There were a lot of great games on show at this year’s Games Awards, which took place earlier this week, including one of the most hotly anticipated Nintendo games: Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Originally intended for a 2015 release, we’ll finally get our hands on it in early 2017 and now we have an even better idea of what it will play like.
The new trailer is quite an artistic one, giving us a look at some of the environments Link will traverse as he makes his way through the game. There’s in-game and in-engine footage used, as well as the odd piece of cut-scene footage, too, but all in all it leaves us even more excited for the game’s eventual debut on the Nintendo Switch and Wii U early next year.
But Nintendo didn’t stop there. During the Game Awards 2016 it also gave us a video of two Nintendo Treehouse developers (shown below), who offered a more in-depth look at the game, complete with real gameplay footage, dialogue, and commentary.
The first of the two men figures out a short puzzle and together they take part in a bit of combat, show an interesting eating mechanic — which must also involve cooking — and ultimately show what happens when you die.
With one of them down, the other takes over and as he progresses, he encounters chameleonic enemies, clever AI routines, slow-motion combat abilities, and what sounds like a situational soundtrack which does a great job of keeping the atmosphere appropriate to what you’re doing.
Although the two players remain rather vague throughout, mainly oohing and aahing at the various aspects of the game — or ribbing each other for poor play — there is plenty to digest in these videos for Zelda fans. It shows Nintendo being faithful to the series, while still innovating in key areas and of course making one of the best looking Zelda games yet.
