Aonuma Explains Why Majora’s Mask 3D Took 3 Years

Majora’s Mask 3D had an extremely long development time compared to the original release, which seems somewhat surprising since the original release only took a year. Eiji Aonuma explains why the development took so long in a recent interview with IGN. Apparently, Majora’s Mask 3D was really one of those side projects being done when they had time to squeeze it in.

The original Majora’s Mask took a year to develop for the Nintendo 64, and yet here we are with the remake on 3DS and it took three years. Can you talk about why that happened?

Aonuma: I think the reason for that is because, at the same time that Majora’s Mask 3DS version was ongoing, I was also working on A Link Between Worlds and other new Zelda projects. It’s very rare that I have the opportunity now to work on one single project at a time. If I had been able to work only on the remake of Majora’s Mask for 3DS, then it probably would’ve taken a lot less time. But if I have to juggle it with multiple other projects, and still take the time that I’d like to on fixing everything that I feel needs to be addressed, then that just means the whole project is going to take longer than the original did.

Source: IGN