Tag: Iwata Asks

A lot of information was discussed in last week’s Iwata Asks regarding Majora’s Mask. With all the insights gleamed, Satoru Iwata ended his interview by asking what makes Majora’s Mask such an appealing game to players. Director Eiji Aonuma explained that he believes the game’s appeal lies in its timeless nature, resonating with players because of its unique feel…

If you’ve been enjoying Majora’s Mask 3D over the last few days, you may have noticed that the gang of children known as The Bombers are much more chatty than they were in the Nintendo 64 original. Rather than serve no real purpose after giving Link the Bombers’ Notebook, The Bombers’ now offer numerous hints regarding the people and events around Clock Town. In last week’s Iwata Asks, Eiji Aonuma explained that it was his decision to give The Bombers a more active role in the remake because he wanted players to see their usefulness throughout the entire game…

Among the various subjects upon which Aonuma touched in his Iwata Asks discussion was that of the boss fights in Majora’s Mask 3D. As many have noticed from pre-release videos and, now that the game is out, from their own experiences, the fights have been changed rather drastically from their original iterations in the Nintendo 64 version. These alterations were even more drastic that we realized, and with good reason: Aonuma built them up from scratch. His reasoning behind it includes a hope to guide the players to find the bosses’…

One of Aonuma’s big goals with Majora’s Mask 3D was to not make the experience easier – he wanted the challenge of the original title to remain intact. Rather, he was focused on taking some of the frustrations out of the game due to poor design and making it so when you failed, the player understood that it was their own fault for that failure, rather than some arbitrary design in the game that felt flawed…

Grezzo, the company responsible for Majora’s Mask 3D, apparently wasn’t even aware of the New Nintendo 3DS until very shortly before it was unveiled publicly in a private meeting at Nintendo’s headquarters. Aonuma really had only one demand during that meeting – to create a free roam camera with the C-Stick. This is because of how much he fell in love with it in The Wind Waker – he just knew it was an experience he wanted in Majora’s Mask 3D (and, likely, all future 3D Zelda titles). The meeting itself was a bit of an odd one, because Nintendo usually met with Grezzo…

Aonuma was tasked by Miyamoto to replay the original N64 version of Majora’s Mask and come up with a list of thins he would have done differently today. Not expecting to really notice much of anything, he ended up coming to an inpass over many of the design choices in the game, leading him to create a “What in the World” list, something that added to and passed around constantly during development. It appears to be one of the main guiding principles of the game, and is directly responsible for the Boss fight changes, where he has no idea “what in the world” he was thinking when he originally…

Despite being Eiji Aonuma’s first major Zelda project that he ran, it appears Eiji Aonuma wasn’t really that keen on making a 3D version, even with Ocarina of Time 3D on the table. However, Miyamoto was rather insistent it happen, practically demanding Eiji Aonuma to make it happen. In the end, everything worked out and not only was Miyamoto happy, so were the fans and Eiji Aonuma ended up having a good time…

While we don’t inherently know what changes Tomomi Sano may be responsible for, we do know she had a direct role in the changes presented in Majora’s Mask 3D to help gamers get through the game who might have given up on the experience the first time around. We noted she didn’t beat the original game because it gives you a good frame of reference for what sort of changes she might be responsible for – such as potential changes made to boss fights, swimming, or the Bombers’ Notebook. However, that’s purely speculation. For now…

In general, most video games made today have a set order of accomplishing tasks, such as having a director. In fact, the director is often more important than the role of producer, since they manage and often control the entire direction of a game. This is true even in developing remakes and remasters. Oddly enough, Ocarina of Time 3D apparently didn’t have an official director, while Majora’s Mask 3D didn’t get one until half way through development. While the credits do give three people director roles, I wonder if those were just last minute title assignments…

As we dive further into the new Iwata Asks with Mr. Aonuma, we’re getting a clearer picture on many of the design principles behind Majora’s Mask. One of those was to get rid of the inviting nature of Ocarina of Time and literally dare gamers to “beat me if you can”. Arguably this is what lead to a really strong attachment by those that achieved the ultimate goal, though at times this very thought process also turned many gamers off. Here’s what Eiji Aonuma had to say on the differences in approach between the two titles…