Can Zelda Wii U outdo the Witcher 3?

Do you think Witcher 3 is a good idea of what Nintendo is hoping to accomplish with Zelda Wii U? Nintendo has stated that they wanted to make the next Zelda a more fleshed out open world Zelda with side quests and interesting characters and such. This seems to fall in line with what CD Project Red did with Witcher 3. They both are action RPGs, both characters ride horses, and interestingly enough, they both share a similar color scheme. Heck, even the Wild Hunt kind of remind me of some of the knights from previous Zeldas. But the question is - with Wii U's hardware limitations - will Zelda Wii U come close? do better? fall short? I ask you SW because you guys are the knowers of know.

Who knows.

No because lately the console Zelda's have lost their touch.

CDProjekt gets better with every Witcher release, Nintendo continues to stumble with every new console Zelda.

I have no faith in Nintendo.

In some ways, yes, in other ways no. I'd rather play Zelda, I'm certain of it.

OP must be slow.

It done so about a decade and a half ago, several times over.

After OoT, MM and WW, i'd say yes.

After Skyward Sword, i'm saying no.

Zelda Wii U will be awesome, because it's Zelda, but SS was...............................very meh. TW3 gives me them OoT vibes of massive world to explore that SS failed hard on.

Prove me wrong Nintendo

that's a pretty tall order right there. Witcher 3 multi-platform vs Legend of Zelda Wii U exclusive isn't going to fair well here. I'm sorry but the answer here is no.

Zelda is an amazing series, I think it will do well.

"I ask you SW because you guys are the knowers of know." knowers? do you think system wars is 100% educated?

No and neither should it try. Zelda is Zelda and that's what makes it great.

It's going to have trouble getting into the same league as Witcher 3, beating it is probably out of the question especially with such limited technology.

Apples and oranges. Not even close to the same thing. I love Zelda, love the Witcher.

Not only that, this is a Wii U exclusive vs Witcher 3 mulit-platform game which is not available on Wii U isn't even a challenge.

The last time Zelda was cutting edge, top of the world quality was windwaker. I hope, but don't expect, that to change with wiiu

zelda is not an RPG so anyone expecting zelda to have levelling up and have a very customisable link will be very dissapointed. different types of games. im not sure adding RPG elements to zelda would improve the game to be honest.

in saying that:

things zelda can learn from witcher3:

1. quest design. even dungeon design to an extent and making dungeons even more interesting. witcher 3s quests, even the secondary quests, are interesting.
2. building a world with a sense of culture and history. im not saying zelda should be like the witcher and have a world that is pretty firckin miserable. it should still be zelda. but the way people dress and behave, the architecture and age of the buindings etc....all this can contribute the sense of place, history and culture of a land. going back to the old zelda wiiu demo a few E3s back...the dungeon floor looked spotless. it should have been dirty, cracked and broken in places and the reflection should have been distorted. little details like that.
3. a more interesting game structure. zeldas is always predictable. bit of overworld, then a dungeon (with a new item) with a boss then do it again. witcher plays around with this. a quest could involve a dungeon with a boss but that isnt necesarily the be all and end all. a kink between worlds did open everything up a bit but there is still more that can be done to make it interesting.
4. Music. full orchestra. get it done nintendo. you make cracking music when you want to. mario galaxy 1 and 2 have absolutely brilliant soundtracks, kid icarus uprising is brilliant and mario kart 8 has a class soundtrack. the right tool for the right job and the right tool for zelda is an orchestra and your top compozer.

things witcher games can learn from zelda:

1. nuts and bolts game mechanics. nintendo still remains one of the top developers in this area. witcher 3 movement and combat still feels sloppy compared to zeldas combat. the enemies in witcher look great but are not particularly interesting to fight. just dodge, block and smack it till it dies. zelda brings in positioning, timing and a little bit of thinking into many of the enemies design. combat is more fluid and responsive in zelda games (a common problem in games from the west at the moment, imho, is there is now too much animation data being pumped through making combat even more sloppy. looks great though). even just the basics like the movement of the characters around the map feel better in zelda games.

thats only 1 point but it is a vitally important point.

things where i think withcer have done well but nintendo also have it covered:

1. horse riding. hoorah, CDPR made horseriding fun and horse combat works! took a leaf out of mount and blade in solving that problem and it has worked very well. but, going by the latest demo at least, nintendo have this in the bag also and look to improve on it again even (jumping off the back of the horse and knocking an arrow into an enemy before landing is going to be sweet and nintendo, im sure, will tie that into nemey design also.
2. graphics: zelda simply is not going to be as technically accomplished as the witcher 3. of course it wont. but nintendo have many of the best artists in the world and they can squeez good results out of the wiiu. the game will look lovely, the framerate will be very smooth and consistent and itll also probably age quite well. im not worried about the visuals. it will look very nice. will the wiius more limited hardware completely stop nintendo from being able to create content like we see in witcher 3? no. the wiiu has no problem transitioning from open fields to cities and can deal with many people on the screen. it can run a game like xenoblade X and run it well. that wont be a problem. CDPR also have some amazing artistic talent though (always have) so this will be a tough one for nintendo.

non arguments:

