Interview:Iwata Asks: Twilight Princess (Part 2): Difference between revisions

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|interviewee = [[Takumi Kawagoe]], <br> [[Satomi Asakawa]], <br> [[Mitsuhiro Takano]], <br> [[Satoru Takizawa]], <br> [[Makoto Miyanaga]], <br> [[Shinichi Ikematsu]].

|interviewer = [[Satoru Iwata]]

{{Interview/A|Iwata|In the previous interview, I spoke with some of the younger developers that worked on the latest Zelda. This time, I have been joined by more experienced developers who over the years have become accustomed to working on Zelda titles. I'd like to ask each of you to introduce yourself. Let's start with you, Kawagoe-san.}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|OK, next is Asakawa-san.}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|I see. Takano-san?}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|I see. Next is Miyanaga-san.}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|Last but not least, we have Ikematsu-san.}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|I think that people looking in from the outside think that Nintendo's Zelda team is incredibly experienced, capable of maintaining its motivation and carrying large projects through to the finish without any external input. But as it turns out, everyone on the Zelda development team is only human after all! (laughs) You're all nervous the first time you show your work to other people and you're happy when they like what you've done.}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|Although the visual design of Twilight Princess is indeed realistic, I think it has a unique atmosphere that conventional photo realism cannot offer. There were a lot of people, mostly from overseas, who said they really wanted to play a realistic-looking Zelda. I don't think it was easy for you to come up with a visual design that met those expectations. Could you tell me about what you struggled with in that area?}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|But that's much easier said than done, isn't it? Surely everyone has their own individual artistic style and there were a huge number of people working on the graphics of this game. I think that it would be no small task to come up with a consistent atmosphere if everyone just drew whatever they felt like. How did you work around this issue?}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|In other words, the early sample stages and the movie that was such a hit at E3 worked like "moving specification sheets," and everyone based their own work on those.}}

{{Interview/A|Asakawa|I think it's the feeling that you are actually taking part in the action, that the things in the game are really happening to you. It’s a game where, once you become absorbed in the adventure, you don’t feel like you’re merely controlling the character, but that it’s really you pushing those blocks around. You really feel like you have solved those puzzles in the dungeons. That strange feeling that it’s actually you in the game isn’t confined to puzzle-solving or battles; you get it when you meet and speak to characters in the game, or visit new places. Well, you could sum it up with the word "fantasy", but that sense of experiencing a world that doesn’t exist is different from the feeling you get watching a film. It all comes down to that feel which is totally unique to Zelda games. This is something which may not be that central to the game, but you also bump into all sorts of oddball characters, the kind that leave you thinking: "No game would normally have someone like that in it!" I think that might also be something you could call "Zelda-esque".}}

{{Interview/A|Asakawa|When we're making Zelda games, we always end up putting a lot of effort into characters like that! (laughs) But because of that, events involving those characters end up leaving more of an impression on the player. There’s a really strong desire among us to make events and characters which get the player thinking: "Well, that was a bit weird, but it was funny! I won’t forget that!" It’s one thing to make something that gets the player saying: "What on earth was that?!" It’s another to have something happen during an event that really hooks the player’s attention and draws them in. To me, that’s "Zelda-esque". I like those things that are slightly off the beaten track.}}

{{Interview/A|All|(laughter)}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|I think we can show that to the readers. What would you like to show everyone, Takano-san?}}

{{Interview/A|Iwata|It's just like a Western! (laughs)}}

{{Interview/A|All|Thank you very much!}}