Wind Waker Team Says Game Was Too Ambitious for GameCube, True Home is Wii U

Whenever remakes release there is a controversy. Does the new version outdo the old one? Many Zelda fans have had this debate on Ocarina of Time. Is the remastered 3DS version superior, or is the game more “at home” on the Nintendo 64?

With another Zelda game being recreated, fans are sure to have this fight again; however, the game’s team has already picked a side. They believe The Wind Waker HD is the true version, as what the staff was trying to accomplish was too ambitious for the GameCube’s hardware.

Takuhiro Dohta: In that sense, it felt to me like what they were originally trying to do with The Wind Waker didn’t fit within the confines of SD resolution. By changing it to HD, I saw how the number of colors increased, the resolution go up, and the animation became finer and fluid, so the character’s eye movement and things like that come alive. It’s something that I realized comparatively as I was working.

Satoru Iwata: Before, they were trying to stuff more than would fit into the container. As you were converting the data and programs from that time into the new container, you realized what they had really wanted to do.

Dohta: Right. That’s exactly what happened.

Eiji Aonuma: Upon seeing The Wind Waker HD, I realized that with the original version, we had been trying to make something beyond what the Nintendo GameCube could express.

Iwata: If it looked better than before simply placing it in a new container, then it must have been over-designed for it.

Aonuma and Takizawa: That’s right.

Iwata: In other words, more energy and creativity was put in than the container could put out.

Aonuma: The reason I pushed so strongly to do it in such a short time without considering a buffer was because the world that we had really wanted to make years ago was unfolding there in the test images Takizawa-san showed me. I’d seen something to make me think, “This is it!” So as a creator, not doing it wasn’t an option.

Iwata: What’s more, the environment is favorable toward it now.

Aonuma: That’s right.

Takizawa: Um, I love Okinawa and the southern islands, so I often go there.

Iwata: I can tell that from your suntan! (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Are you playing The Wind Waker HD? Do you prefer the new remastered version or the GameCube original? Sound off in the comments.

Source: Iwata Asks