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Interview:Iwata Asks: A Link Between Worlds (view source)
Revision as of 01:11, December 2, 2013
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{{Interview/A|Aonuma|We had to begin working on ''Skyward Sword'' immediately.}} | {{Interview/A|Aonuma|We had to begin working on ''Skyward Sword'' immediately.}} | ||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|The only ones left were Mouri-san, another programmer and I. The Nintendo 3DS wasn't out yet, but our goals was to make a Zelda game for the handheld that would follow the Nintendo DS, so for about the first year, we thought a lot about what to do.}} | {{Interview/A|Shikata|The only ones left were Mouri-san, another programmer and I. The Nintendo 3DS wasn't out yet, but our goals was to make a Zelda game for the handheld that would follow the [[Nintendo DS]], so for about the first year, we thought a lot about what to do.}} | ||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Just the three of you for a whole year? Wasn't that hard?}} | {{Interview/A|Iwata|Just the three of you for a whole year? Wasn't that hard?}} | ||
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{{Interview/A|Shikata|Right. I threw all my enthusiasm that I had for The Legend of Zelda into Wii U.}} | {{Interview/A|Shikata|Right. I threw all my enthusiasm that I had for The Legend of Zelda into Wii U.}} | ||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | |||
==Direct Top-down View== | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|A lot of people, overseas in particular, were calling for a new Zelda game for the Nintendo 3DS to come out by the end of [[2013]].}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yeah. We released ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D]]'' for the Nintendo 3DS, but that was a remake of a [[Nintendo 64]] game. So when I heard people asking if we would come out with a whole new game, I really wanted to satisfy those expectations.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|But Shikata-san and the others were still off elsewhere.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yeah. Then development of ''Skyward Sword'' ended two years ago in [[2011]] and I started thinking about the next project. Since the idea of entering walls had come up, I sensed the possibility of making a new kind of Zelda game from that and thought I should do something about it. I wanted development to make even a little progress, so while they were gone, I resumed work on it.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|What? You revived the project even without the core members?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|If I hadn't, and we'd begun after they got back, we'd never have been able to bring it out by the end of 2013.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Oh, I suppose not.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|I brought in a programmer who would carry on Mouri-san's intentions, and had Tominaga-san join who carried over for Shikata-san. They kept on making the game until the two directors came back.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|When did Tominaga-san, who succeeded Shikata-san, step in?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|It was right after the development of ''Skyward Sword'' had ended, so about November 2011.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Shikata-san's team disbanded in October 2010, which left about a one-year break.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|That's right. Tominaga-san lent support for roughly one year until Shikata-san and the others came back, pecking away at the work of improving the system of entering walls.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|What did you work on first, Tominaga-san?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|Without letting myself be constrained by the world of The Legend of Zelda, I made a few small dungeons with entering-the-wall ideas I came up with, and then about May of 2012, I presented them to Miyamoto-san saying that I would be making 50 more of these dungeons where you used the entering-walls ability.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|What was Miyamoto-san's reaction?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|He tore it up! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|Again! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|But he didn't just criticize, he also gave us a hint. He suggested basing it on ''The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past''.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|That was when ''A Link to the Past'' first came into the picture?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|Yes. And right after Aonuma-san said, "What if we base it on ''A Link to the Past'', and try pairing entering walls with a point of view looking down from directly overhead?"}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|So you based it on ''A Link to the Past'' because of suggestions from Miyamoto-san and Aonuma-san?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|Yes.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Actually, Miyamoto-san had been challenging me to do something ever since the Nintendo 3DS came out. He suggested making a 2D Zelda game like ''A Link to the Past'' playable in stereoscopic 3D.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Oh.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|But simply taking a 2D game and making it 3D isn't interesting at all.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|It's just like, "We made this 3D."}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Right. That was a problem we were facing for a while and I wondered what to do. Then, when I first saw Shikata-san's gameplay of entering walls, I was surprised, but as we played for a while from an overhead, diagonal angle view like in ''Spirit Tracks'', that surprise faded after a time.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Why was that?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|It didn't look different enough when you entered the wall. Then, as I was discussing various things with Tominaga-san, we considered placing the camera directly overhead and fixing it there, and we made a test version. It felt really intriguing when Link entered a wall and the view switched from a top-down view to a side view. Miyamoto-san had given us the task of turning 2D Zelda into stereoscopic 3D, so...}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|It connected with that.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Right. It fit perfectly, and I thought, "This is it!" I also suggested to everyone that we should use the landforms from ''A Link to the Past'' instead of starting from scratch.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Did anyone say that it would turn out like a remake even though you had this new idea of entering walls?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|They did. Everyone gets skeptical when they simply hear about it in words.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Sure.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|So I used a tool myself to render the landforms of ''A Link to the Past'' into 3D.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|You did that yourself? (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yeah. It took about three days.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|I think it took a little longer...}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Did it? (laughs) I wasn't sure it was right for a producer to go that far, but I thought showing the actual thing would be more convincing and made three-dimensional landforms. I had them place Link and move him around. When they saw that they all marveled out loud and were convinced that it works. When we showed it to Miyamoto-san, he finally gave the okay. About when was that?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|It was two months after Miyamoto-san ripped it apart in May of 2012. The first presentation was no good, the second one was okay, the third was no good, and the fourth was okay, so it went through a cycle of bad to good.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|This project was both trashed and praised. (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Tominaga|Yeah! (laughs)}} | |||
