Trinen Talks More About Skyward Sword, Timeline, etc.
Posted on July 28 2011 by Locke
GameTrailers hosted a three-part interview with Bill Trinen at Comic-Con. The interview was separated into three short segments, each with several questions about a particular topic. Surprisingly, the Zelda timeline was the focus of the first part. It’s a topic that’s usually avoided sans one question here or there to appease those interested, but GameTrailers ended up making the timeline a secondary focus for this interview. The part with the timeline questions can be viewed above. Jump inside for the other two parts, a summary, and some of my own comments.
This summary of what Trinen talks about is from GoNintendo:
- Majora’s Mask was done in Japan before localization in the states started
- Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess both used simultaneous localization
- there were some finer details in the story that were changed in these projects
- Skyward Sword ties into Ocarina of Time
- Nintendo fears that if they put out an official timeline, they’ll be limited with future Zelda ideas
- There is a a master document for the Zelda timeline, but it’s kept under wraps
- it contains overall plans for the series
- Skyward Sword will be ‘tremendously expansive’
- Nintendo says there’s nothing else like it as far as motion control goes
- Looking at holiday release this year
- More details on Golden Wiimomte and other info later on
- More events and activities surrounding Zelda to come
- Skyward Sword blends overworld and dungeon elements
- more puzzle and exploration than before
- Bill Trinen hasn’t finished the game yet, but he believes it to be one of his favorite Zelda games ever
- the Wii U tech demo doesn’t necessarily show where Nintendo will go with Zelda on Wii U
- Skyward Sword starts off in Skyloft
- The game kicks off with a series of events that sets Link on an adventure below the clouds to save Zelda
- the game involves lots of mystery elements, including why you can’t quite catch up to Zelda when trying to rescue her
- Link’s female companion isn’t the sword exactly, but a spirit in the sword
- she guides Link on his adventure
- Ghirahim is following Link at one point, but Link isn’t aware of it
- The E3 battle with Ghirahim is the first time Link comes in contact with him
- You don’t know why he is going after Zelda
- there are a lot of new character races in Skyward Sword, more than what we’ve seen at E3
- you will visit familiar places in Skyward Sword, but they may or may not be part of Hyrule
You can see evidence of Twilight Princess undergoing changes even during localization if you look at a text dump of the game. There are several lines of dialog that appear in the data but never while playing the game, like Ganon’s last words about the Triforce remaining in balance and Hyrule’s future of bloodshed. Twilight Princess went through a very interesting development with many transitions. Obviously, there’s the transition from GameCube to Wii. There were also transitions from being a sequel to The Wind Waker, to being between that and Ocarina of Time, to being parallel to The Wind Waker. Some of these transitions may have happened while the English script was being written, causing some changes and some confusion.
Skyward Sword is also aiming for a simultaneous global release, meaning the localization teams are currently working while the EAD team is still finishing up the details. This means that things we have already seen may be different in the final game, like Link’s earring, which I pointed out in the Comic-Con trailer. In fact, Trinen provides Phi as an example of something that isn’t yet finalized – “Phi” is a tentative name.
When Trinen talks about why Nintendo won’t reveal the official timeline, he states that giving it to us “locks them into that version of the story and limits their ability to come up with different ideas for the series going forward.” Nintendo wants to be able to change the timeline to suit their new ideas. Ocarina of Time might no longer tell the backstory of A Link to the Past. The Minish Cap may no longer be the first game in the timeline. Heck, The Legend of Zelda may have been completely separated from A Link to the Past, as many theorists have attempted when constructing their timelines. Of course, people making these claims would have to provide sufficient evidence that such a change has been made.
I’m a huge fan of “painting a beautiful portrait of the characters and their lives … which I think a lot of Zelda fans really adored about games like Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker.” I have high hopes that people like the soup lady and the tinkerer are going to be much more than people you go to a few times for a bottle-filler or a shield repair.
The third video is full of storyline information. There aren’t any big new revelations, but different synopses often reveal different tidbits that can be pieced together. In particular, Trinen explains that each person is connected to his or her own bird, though I think this was hinted at before. He also highlights some mystery regarding “what’s really happening down below, what’s happening to Zelda … why [can you] never catch up to her?” This implies that the obvious answers may be far from the truth. Instead of Zelda being taken from place to place, maybe she’s discovered some responsibility she must fulfill and travels by her own will? Maybe Lord Ghirahim isn’t the mastermind of the evil below after all? Let us know what you think of these mysteries in the comments below.
Finally, Trinen reveals that there will be many new races in Skyward Sword beyond the ones we’ve been shown so far (e.g. Mogmas) to go along with the familiar ones (Gorons), and that we will be visiting familiar places. I don’t know about you, but I will be taking my time while exploring these places, looking for clever ties to what they will become in the future. It may also be interesting to see if they use these new races in future games. The Anouki were first introduced in Phantom Hourglass as a unique species, but later appeared in Spirit Tracks, stimulating thought of how they’re connected between the two games.
Sources:
GameTrailers: Timelines Interview
GameTrailers: Future of Zelda Interview
GameTrailers: Forging Hyrule Interview
(via GoNintendo)
Summary from GoNintendo
Related: Skyward Sword Walkthrough
