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Eiji Aonuma has been making the rounds lately to discuss his work on the monumental Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The latest instance of that is a new interview with The Washington Post. The article requires a Washington Post subscription to read, but you can find a few tidbits below if you’re unable to check it out:

  • Aonuma sometimes feels he’s “reaching his limit” putting in long hours at his age, says “I don’t want to push myself too hard”. That said, he has no plans to step down as Zelda director at this time.
  • Aonuma made his own toys as a kid by tying tree branches together
  • Men in Aonuma’s family were carpenters, and he was working to be a marionette designer before joining Nintendo
  • His first job was designing sprites for NES Open Tournament Golf
  • Aonuma was initially against the visible glue seen when sticking objects together in Tears of the Kingdom because it was unsightly to him as a wood carver. He eventually realized that “being able to clearly see where the objects you’re connecting are put together makes this kind of gameplay fit well and in line with the ethos of Zelda”
  • The Tears of the Kingdom team worked on the gameplay first, and did not develop a story until they were confident in that department
  • Aonuma still won’t say exactly where Tears of the Kingdom takes place in the Zelda timeline and hopes fans will “discuss this among themselves”
  • Nintendo put together the 13 minute demonstration video of Aonuma showing off Tears’ new mechanics because they were worried there was a lack of understanding and enthusiasm
  • Aonuma plays Ring Fit regularly and is level 430
  • Tears of the Kingdom was pretty much complete when it was delayed, and the team used the next year to polish and debug, making sure physics worked properly and so on

Click here to view the full article for more insight, including discussion of Aonuma’s appearance at the Tears of the Kingdom launch event in New York.

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Comments (8)

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dauntless

I'm not a fan of the new game design. I liked it when the dungeons would give you a new toy and then showed you how to use it, via the Dungeon. And then the next one would give you a NEW toy, but you'd still need the previous one(s) to get through to that boss, which would then show you how it's done. And in between those dungeons you'd have open space to play and explore with your new toys.

This dump everything onto the player within the first few hours and let them sort it out just feels lazy to me. I'm sure it's not. I'm absolutely positive it's a lot of work, but front loading mechanics has never been my thing.

But I sincerely hope anyone who is having fun, keeps having fun.

dauntless

10M ago

I'm not a fan of the new game design. I liked it when the dungeons would give you a new toy and then showed you how to use it, via the Dungeon. And then the next one would give you a NEW toy, but you'd still need the previous one(s) to get through to that boss, which would then show you how it's done. And in between those dungeons you'd have open space to play and explore with your new toys.

This dump everything onto the player within the first few hours and let them sort it out just feels lazy to me. I'm sure it's not. I'm absolutely positive it's a lot of work, but front loading mechanics has never been my thing.

But I sincerely hope anyone who is having fun, keeps having fun.


I respect your opinion. I don't know about TotK but with BotW I missed that old design as well. I felt that the endgame of BotW game couldn't really live up to the revolutionary beginning of the game. The excitement curve planning might have needed some more work for me I suppose. It might have been better when there were more revolutionary toys to discover towards the end game.


mikejones

10M ago

I've always liked Aonuma's stage presence when discussing Zelda during Directs. And it might just be my lack of paying attention for previous releases, but it really feels like Nintendo is putting him out there as a face of the company much more with TOTK, particularly without Miyamoto accompanying. I've tremendously enjoyed the wealth of interviews lately.

And Level 430?!? Wow.


enthropy

10M ago

Damn I have to get back to RFA! =D


enthropy

10M ago

@dauntless

I'm happy they finally did something new yet keeping it very Zelda. Some people just don't want changes and that's OK, but some of us will at least check them out and decide then and there.
I just think it was truly about time to shake up the formula and I think they did a brilliant job at it. BOTW turned into one of my fav games of all time and I already love the Zelda series.. WW and SS being two of my favs before BOTW.
The freedom, the "DIY" and non-linearity is just so great. Can't wait to get into TOTK!

BTW: This is not an attack on you, it's my thoughts on the "backlash" in general =)

But of course: to each their own and I wish they make a more traditional Zelda game for people like you. I'll probably play it myself when/if it comes =)


haleman1704

10M ago

@enthropy

I agree - Nintendo should consider making more traditional Zelda games for those who don't like the new formula, in addition to "new, fresh ideas". It works for Mario, so why not Zelda?

Personally, I wouldn't mind keeping the new style of games, I really love it.
May I live under a rock, but with the release of TotK, I started to hear from quite a lot people they miss the old style. That surprised me.


The way I see it, with TOTK moreso than BOTW, is that while they do give you all the tools up front, they don’t tell you really the breadth of use. Many shrines teach you new things to do with those abilities that you don’t think of. Including combining abilities. It’s like getting new abilities (toys) throughout. The literally “new toys” in TOTK also satisfy that desire for items a lot more than BOTW ever could.

My counter argument to yours about new toys is one you’ve probably heard. So many toys are largely “useless” outside of their respective dungeon. You get them after a half-way mini boss, use them to solve a few puzzles or traverse new areas of the dungeon, use them fight the boss then store them in your inventory never to be mapped to a button again.

Peace and love.


The problem with making both is who would make them? If Team Zelda takes on both then it will be ages for their release, so they would have to outsource the smaller one to another team. Which could even be a good idea for all we know. Hell! Wouldn't someone doing a dark spin-off like Retro once wanted.

TOTK is the fastest selling Zelda of all time, so don't think Nintendo will go back to traditional any time soon (unless leaving it to another team as mentioned).

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