Zelda Wii U isn’t showing up at E3 2015, and it’s not coming out this year, and who knows if it even will come out next year. That’s how Zelda games work. But I just want to remind you right now… hopes are high for the first open world Zelda, but it’s not going to be everything we dream of. By which I mean: it won’t be like The Witcher 3.

Zelda Wii U Won’t Be Like The Other Open World Games

Zelda Wii U won’t be the kind of open world game we’ll get on other consoles. It’s not going to be a complex, morally and ethically driven narrative like The Witcher 3. It’s not going to be loaded with tons and tons of weapons and spells and options for character development like Skyrim. It’s not going to be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, either!

No, as Nintendo's Wii U flagship, Zelda Wii U will be its own thing. Zelda doesn’t take its cues from anyone. There is no way in hell that open world Hyrule will have the quasi-grounded fantasy feel of Skyrim or the dark Eastern European look of The Witcher 3. It will probably look like Skyward Sword: it’ll look like a Nintendo version of a French Impressionist painting. How will it feel? It’ll feel like Hyrule. And you already know how Hyrule feels.

It's a Nintendo tradition: Zelda Wii U will almost definitely reinvent the Zelda series. I mean, it has to. It’s the first open world Zelda game in the modern sense of the phrase. even though the games share a similar look, it’s going to feel totally different than Skyward Sword, which was very constrained and limited. But it’s not going to be like the PS4 and Xbox One open world RPGs. Every one of these games has its own role to play, and Zelda Wii U will be no different. So don’t get your hopes up too high.