know how those things work. I just play 'em.

Originally Posted by Atra

I doubt we'll ever really know, but I certainly wouldn't discard the theory. Certainly if it were true nintendo would have to announce the delay, but they wouldn't give a real reason why. "TP has been delayed because we screwed up somewhere and need more time to sort it out now". Doesn't instill a great deal of confidence if they said it like that, better just to be as ambiguous as possible in our statement, yeah, that'll do it!

I'm sure though that if it is a problem with the game which is the reason for the delay, they will rectify it, even if it means they need even more time, I'd rather wait for the game to be in my hands working rather than rush a buggy version out onto the shelves. My main concern is if the devs can't seem to fix it how they want, panic due to time constraints, and end up compromising with a half assed solution to the problem...

I think we will, one day, know for sure. Just as some had theorized that they hurried on WW, therefore making the hurrying triforce quest. Then we were told the problems: they were hurried!

And so I think some day a high-up game creator will tell us what REALLY happened.

It's true, we haven't seen much of the game, and of what we have seen, some of it has looked quite lack lustre. But remember what ocarina of time's production screenshots looked like, and the last set of TP screenshots were released like nearly 6 months ago now? Based on that, I'm very excited to see what's happened to the game over this time.

It seems unlikely that a bug could be so problematic that it would take 6 months to remedy, and I don't think the cube would have any problems running the game, as the graphics (while pretty) don't look polygon intensive.

I know we're all confused by the delays, but there's no need to jump to conclusions here. The game will come out when it comes out, and remember, a delayed game is good eventually, a rushed game is bad forever.

Nintendo say it was to add new features and stuff of that nature, but i reckon they just need to finish and are telling us in a way that wont make us as angry.

TP will arrive when TP arrives, and it will be before september (TGS, nintendos last big event of the year to showcase revolution before its launch during the holidays). There wont be a bug in the game, as it's just an updated and modified version of tWW's engine (which was already handled brilliantly) so any bugs within the game would surely have been taken out by now.

As far as finding out the reason for it's delay, i think one day we will know why, the answer may even present itself in the game, but seriously, the speculation on this forum will end only when someone posts the release date for TP in evry thread, as thats what all of these threads in this forum bubble down to.

Before september, hopefully april-may... worldwide

Yes, they have been delaying for more than they need to, but think of all of the buyers they are going to have because of it! Listen to what you are saying! You are saying that something has gone terribly wrong, that your dying to know, and everyone is freaking out over the game saying the NEED to have it SOON! Imagine the day it comes out, everyone will be rushing to the closest game store in the first few days, I know I will. They are possibly doing this to get everyone to get the game at it's highest price, $50.00!

They may also being doing this to get the game to be better, less glitched, and be more open. They are probably perfecting how Link runs, how Epona runs, etc. I personally don't really care how long they delay it, as long as they make it the best possible game they could make it. Which one do you want, a game that comes out in a few days, is terrible and sad to watch, or a game that comes out in five to six months that destroys all other games with it's smooth pixels, wonderfully long gameplay, and dramatic battles that quicken your heart.

Plus, it is not going to be the last Gamecube, look!!!

There is also the possibility that the delay is simply for marketing and such. The game could be perfectly on schedule, but remember games companies don't just release their games based on periods where they might sell well, but also to rival the competitions releases around that time, or avoid releasing around the same time if the other games being released might be too hard to compete with sales wise...

I'm sure TP will sell bucketloads regardless of when it is released and nintendo knows this, so they are less bothered about rushing it out the door for a specific holiday or anything.

Originally Posted by Bomber No.5

They said they weren't happy with the wolf's gameplay mechanics and they went back to fix it.
That may be the only real problem they ran into.

Other than that, I have faith that they just really want to make this game perfect in every way. I mean, it's the GameCube's last good game, it better be damn awesome, and they know that.

I can't remember them saying that is why, but then I haven't followed the games progress during certain periods. This wouldn't surprise me though, as from the (admitably limited) amount of gameplay we have seen of wolf link, it looked a little... simple I guess. Lock on targets with Midna then just press the attack button and rip through everything. I'm sure they have worked on this since to give more powers and combo's. It could have just been early in the game when wolf link hardly has any new skills, but it still looked a little simple and needing of more variety if the wolf link form is going to take up any major part of combat gameplay.

It's true, we haven't seen much of the game, and of what we have seen, some of it has looked quite lack lustre. But remember what ocarina of time's production screenshots looked like, and the last set of TP screenshots were released like nearly 6 months ago now? Based on that, I'm very excited to see what's happened to the game over this time.

Yes I remember some of those old OoT screenshots, at the time they looked amazing, its hard to beleive really when you see how they improved it in the end what was so amazing about the original screenshots, but I'd still love to have played some of those early beta shots (I know I know, you can gameshark beta quest a small amount like early jabu jabu)

I'm sure it will be fun to look back at these early shots of TP and compare them to the final game, see what changed and such have you

The more detail you put into a work of art, the bolder the mistakes are.

I'd wager that Nintendo is trying to launch at a different time than the traditional November or June releases we usually see for blockbusters. March-April may prove to be better times for marketing, since there won't be anything major for TP to compete with.

Hmm.....never really thought about it till now....I think Ninty jus' wants to make TP the new OoT...but better...

Or maybe they moved up the release date closer to that of the Revolution's so Revolution interest increases because people are getting high off Zelda/Nintendo praise and hype right around that time.

It's called marketing.