1. no levelling/loot in zelda. again its not an RPG. its like deducting points off uncharted because it doesnt have kart racing.
2. Game Xs world is bigger. and? your points is? im not sure which will be bigger in the end but it doesnt really matter. as long as they are not big boring empty expanses then tis grand. witcher 3 has made good use of its world. im interested to see what nintendo do. it did look a bit flat in the latest demo but it was a demo and there is still plenty of development time (will we see it i 2016 even?).

so can zelda wiiu beat witcher 3? world design (yes though itll be very hard), content (Yes though very very hard), combat (yes and i would be very susprised if it doesnt), movement (yes, even old zeldas beat witcher 3 on this), story (probably wont.), script (again doubt it though zeldas usually have a good script), soundtrack (oh hell yes it can), graphics (technical clearly no. CDPR also have some astonishing talent in the art department so this will be tough for nintendo. nintendo will probably beat them on performance though. a smooth and consistent 30FPS from day one. visually the end product will probably come down to personal preference), game structure (i really hope so but nintendo will really have to break with tradition. Yes witcher 3s structure is better than zeldas. it takes the best bits of zeldas and dumps the lesser bits).

Witcher 3 was by no means an accomplishment. Will Zelda outdo Witcher 3? Yes, it's been doing that ever since its inception.

While Wind Waker was good yes, for it's sailing the seven seas [and came close to being a Pirate game at that] but I still give that title to OoT on N64. Now that was a Zelda revolutionary at it's time but this is just my opinion.

Hasn't The Witcher 3 already sold more copies than the Wii-U's entire userbase?

You make one stupid thread after the other. SW guys are the knowers of know? Seriously...?
SW is a contender for worst forum and community on the world wide web.

Besides, they're not even the same type of game. How do you come up with all these stupid questions?

not a chance

Oh boy more asanine comparisons to *insert triple A blockbuster wrpg here*

Here's an idea, why don't we let zelda be zelda and not shoehorn elements from whatever popular games that are in vogue

Nothing this generation will flat out outdo The Witcher 3.

Many of the things that make Zelda what it is, are in fact done better by other games these days. We're allowed to talk about that.

@locopatho: vice versa is also true, unless you want zelda to become homogenized with every other open world rpg out there

Nope.

it was settled in the other thread that orange > apples.

What utter shit. No one said that.

@locopatho: so you admit there are things zelda does better than other open world games?

What? Of course. Neither me nor anyone else said otherwise.

(I don't "admit" anything though, that implies I tried to make a false claim that was proven wrong, I never did so)

Hold up, it just cross my mind, Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game while the Witcher 3 [well the trilogy] is a true RPG meaning this case is closed. Witcher isn't your typical hack-n-slash game and it requires patience at that. Zelda has always been an action-adventure.

OOT time has already out-did TW3 and that game was made over a decade ago.

@locopatho: so tell me why exactly should zelda try to outdo the witcher 3 when it isn't even an rpg?

wait, Zelda is an action RPG?

Just Action-adventure it seems. Maybe some light RPGs

well i only asked because:

Because even though Nintendo fanboys accept and defend mediocre aspects of their games, I hope Nintendo themselves don't and won't.

Zelda is an open world fantasy adventure game. Always has been. But Windwaker was the last time it's world was the best in gaming. Since then, multiple other games and series have created bigger, denser, more complex and interesting worlds. The Wii Zeldas had crap lifeless N64 worlds. I am hoping this changes for WiiU Zelda. That is what this thread is about. Does that all make sense?

Zelda never had a big open world where it's brimming with life. OoT's open world was barren and so are all other Zelda games' worlds. Nintendo doesn't have the talent of creating immersive open worlds like Rockstar and CDPR. But I don't think they need to. Zelda isn't an RPG. It's an action adventure game with a focus on puzzle-solving, not world-building.

Just Action-Adventure, never really RPG. No leveling system.

Zelda and The Witcher are just so incomparable. The only similarities between Zelda U and The Witcher 3 are some element of an open world. And let's be real, Nintendo isn't going to deliver an open world that's anywhere close to what CDPR delivered.

By today's standards you are right, but by the standards of their time and systems, Zelda 1, Link To The Past, Ocarina and Windwaker were all huge and complex worlds. I marvel when I replay Link To The Past how the world is so small, but when I first played it, after basic level based sidescroller games, I was blown away by it's size and content.

Oh yeah I was talking about 3d worlds. Should have specified that. Nintendo was like the pioneers of 3d with OoT and SM64 but then they stopped there. CDPR was like the new kid on the block with Witcher 1 being their very first game but in just after two games, look at the world they've made.

lol ouch

Unless Link can have sex with prostitutes, then no.

Well said my friend. Let Zelda be Zelda and don't even try.

2006: Why isn't Twilight Princess like Oblivion?
2011: Why isn't Skyward Sword like Skyrim?
2014: Why can't Zelda be like Dark Souls 2?
2015: Will Zelda Wii U hold up to The Witcher 3?

The problem is comparison of Zelda to the latest rpg/adventure trends. Zelda is Zelda. Let Zelda be Zelda, and trust Nintendo.

Who knows?

I will say this though, even the worst Zelda games I've played were infinitely more enjoyable than the first two Witcher games.

/opinions

Haven't played TW3 yet, and I know it's supposed to be a big step up for the series, but I think it's safe to say I'll enjoy Zelda U much, much more.

Maybe in terms of gameplay, but I doubt it'd hook me story & character wise like W3 did.