Exclusive Wii Q&A: Aonuma Talks Zelda

We had a chance to pick the mind of Twilight Princess's director Eiji Aonuma and received some surprising revelations about our favorite hero.

GP: Can you talk about your history with the Zelda series?

My first involvement with the Zelda series came on The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64). In that game I was responsible for dungeon design and enemy design and was one of multiple directors on that project handling those specific areas. After that, I became the overall director of Majora's Mask as well as Wind Waker, after which I moved into a producer role on several AGB projects. Beyond that, for Twilight Princess, I initially started off as a producer on the project but then halfway through came back to a more director-style role and took a more hands-on role in the development.


GP: What was it like collaborating with Miyamoto?

To be frank, it's difficult. (Laughs). Of course, that's just a joke. But actually, every project that I've worked on, Usually the way that the project flows is that we'll be working on the project and then towards the end, Miyamoto will come in and start playing the game and then providing us with advice. With Twilight Princess, Mr. Miyamoto started playing Twilight Princess just within the last month and a half. Since that point, he's been coming to me saying things like "Don't you think we should take this part here and change it so that it flows this way instead?"

Which, because we're in the final stages of development and really aiming towards fine tuning the game and completing it, becomes almost a battle in terms of completing the game while also finding time Mr. Miyamoto's changes.

So when I say that it is difficult or tiring to work with him, that's what I mean in that sense. But at the same time, it leads to the best overall product in the end. So actually, for me, it's a very enjoyable process.


GP: Was there ever an incident when the two of you disagreed strongly? How did you resolve those conflicts?

To tell you the truth, we don't have a lot of differences of opinions. Throughout the development process there will be elements of the game that bother me. I keep thinking that I want to do something to improve those areas but because my role as director is to look at the overall project, I often find that I don't have the ability to focus on some of the more detailed areas of the game early on.

So towards the latter stages when Mr. Miyamoto starts playing it, he'll find some of those same areas that have been bothering me and he'll bring those up, at which point it almost hurts my pride because the whole time I've known that I wanted to fix them but I haven't had the solution or the time.

But what really happens is that Mr. Miyamoto is able to look at those areas and come up creative solutions that solve some of the issues that we might have in those more detailed aspects of the game. In a way, that manages to overcome the challenges we have with time and resources left at the end of a project. So in that sense, it's a phrase that I've used often but Mr. Miyamoto comes in and "upends the tea table." But then he's kind enough to find these solutions to put the plates back on the tea table and arrange things again.

So in all honesty, the biggest problem is cases where he tells us to make a change to the game but just looking at how much time we have left, we'll say "We can't change that right now," or "That would be a huge change," and usually at that point, he's understanding of that because he's been involved in development for a long time. So he'll say "What can we do to resolve this issue without it being a big drain on time and resources?"


GP: The Legend of Zelda series is approaching its 20th anniversary. Why is the series still so relevant?

You know, I've never really tried to analyze why people have the feelings about Zelda that they do. I think there's one thing about the Zelda games that stands out from other video games and that's this really universal experience that Zelda is. What I mean is that within the Zelda games, we don't really look at creating something with RPG elements things from other video game genres. Instead, we really just focus on creating this existing virtual world, and this world is filled with elements from people's everyday lives. So when you go into this video game world that is the Zelda universe, you might experience something in there that you could potentially experience in the real world. Because of that, the game draws you in more deeply.

We then try to build upon this world the idea of a story, a kind of grand, epic story, but one that still relates to you and is told in a way that makes you feel like you're a part of that story.


GP: What will Twilight Princess add to the franchise's legacy?

One thing that we talked about in all of our discussions about Twilight Princess is the realism of the game. And not just in the sense of the graphics being more realistic, but the game itself having a greater sense of realism to it. So in that sense I think that, really, the world of Twilight Princess is going to have the greatest sense of realism of any Zelda game that we've released.

Even within the game, [Link's abilities shift and change almost constantly.], It's going to feel entirely new and be almost a different experience from what you've seen in past Zelda games.

Additionally, in past Zelda games, Link has started off as a child or grown from being a child to an adult. This time around, he starts off as a teenager. We've never seen Link on the verge of adulthood, actually going through an adventure at that stage of his life. So in that sense, you'll feel a different atmosphere in terms of the interactions that he has.

Of course, this answer applies to the GameCube version of Twilight Princes. Once you take the game and play it on the Wii, because of the functionality of the remote, the realism of the game is expanded upon that much more because you're actually directly interacting with the world and physically interacting with the things that you see on the screen.


GP: What development challenges did you find with the Wii platform?

Well, of course, Twilight Princess was originally developed for the GameCube and the GameCube controller. In terms of challenges, the biggest was actually the overall Wii control scheme because we felt that we couldn't just take the game and simply apply a few Wii controls [which would make] it feel kind of gimmicky. We really wanted to find a way to really take advantage of the functionality of the Wii remote, but do so in a way that fits in with the Zelda world.

So it became this long filtering process, to try and not only hone the controls and have them be smooth and fluid but to have them feel right in the Zelda world. And so in that sense, it really comes down to allowing you to do a lot of different things in the game in very unique ways.


GP: Can you talk about the decision to delay the GameCube version of Twilight Princess in order to bring it to the Wii?

Well, actually, we hadn't finalized the GameCube version around the time that they were finalizing the specs for the Wii console. So as we were still in development of the GameCube version, Mr. Miyamoto threw out the idea of taking advantage of the Wii controller. So we weren't simply applying Wii controls to an already completed GameCube game. We did some experiments and tried it out with the GameCube version of Zelda and really, the ultimate decision was that if we were able to find something that was successful and worked well with Twilight Princess, we would then focus on creating a Wii version.

So the decision was made last year, just before the end of the year and we worked forward from there to create the two versions of game concurrently. One other thing that came into play was actually the idea of 16 by 9 widescreen which is something that only the Wii version of Twilight Princess supports. And the idea was that with the additional processing power of the Wii, we would then be able to expand the size of the screen. And that would allow you to do is immerse yourself more in the world while at the same time allowing you to take advantage of the freehand control of the Wii remote.

What that does is you don't have to put a lot of strength or effort into the sword swings. And just the ability to swing the sword yourself and be there in this expansive world that's there before you, especially when you get into the more dramatic settings like the boss fights, having that physical element to the game is a feeling that you can't get anywhere else, neither in the GameCube version or from any other console.


GP: Are there any concerns about the viability of the GameCube version, especially since it releases a full month after the Wii version?

Well, to be honest, I think that there are almost two different concepts behind both versions of the game. Obviously, as I explained, the Wii version is built on the idea of an expansive world and the physical interaction. The GameCube version features a different play style because it is suited to the GameCube controller and for a lot of people, that control style is something that's ingrained into their brains. So in that sense, I think that a lot of past Zelda fans are going to be curious about the Wii control style and they'll want to play the Wii version. So they'll pick it up and I think a lot of them are going to like it but there may still be some people who, just because of the way they've played games until now, will still want to go back and play the GameCube version because that style of play is what they're most used to.

And also, just the idea of the GameCube controller, which has a lot of buttons, is a play style where you're mastering all these buttons, while the Wii version is all about using the Wii remote, which is a much more streamlined and physical style of interaction. So that in and of itself provides a different play experience in each version.

Honestly, I would like to see people try out both versions; that would make me the happiest. But I'm not worried about the GameCube version getting left behind or forgotten about, so to speak.


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