Tag: Iwata Asks

As it turns out, Miyamoto was willing to break his own time table for the betterment of the Zelda staff working under Eiji Aonuma while they developed Majora’s Mask. While Miyamoto was the person who gave them the one year restriction, towards the end of development he softened and told Eiji Aonuma he could delay the release of the game. This was mostly because the team was working insane hours to try and meet the release deadline that might have been a bit unhealthy. Eiji Aonuma seemed to act as if he was insulted at the notion…

In a brand new Iwata Asks (the first one in almost a year!), Eiji Aonuma and the team behind Majora’s Mask 3D had a lot to say about both the current game that was released just today, Majora’s Mask 3D, and some of the development on prior games. In one of these examples, Eiji Aonuma claims that the team behind Ocarina of Time put everything they had into the game, but still came away with a sense of things being unfulfilled. Like they brought all these ideas to the table but could never fully explore them all. Eiji Aonuma went on to say…

It’s difficult to imagine that Majora’s Mask could exist without the use of masks. By its very name and nature, masks play a crucial role in the game’s story and gameplay. In today’s Iwata Asks, Zelda director Eiji Aonuma shared why his team chose to use masks as a central feature in the game. The choice to include masks seems like an obvious one to fans, and it would seem the choice was just as obvious for the development team…

In the recent Iwata Asks interview, Zelda director Eiji Aonuma further elaborated on his original intention for Majora’s Mask to have a full week time cycle. Rather than just the three days seen in the final release, developers originally planned to give players seven full days to replay over and over again. While this may sound exciting to people who were hoping for more content in the game, Aonuma explained that there were various reasons that contributed to this limiting of days in the final game…

Satoru Iwata recently sat down with Zelda franchise director Eiji Aonuma to chat about Majora’s Mask 3D for the newly-revived Iwata Asks interview series. In the interview, Aonuma explains the specific circumstances behind the decision to develop Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64 in the first place. As some fans may already know, the idea for Majora’s Mask sprouted from the development of Ocarina of Time Master Quest on the ill-fated Nintendo 64 Disk Drive. Aonuma explains that the idea more specifically stemmed from his disinterest in repurposing old dungeons for the project, and his somewhat rebellious tendency to develop entirely new dungeons in secret…

Is it Friday yet? A Link Between Worlds is almost upon us, which means it is time for Nintendo to unveil an all new Iwata Asks. These things always bring us extremely interesting insights into the development of Nintendo’s most beloved games. Interesting tidbits such as the fact A Link Between Worlds was actually originally going to be titled The New Legend of Zelda. The interview is so robust we’re going to forgo our usual 10 post breakdown this time, since it would take nearly 20 posts to cover everything stated. Not only that, but we also are hard at work on our A Link Between Worlds Walkthrough, leaving us with not as much time as we usually would have to do proper Zelda News coverage. We plan to make up for this, of course, by including a full breakdown inside!

Iwata Asks are always great for information about new games. It’s a chance for the team to discuss how the creation process went, even going back years when the ideas for games were first conceived. In this section, the team talks about a few of the creative decisions they made to make A Link Between Worlds an enjoyable experience. Curious? Hit the jump for more!

In the recent Iwata Asks, the team discussed the development of A Link Between Worlds. Like many of Nintendo’s games, the creation of A Link Between Worlds was quite an ordeal. Because Zelda games take so many resources, the beginning of the newest game’s development was rather rocky. Luckily for us, however, A Link Between Worlds is being released in just a few days with stellar reviews. Hit the jump to see what was in the A Link Between Worlds prototype!

Remember when The Wind Waker was first revealed? The backlash of the new art style was brutal. After the epic sensation of Ocarina of Time and the dark direction of Majora’s Mask, some fans weren’t ready for a cel-shaded Zelda game. Although most people now appreciate Nintendo’s choice, one has to wonder what the hell Nintendo was thinking when they thought of The Wind Waker.

In a recent Iwata Asks, the team behind The Wind Waker HD elaborated on the creation of Celda. Take a look at what they had to say!

Iwata: The looks improved, as expected. At Nintendo Space World the year before, in 2000 when we announced the Nintendo GameCube, we showed a demo video of an evolved form of Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so a lot of people were expecting something along those lines.

Aonuma: Yes. But it was difficult for us to imagine ourselves easily coming up with new ideas and expanding on that world if we had chosen that path. Of course, while a game is more than its visuals, it was going to be made mostly by the same people, and the ideas we had within the same team has its limits.

More after the jump!

One of the hot words in the video game industry is “realistic.” Developers spend millions of dollars trying to create a perfect world that would fit into our reality. Everything, from a character’s hair to the physics of a car collision, is worked on to the smallest detail to accomplish this. Developers want to create a beautiful universe that mimics live-action movies and TV.

However, Nintendo argues that hyperrealism isn’t needed to create a living, breathing world. You don’t have to detail every skin cell or make the characters resemble real humans. A believable universe is still possible, and The Wind Waker HD proves it.

“Aonuma: Yes, it’s very interesting. It’s a 100% fabricated world—in exact opposition to live-action movies—but it’s natural and feels comfortable. It’s difficult to express why that is.”

For the full quote, hit the jump!