Eiji Aonuma: Through the Years

The folks over at Computer and Video Games recently looked back at Eiji Aonuma’s career, revisiting many of his previous statements and interviews. His quotes take us back from his university days all the way up to the recent past. We can see the game designer’s humble beginnings, thoughts, and a likely explanation as to why some Zelda titles appear very easy.

Hit the jump for more!

If you think Zelda games are too easy, you can blame that on Aonuma’s experiences with the series:

“After playing the original Zelda for the first time, I didn’t ever think that I wanted to make a game like that.”

Aonuma wasn’t always a fan of Link. He admitted to never finishing the original The Legend of Zelda, which launched while he was studying at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

“I almost feel like there’s still no game more difficult than it. Every time I try to play it I end up getting ‘Game Over’ a few too many times and giving up partway through.”

Aonuma graduated two years after Zelda’s Japanese debut and specalized in design with a particular preference for mechanical marionettes. The parallels with his video game work are easy to compare.

“I loved people seeing them and being surprised, watching them wonder how these kinds of things could be done, what kind of gimmicks were inside.”

After university, Aonuma impressed Shigeru Miyamoto with his work samples which earned him a job at Nintendo.

“He said: ‘If you want to make things like that, Nintendo might be a good place for you to work.’ So that’s how I decided to work for the company.”

Aonuma first began his role in sprite design, but later got the opportunity to work with Satoru Iwata.

“I spent a lot of time developing games with external companies.”

Eiji finally caught Miyamoto’s attention with his work on Marvelous: Mohitotsu No Takarajima (Another Treasure Island), which was a RPG inspired by A Link To The Past that was never released outside Japan. Even though his name is synonymous with Zelda, Aonuma did not join the Zelda development team until Ocarina of Time.

“I pestered Miyamoto-san and he said, ‘We don’t have enough people for Ocarina of Time, so come on in for a spell’ … When I joined, the script was somewhat established, and they were rapidly turning out the content. I designed six dungeons, most of the enemy characters, and enemy and boss battles.”

Despite his self-admitted lack of skill as an artist, Aonuma was also on story-boarding. For the 3DS remake, he perfected the Water Temple by allowing Link to quickly equip and remove his iron boots. Miyamoto was so impressed that he entrusted Aonuma with directorship of Ocarina of Time’s follow-up. To ease this Zelda newcomer into his new role, Miyamoto proposed the idea of a remix rather than a brand new game: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Aonuma was unhappy with the idea and Miyamoto responded with a challenge:

“He said if we could make a new Legend of Zelda game in one year, then it wouldn’t have to be a ‘remix’… At first, we had absolutely no idea what sort of thing we were supposed to make, and we just kept expanding our plans… At that point, the three-day system, the idea of a compact world to be played over and over again, came down from Miyamoto-san and one other director, Koizumi-san [best-known for directing Super Mario titles: Sunshine and Galaxy]… We added that to the mix, and then, finally, we saw the full substance of a Legend of Zelda game we could make in one year.”

Using the same engine as Ocarina of Time allowed Aonuma and his team to get the next Zelda made within Miyamoto’s strict time limit. It was originally set to use the ill-fated 64DD.

Moving onto The Wind Waker, Aonuma agreed with some of the criticisms leveled at the Triforce hunt in the second half of the game which he described as “slow and dull.”

“At the end of the production we fought against the clock and there were parts that I was forced to approve even though it didn’t feel complete.”

This disappointment may have been the spark for his desire to move on from the Zelda series. On a lighter note, The Wind Waker inspired Aonuma and other Nintendo staffers to form a band named The Wind Wakers, who perform quarterly concerts for company employees.

In the next years, Miyamoto convinced Aonuma to return for Twilight Princess. Link’s transformations were inspired by Aonuma’s vision of himself.

“…as a wolf thrown into a variety of environments. I brought that to my team and they caught on.”

Twilight Princess lit such a burning passion in Aonuma since that the game owed such a noticeable debt to Ocarina of Time. Aonuma has been trying to top it ever since.

“Because I haven’t yet surpassed it, I can’t quit. Surprisingly, that simple motivation may be the reason I continue to work on the Zelda series.”

Turning to the handheld games, Nintendo had already worked with Capcom on the Oracle games. Aonuma oversaw the production of the third collaboration, The Minish Cap, while working on Twilight Princess. Aonuma also sat in the producer’s chair for Link’s DS debut of Phantom Hourglass and its sequel, Spirit Tracks. These two games fulfilled his desire for a more intuitive and accessible Zelda. Spirit Tracks was inspired by a bedtime story Aonuma read to his young son.

The Zelda series has come a very long a way and it doesn’t appear to have an end in sight. One man we can thank for that is Eiji Aonuma. For the full story, check out the original article here.

Source: Computer and Video Games