I think the game looks... mediocre. It doesn't really excite me as a Nintendo fan. In fact, when I was watching the trailer in the ND this morning, I thought it was a download eShop title. Just looks bland.

What makes Zelda great is the puzzle-solving and the exploration. This just looks like a hack n slash with Zelda stuff pasted in. The fact that I'm playing as Link and not some Samurai warrior really makes no difference. It still looks like it plays like a Dynasty Warriors game.

Maybe they will do some new things to appeal to Zelda fans, but as of right now I wouldn't even consider buying it.  My reaction to the game, as a huge Nintendo fan, is: "....Meh." "It's got Link in it, but so what?"

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Nintendo is reaching out and collaborating more with external studios to help them build Wii U and 3DS games, but the problem is that Hyrule Warriors isn't an exciting proposition.  It's like... Nintendo thinks people who like Zelda will buy this because Link is in it.  I don't think that's the case, at least for me.  Hyrule Warrors doesn't look appealing at all, unless I'm missing something.  It doesn't appeal to me any more than Link or Mario costumes in Monster Hunter, or a cheesy Yoshi-themed level in Sonic Lost World.  I'm a fan of the franchises themselves, not of the appearance of the characters.  That's secondary.  I can't be so easily bought.

A good example of a well-executed collaboration between Nintendo and an external studio is Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon.  A solid, well-built, enjoyable game that builds off the foundations of the previous entry in the series.  Metroid Other M was decent, but the focus was on the wrong things.  It was too character-focused, and not focused on what makes Metroid, Metroid.

As far as I know, they're considered 2ndParty. But well, to live is to learn.

IMO, Zelda 2 was as much an Action-RPG as an Action-Adventure.

Though now that I think of it, I forgot about Link's Crossbow Training.

But that's not really what he's saying. A good example is Super Mario Sluggers, not crossover games like Mario & Sonic developed by Sega or new IPs where the developer was contracted to make it.

The last Nintendo/Tecmo collaboration was Pokemon Conquest which was actually very good. So, I'm cautiously optimistic about this. Looks like good dumb fun.

The game looks 'meh so far, but given that it's a "sometime in 2014" title, it can still improve.

It can be fun, and it's not the first time Nintendo has used Zelda Link for something else than Zelda. Remember Link's crowbow training for the zapper?

On another note, I'm surprised they have gone with Tecmo Koei to make the game. Remember during launch the many articles about WiiU's CPU being slow? The producer of the series was one of them:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-21-a-chat-about-the-power-of-the-wii-u-with-the-developer-of-a-wii-u-launch-title

Akihiro Suzuki, producer of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, admitted this was the case when quizzed by Eurogamer, and pointed to the Wii U's CPU by way of explanation.

"One of the weaknesses of the Wii U compared to PS3 and Xbox 360 is the CPU power is a little bit less," he said. "So for games in the Warriors series, including Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi, when you have a lot of enemies coming at you at once, the performance tends to be affected because of the CPU.

I really know nothing of Dynasty Warriors so have no strong opinion either way. I am just glad there is a new game coming to the wii u.

This however makes me think that the new Zelda could be late 2015.

Now that my anger has become acceptance, I would likely prefer a Sheik spin-off made by Retro.