BraveNewWorld said:
A presentation by director Eiji Aonuma contained a reference to the working title The Wind Waker 2 and it was said to use a similar graphical style. Nintendo of America told Aonuma that North American sales of The Wind Waker were sluggish because the cartoon appearance created the impression that the game was designed for a young audience. Concerned that the sequel would have the same problem, Aonuma expressed to fellow designer Shigeru Miyamoto that he wanted to create a realistic Zelda game that would appeal to the North American market. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/13085/eiji-aonumas-gdc-2007-presentation |
Wow. That's actually extremely insightful. Do you know of any other speeches of his like this?
Anyway, I didn't read anything about Miyamoto saying that the "new look" was designed to extend Zelda's reach to all ages. If anything, it was made to focus Zelda's appeal to the mid-teen, NA audience.
I had literally no idea about WW 2 at all. It's crazy what Spirit Tracks could have been, where it designed for a home console like he originally intended.
When I read your comment about NoA, I thought you meant that NoA literally came to Aonuma and told him to make sure the next Zelda was "realistic," which isn't true. This makes more sense, though. I wouldn't say that NoA was the reason, though. Aonuma was looking for an answer so he went out of his way to ask NoA about it. They just confirmed something he was aware about before he asked them.
That's seriously a good read, dude. It's interesting to hear how against realism Miyamoto was originally. It's also interesting to see how Minish Cap worked as an escape for him during a time when he didn't like how TP was going, because I always wondered why MC turned out to be the better game even though they were developed at similar times. It's also funny to think about how many similarities the two share in retrospect, like the sword techniques.
It sounds a lot like Aonuma wasn't trying to get a casual audience as much as the dwindling Japanese audience. All of his comments that simplify the game came from the confusion of Japanese gamers.
REALLY, REALY, REALLY good read! Seriously lol thanks.
