Check out some pieces of an Aonuma interview with Zelda Dungeon. I highlighted a few things that seemed interesting.
Mases Hagopian: Shigeru Miyamoto is the father of the Zelda series but nowadays he seems to have stepped away from the series a little bit. Can you talk about his involvement with the series and in particular with the upcoming Zelda for the Wii U.
Eiji Aonuma: So with the new Wii U Zelda that we are working on, I work really closely with the director day to day on developing it and then we meet with Mr. Miyamoto once a month and present to him kind of where we are, and kind of what are next steps are. At that time we get his feedback, his thoughts on what we should do or what we should change. Just his feelings on how things are going. That process hasn’t changed.
Mases: Two years ago you showed the tech-demo for Zelda. It had more of a Twilight Princess look and Hyrule Warriors has somewhat carried that same design. Twilight Princess though was one of the most traditional games, but it was also one of the most successful games. Does a games success, in terms of sales numbers, does that affect the type of Zelda game that you personally like to create?
Aonuma: I don’t look back. (Laughs) I always want to create something unique, and the reason for that is not just because it makes for a more fun game experience once the game is completed, but as a creator it also makes things more interesting for my team and myself. Images and expressions and all of those things, in order to make those unique, we don’t start with a plan that is set in stone from the beginning, it’s definitely an evolution. We may have a basic concept in the beginning, but as we are working through those concepts, they are going to evolve, they are going to change. So that’s how that particular tech demo that you saw early on has evolved to what you saw in the trailer.
Ben Lamoreux: We know that Zelda Wii U has been in development for some time and you’ve mentioned that you were close to showing it at a few past events but you couldn’t because you had other priorities. How long has it been in development for and what are some of the ideas and themes that formed the starting point for the games development?
Aonuma: During the digital event, I talked about how this was open world and we really wanted to provide fans of the series a new way of playing and experiencing the Zelda universe. In order for us to get it to a place where we can show something to the public, it just took a lot of time for us to develop the game because there is so much content that needed to be in place first. What you saw in the digital event wasn’t cinematic. It was actually in-game footage. So you saw, when I was sitting there with the mountains in the back. If Link gets on his horse, he can actually travel to those distant mountains.
Ben: The trailer shown off for Zelda Wii U during the Nintendo digital event was very impressive and very intriguing, especially because there seemed to be a theme of technology with the monster with the mechanical arms and the lasers, and then the high-tech arrow at the end. What can you tell us about the theme or prevalence of technology in the upcoming Zelda?
Aonuma: It’s not as though this environment is more high tech than past Zeldas. If you remember, we’ve had statues in the past that had beams that shoot out of their eyes. The hookshot is something that is actually really really high tech. We probably couldn’t even make one now if we wanted to. So I wouldn’t say this new Zelda is going to take place in the more distant-future, or even the near-future for that matter. But one thing we have to do as developers, you might be thinking ‘but then you are not rethinking the conventions of Zelda’, but I am rethinking the conventions, and as a part of that, we have to continue to have these items evolve and change their presentation and make sure that it’s still new experience.
You can find the rest here: http://www.zeldadungeon.net/2014/06/zelda-dungeon-interviews-eiji-aonuma-and-the-hyrule-warriors-team/
