Zelda Wii U release in 2014, gameplay details leaked - Report

The Legend of Zelda Wii U will launch in 2014, a Nintendo Japan source has told site Wii U Daily. Read on for tons of rumoured details below.

The site reports that its source is the same person who accurately predicted that Wii U would be getting achievements, and predicted Miiverse ahead of its reveal.

On Zelda Wii U's art style, the source allegedly told the site that Nintendo is sticking with the colour art style last seen in Skyward Sword, “Nintendo is sticking to the core values of Zelda, while trying to appeal to a wide range of gamers, casual and hardcore. They feel they’ve found the sweet spot with Skyward Sword, and they’re continuing this approach with the Wii U Zelda game”.

The source added, "They’re using a new, state of the art engine that’s being built from ground up in parallel with the game. It’s got the most advanced visual features Nintendo has ever made, and includes a lot of third party tech like Havok for physics and rendering middleware from Umbra."

On the subject of Nintendo's Wii U Zelda tech demo, the source says this was merely a demo and nothing to do with the actual game, "The Wii U Zelda stuff you saw at E3 2011 was just a tech demo, nothing else. I’ve seen none of that in the real game. The tech demo was even made by an entirely different team with an older engine.”

It's a large project too says the source, "They got hundreds of people working on the new Wii U Zelda game. It’s a 4-year development cycle with a new console, new technology, new engine etc. It’ll end up being the most expensive game they’ve made to date. It’s a huge investment for them [Nintendo] in money and manpower, this is Rockstar/GTA territory."

The game was allegedly slated ofr a 2013 release but its sheer size caused a delay, the source claimed, "They targeted a 2013 release, but quickly abandoned that goal. This is the biggest project they’ve [Nintendo] ever done, no way is it gonna be ready for Q3 2013. At least from where I see it".

On dungeons, the source revealed Zelda Wii U would have, "about the same amount of dungeons as previous Zelda games, but these will be vastly bigger in scope and will be totally different from each other. Some dungeons are so big they’re broken up in 3 parts and will literally take hours to complete."

The game will also, "have mini-games and side quests, but these are still on the drawing board."

Details of the game's forest dungeon were also revealed, “The first test dungeon they made was a giant forest running on early and buggy Wii U hardware — the dungeon was bigger than the Hyrule field in Ocarina, and the whole thing is one dungeon. You use the gamepad to navigate, avoid traps, follow clues etc. It’s dark, lush, with a ton of trees, foliage, some which you have to cut your way through. Its scope and details are unlike anything you’ve seen in a Zelda game”

There will be no multiplayer, but definitely online features, the source claims, "Online multiplayer was never on the drawing board, they’re sticking with the tried and tested Zelda formula. It’ll have some online features like Miiverse and some sort of system where players can leave hints and help each other in the dungeons. That’s about it”.

On how Zelda Wii U will make the most of Nintendo's new gamepad, the source explained, "everything in the game is built around the controller and its unique abilities. Every single feature in the controller is used to its full potential. Some of this stuff is still in early stages of development, but they’ve already implemented enough to show just what’s possible with the new controller. They showed some of this stuff to key third party devs behind closed doors last year to get them to realize the possibilities of the new tech.”

What does this mean for gameplay? Well the source has discussed that too, "It’ll have some revolutionizing gameplay. It has stuff that would never be possible on any other console, and it’s not just one cool feature, it’s one cool feature after another. Each dungeon will offer a different gameplay experience with the tablet controller. It’ll be the most innovative game ever, they got stuff that will be copied by others for years.”

What do you think? Does this sound feasible, or is it too early to say?

Thanks GAF.