i still think it was a demo of some sort they showed us and maybe it wont be in the final product.

Hopefully it results in a more strategic approach to battles. The hitting the b-button, shielding and rolling tactics of the past are getting dated.

I don't agree. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this if its expanded. The melee combat of the Souls games is based off of this same formula, and it is plenty fresh. Especially if it works in harmony Wind Waker's excellent weapon diversity during combat, the combat can be still extremely satisfying while, at the same time, building off what they've founded in prior games. I definitely don't ever want to see the "hitting the b-button, shielding and rolling tactics " ever disappear from Zelda. Even as they are now, they aren't dated.

The bigger issue is the way the enemies are designed combat-wise, which is really what dates those games.

Me and a friend who loves Zelda talked about said issue a while back. While the points differ between the two of you, you both have the same sediment. I am sure Aonuma will implement this properly. Even more so, we have a lot to look forward to come E3. Until then though, let see what Aonuma's next plan is; along with how Nintendo will unravel details.

Don't get me wrong, I agree. But I don't like any HUD in games, at all. I think there are far more creative ways to display that kind of information than an HP/item bar. The scarfs in Journey or the changing colors of bosses in Super Metroid is a perfect example of how easy it is to display that kind of information in an interesting way.

Even still, I don't think that the early Zelda games tackled this in the best way either. I think that hitting an opponent once, and immediately realizing where your strength stands against your opponent saves much more time than needing to continuously hack away with no knowledge of when the fight will end before you have an accurate frame of reference of where your strength lie. I frankly don't thin that simply telling you that "this enemy is powerful" is enough information today. "How much more powerful" is what's important.

Also, I think that health bars are a very "Aonuma" solution to this, as he is very fond of making things "easy to understand, without nessicarily making something easier." A health bar makes it incredebly easy to understand how much stronger an enemy is than you, without making the enemy itself any easier to deal with. 

Also, I have considered that it's just part of an alpha build. But even if that is the most likely scenario, and I don't think it is, I think that there presense brings up an interesting speculative insight into how this game may turn out in the end. If I just went with assuming that they were just part of an alpha, it would be one less interesting discussion about Zelda U to talk about, and none of us want that, do we?

Whats so odd about a healthbar ? Its better to have one than relying on counting how many hits each enemy takes before dying.

I think this zelda wiiU is going to be a return to the original zelda completely. Full open world-esque, and I am pretty excited by that possibility.

In general, a health bar exists as a progression tool.
As your character becomes stronger, it takes less hits to kill weaker enemies. In zelda currently, it's the same amount of hits to kill the first mob as it is to kill something else, within reason.
So yes, as you progress, it should mean that every enemy takes the same amount of effort to beat, but as you return to previous areas, those other enemies will become weaker.
In the original, this was somewhat made clear by having two different colors of enemies. Red immediately came across as tougher, and they obviously were as soon as you fought them, so you knew that was a difficult area and probably not one on your current agenda.
But health bars are a little more elegant, as you can have grades of tougher enemies without having to repeat enemies with color variations.

I think this is a great thread, spemanig. Great observation.

I hope this means there are some huge bosses that don't have only one weak point!

And about combat overall, I want the ability to pick up enemy weapons like Windwaker again! And I like Twilight Princess' hidden skill better than Windwaker's parry system. Never played Skyward Sword, but I think using the right control stick to determine a sword's strike angle (maybe in conjunction with L/R or ZL/ZR) would be a good alternative to motion controls!

oh my bad yes you're right