==Beautiful Teamwork== | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Shikata-san and Mouri-san, you were still on the Wii U projects when Miyamoto-san gave the okay on the fourth presentation, weren't you?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata and Mouri|Yes.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|But I always had them participate in the presentations. Miyamoto-san said that this would work for a new Zelda game, and then development started in earnest.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|We went through a lot of trial and error with the top-down view.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yeah, we did.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|If you looked straight down from the top, all you could see was Link's hat. So it looked like some mysterious green object moving around! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|A true top-down view actually has lots of problems. If you make it truthfully, it doesn't look interesting at all.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|That's right.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|So you have to fake it-but in a good way.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Right. We decided to fudge it a bit. Then I was on a speaking session at New York Comic-Con in October, and...}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|You revealed the trick.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yes. I showed Zelda fans pictures from a side view as well as from above, and it reveals that Link and the [[rupee]]s were set at an angle.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|I saw those pictures too, that world looked so strange that I wanted to say, "What in the world?!" (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yeah. We had purposefully tilted the objects back so you could see Link and the others' faces and bodies when looking from directing above.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|That way, instead of an unrecognizable green object, it looked like Link.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|Right! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|There was also this other challenge where we ended up putting ourselves in a bind.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Shikata|You mean 60fps?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|That's right. When Mouri-san suddenly asked about doing 60 frames per second, I answered, "Huh? But 30 frames per second is plenty for The Legend of Zelda!" But he persisted, and when I asked why, he said it stabilizes the stereoscopic 3D.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|That would be twice the usual number of 30 frames, so the graphics would look smoother.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yes. As a result, it's easier for the focus of the stereoscopic 3D to come together. I had them show me the game running in 30fps as well as in 60fps and the difference was crystal clear.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|Some even say it looks like the screen is shining.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Shining? That doesn't sound like a word that would come out of a programmer.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|Well, there's no basis for that, but... (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|The difference was obvious, so I definitely wanted to do it, but it would be difficult to display the world of The Legend of Zelda at 60fps.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|It could cut in on things like the quality of the art.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yes. I asked, "If we do that, we'll be putting ourselves in a bind. Is that all right?" But Mouri-san firmly answered, "It will be all right if we decide to do it from the start."}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|It would be difficult to switch to 60fps partway through, but if you decided on it from the start, you could make the game so as to manage it.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|Right.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|So I was like, "I'll leave it up to you!"}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Mouri-san, you can be honest, did you ever regret it, even once?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|(firmly) Me? Not once.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Oh, that was decisive! You have such unwavering determination! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|It was completely different when I tried it too, so even though I knew it would be hard, I knew we should use 60fps. I think it was hard on the designers, though.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Ah. The effects spilled over to the designers.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Takahashi|Well, we designers also found 60fps attractive.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|You didn't feel victimized?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Takahashi|No. Even playing with the 3D turned off, it feels completely different.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|It's different even without the stereoscopic 3D?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Takahashi|Yes. With so many frames per second, the movement is smooth when Link swings his sword, and when you beat an enemy, it's very refined. So we took the idea of making the game 60fps very positively.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|But even as you lightened the processing load, you had to make it look good, so design must have had a hard time.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Takahashi|Well, the programmers had optimized everything for us, so to us it felt like work as usual.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|What beautiful teamwork! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Mouri|But perhaps not that beautiful! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Takahashi|No no, it was beautiful! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Well, let's leave it at that. (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|What merits arose from the choice to use 60fps? Aside from stable stereoscopic 3D, smooth sword swings and a shining screen, that is. (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|(laughs) For example, you use the bottom touchscreen to change an item, and you set the items by dragging and dropping.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|Settings the items are intuitive.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Yes. I actually wanted to do that with ''Ocarina of Time 3D''.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|But that was 30fps.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Because of that we couldn't do it. At that speed, it can't keep up with the stylus's movement. But at 60fps, it's really smooth. There were all sorts of other benefits as well, but up until the very end, I was worried it might all fall apart.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|But you did it, right?}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Aonuma|Right. So I'm absolutely thrilled! (laughs) I think that's because Mouri-san, who decided on it up front, kept the faith without ever giving up.}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Iwata|I knew it. Beautiful teamwork! (laughs)}} | |||
{{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | {{Interview/A|Everyone|(laughs)}} | ||