Previous info (This info may no longer be
accurate)
The Legend
of Zelda:
A Nut of Mysterious Tree/Chapter of Gaia
August 15, 2000
Japanese GBC players eagerly awaiting
the arrival of not one but two new Zelda/Mysterious Tree adventures
are getting their first close look at Zelda no Densetsu: Fushigi
no Ki no mi/Dai Chi no Shou, which translates as The Legend of
Zelda: A Nut of Mysterious Tree/Chapter of Gaia.
Never lacking for ambition, Zelda
creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his crackerjack development team
have come up with yet another genre-bender in Mysterious Tree.
The key item here is the Four Seasons Rod, which gives Link the
power to change the terrain as well as the season. Such supernatural
powers are a must if Link is to counteract a mysterious power
that has scrambled the seasons, wreaking havoc across the land
known as Hologram.
The adventure begins when Link,
guided by an unknown force, visits an ancient castle deep within
a forest. Venturing within, Link comes across the Triforce resting
on an altar. The instant he touches the Triforce, an disembodied
voice roars and a dazzling light momentarily blinds him. When
he regains his senses, he finds himself in a forest he has never
seen before.
Link joins a troupe of traveling
entertainers and gets to know Din, a young and graceful dancer
with the company. His fleeting peace is shattered, however, when
an ominous cloud blots out the sun. Without warning, a giant
tornado swoops Din away as an unearthly voice bellows, "I
found you, Din! I am Dark General Gorgon. You are really the
Shrine Maiden of Gaia!" The tornado quickly vanishes, but
its wake it has
utterly - and disastrously - scrambled the order of seasons.
Click HERE
to see more new screenshots
Source: Nintendo
The Triforce
Triology Is No More
July 24, 2000
The
EAD team at NCL have been unable to program all three upcoming
Zelda Gameboy titles, an thus they have took the number of games
down to two.
We do not know which one has been cancled at this point.
Zelda's Tri-Force Down To
Two
Nintendo of Japan announces that its new
Zelda series can't be done as a trilogy.
After numerous delays and endless difficulties
getting the Zelda Tri-Force system to work properly, Nintendo
of Japan has regrettably decided to cut out one of the three
Zelda Mystical Seed Game Boy Color titles. Sad news indeed, but
gamers frustrated or angered by the news should know one thing
before they start up their petitions and flame-mail chains to
Nintendo -- the cuts are due to a difficulty in the programming
and coordination of the game concept across three game titles,
and not in simply rushing the new games to get them out the door
for Christmas.
Nintendo has not announced which of the three games (Mystical
Seed of Power, Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and Mystical Seed of
Courage) will get the axe, or how they will handle the lost game
material (hopefully, some of the levels, challenges, and puzzles
on the cut cart will be integrated in the two remaining games,
but that has not been decided upon yet). Originally, the games
were supposed to be a trilogy that would be to be tied to the
Tri-Force (Zelda's keystone MacGuffin), but it seems that this
link had been played down in either anticipation or avoidance
of this problem (the game had been renamed long ago from The
Tri-Force Series to The Mysterious Seed series.
Rumors of the de-trilogization had been
in the air since Nintendo pushed the series off of the US Christmas
list. The password system across all three games was simply too
difficult to organize and keep track of -- each individual Legend
of Zelda game is already filled with such minute details and
special event triggers that programming even one Zelda game is
a two-year process. This new series of Zelda games was specially
commissioned to avoid that development time while still delivering
the astonishing thrills, innovative design, and meticulous craftsmanship
that have won Zelda innumerable accolades over the years by recycling
art resources and core game control from Link's Awakening. (This
is similar to the reused graphics and engine from Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time for the upcoming second N64 Zelda game Majora's
Mask, which, despite the familiar look, is one of the most extraordinary
games ever created -- check the Preview and 72 Hours section
to see why.) Nintendo even went as far as to farm out the development
of the Tri-Force series to an quasi-outside developer at Flagship
(a union of Nintendo, Capcom, and Sega, and headed up by Capcom's
Yoshiki Okamoto [Resident Evil] ) in order to get the ball rolling
early and to keep focus in the midst of Nintendo's other developments
(Game Boy Advance and Nintendo Dolphin). The series' scenario
was written by Flagship, and the programming and design is being
done also at the Flagship facility under the distant supervision
of (but not the direction of) Shigeru Miyamoto.
Nintendo of America has not yet made comment
on the issue, but the news should come soon, and when it does,
it should be the same as the Japanese news -- the Tri-Force series
is now a bi-force. Nintendo will have to go through the troubles
of rewriting story and restructuring game design to pack the
two remaining games full while keeping everything coherent. It
would be silly to assume, even if Nintendo were to magically
discover an impossible solution to the problem a few months after
the game ships, that the third game could be completed for its
American release.
The change may affect other aspects of
the Mystical Seed series' release. Instead of being spaced out
by six weeks as originally planned, the two games may now come
out at the same time in Japan. Nintendo is hopeful still to get
these two games out for December in Japan, but there is still
a chance it might slip again. Hongo-San, Nintendo of Japan's
PR Corespondent who announced the news, was confident that the
games would still make a 2000 release, so we'll see at this year's
Space World show what changes have been made to fit that schedule.
There is no chance for an American Zelda for Christmas, as development
is concentrated on the Japanese release.
NOTE: Due
to the recent announcement of the changes on these games the
next overview is no longer accurate.
Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Power
is being developed by Nintendo and Capcom. Ganon has kidnaped
princess Zelda, responsible for managing the four seasons of
the Land of Hyrule, and the Triforce of Power. The brave hero
Link learns of this and sets out to save the princess. However,
Ganon learns of Link's quest and splits the Triforce into eight
pieces, scattering them throughout the land. In addition, the
Rod of the Four Seasons (a device that controls the seasons)
along with its hiding place in Hyrule Castle, have flown off
to another dimension. As a result of this calamity, Hyrule's
four seasons are thrown into chaos and the order of the seasons
becomes jumbled. In order to save Princess Zelda and find the
"Rod of the Four Seasons," our hero Link must travel
back and forth between Hyrule and this other dimension, while
receiving help from the spirits residing in the "Tree of
Mystery" and also the strange "Uura Tribe" found
in this other dimension. Two characters that will help Link on
his quest are introduced. The first is a kangaroo named Ricky.
When Link climbs into Ricky's pouch, he will be able to jump
and using a pair of boxing gloves, be able to punch out enemies.
The other character is Maple. She suddenly appears flying on
a broomstick and crashes into Link, bringing about various events
in the storyline. The new item, the Rod of the Four Seasons will
be required to solve certain riddles that appear in the game.
Maybe the winter snow covers a secret entrance to a dungeon,
and you'll need to change the seasons to uncover it. One of the
most intriguing elements mentioned is the Link System for the
three upcoming Game Boy Colour Legend of Zelda games. Apparently
you'll be able to start playing the series from any game of the
three games without getting lost in the different storylines.
In addition, the three games will be linked in such a way that
a result of a certain action in one story will have an effect
on another story. How this will be accomplished (Link-cable,
piggy-backed cartridges) remains to be seen.
"Mystical
seed of Power,": In this game
the theme is the four seasons -- the use of the Rod of the Seasons
changes the seasons which at the same time change the surrounding
areas.
"Mystical
seed of Wisdom,": In this
one the theme will be "colour" and the game will have
various events that have to do with certain colours.
"Mystical
seed of Courage,": third game
in the series will have the theme of "time." You will
need to use morning, noon, evening and night in order to solve
various riddles in this game. Like the subtitle of the series
states, the game will include the use of various acorns. These
will need to be combined with other items to obtain various results,
but this is still speculation by Japanese publications.
New additions to the series:
New to the series is the Ulra tribe. The Ulra live on the continent
of Ulra inside the mantle of a volcano. As you might expect from
people that live in the mountains, members of the Ulra tribe
are blacksmiths. Things that Link finds on his world might be
common to Link, but on the Ulra world these might be considered
very valuable. There is no money in the land, so they only accept
things in trade.
The original scenarios for the game were designed by Flagship.
Nintendo is handling all the aspects of the game development
except for the actual coding. Coding will be handled by Capcom,
which will then hand the game over to Nintendo for publishing.
According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the plan is to release each title
with as short amount of time between them as possible. (Two to
three months). No dates have been announced yet, but it's clear
that all three companies will be very busy.
At least two new characters will be introduced
in the series; a kangaroo named Ricky. While into Ricky's pouch,
Link will be able to jump and using a pair of boxing gloves,
be able to punch out enemies.
The other character is Maple. She suddenly appears flying on
a broomstick and crashes into Link, bringing about various events
in the storyline.
The new item, the Rod of the Four Seasons
will be required to solve certain riddles that appear in the
game. Maybe the winter snow covers a secret entrance to a dungeon,
and you'll need to change the seasons to uncover it. One of the
most intriguing elements mentioned is the Link System for the
three upcoming Game Boy Colour Legend of Zelda games. Apparently
you'll be able to start playing the series from any game of the
three games without getting lost in the different storylines.
In addition, the three games will be linked in such a way that
a result of a certain action in one story will have an effect
on another story. How this will be accomplished (Link-cable,
piggy-backed cartridges) remains to be seen. The game plays exactly
like Link's Awakening -- but the addition of new puzzle elements,
such as the use of the kangaroo or the "Link System",
should be able to add enough new stuff to make the game stand
on its own.
According to Miyamoto, the first game of
the trilogy: Mystical Seed of Power, will be released by the
end of the year in Japan. Expect this game sometime at the beginning
of next year in America and the rest of the world.
Hyrule: The Land of Zelda -
"The Legend of Zelda" is a registered trademark of Nintendo.
Japanese GBC players eagerly awaiting
the arrival of not one but two new Zelda/Mysterious Tree adventures
are getting their first close look at Zelda no Densetsu: Fushigi
no Ki no mi/Dai Chi no Shou, which translates as The Legend of
Zelda: A Nut of Mysterious Tree/Chapter of Gaia.
Never lacking for ambition, Zelda
creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his crackerjack development team
have come up with yet another genre-bender in Mysterious Tree.
The key item here is the Four Seasons Rod, which gives Link the
power to change the terrain as well as the season. Such supernatural
powers are a must if Link is to counteract a mysterious power
that has scrambled the seasons, wreaking havoc across the land
known as Hologram.
The adventure begins when Link,
guided by an unknown force, visits an ancient castle deep within
a forest. Venturing within, Link comes across the Triforce resting
on an altar. The instant he touches the Triforce, an disembodied
voice roars and a dazzling light momentarily blinds him. When
he regains his senses, he finds himself in a forest he has never
seen before.
Link joins a troupe of traveling
entertainers and gets to know Din, a young and graceful dancer
with the company. His fleeting peace is shattered, however, when
an ominous cloud blots out the sun. Without warning, a giant
tornado swoops Din away as an unearthly voice bellows, "I
found you, Din! I am Dark General Gorgon. You are really the
Shrine Maiden of Gaia!" The tornado quickly vanishes, but
its wake it has
The
EAD team at NCL have been unable to program all three upcoming
Zelda Gameboy titles, an thus they have took the number of games
down to two.