The Official Legend of Zelda Thread: Echoes of Wisdom Out Now

[Pavolink]

RolStoppable said:

Pavolink said:

Delaying the game is a consequence of what you wrote. Aonuma doesn't know what to do anymore. Those remakes are only the proof that he has to revisit old games to take ideas.

I remember reading around the web (don't know if it's real or not) that the E32004 Twilight Princess trailer was just a demo of their goals. They didn't have any idea of what to do with the game. As development progress they were implementing new features like the twilight or the wolf transformation.

This is not about rushing the game, this is about delaying a game because the dev team doesn't know what to do anymore. We don't know what to expect next gen. 10 years development cycles? 3 more remakes before a new one?

Their only new "original" game is A Link Between Worlds, a game that started as a remake of A Link to the Past.

What surprises me more, is that Iwata let this happen. Zelda is becoming a very financial focused franchise. From delaying a game one complete year to release succesfully on the Wii, to move every release date to the holiday season. There's nothing good in delaying games as you invest even more money. But maybe that was the reason why they decided to focus more on remakes rather than new content: cheaper and easier to make.

Yes, a delay is a consequence of that messed up development cycle. But my point in the second paragraph was merely that releasing an unfinished Zelda U would not restore your faith in Aonuma.

Iwata allowed this to happen for the same reason that he allowed many things to happen: Shigeru Miyamoto. A lot of successful IPs have sprung from his mind and since the DS and Wii were so successful, Miyamoto got a lot of leeway. So pretty much everything Miyamoto wanted to do, Nintendo as a whole did. Miyamoto likes Aonuma, so Zelda continues as if there are no problems with the development cycle. Miyamoto likes 3D output, so Nintendo launched a 3D handheld while Iwata joked in the Iwata Asks for Nintendo 3DS that Nintendo always failed when they pursued such a direction. Miyamoto wants that 3D Mario games sell better than 2D Mario games, so 3D Mario got rearranged with each iteration and things that could have gone into 2D Mario (like four playable characters with different attributes) were deliberately saved for 3D Mario to make that the premier Mario experience. Not too long ago Miyamoto even outright said that doing what is good for business is boring.

Now of course Iwata isn't going to sit idly by and allow Miyamoto to do whatever he wants forever, but such a drastic change in direction takes years until it becomes visible to the outside world, because games take around two years to develop, and additionally, before such a change can happen, current projects have to be completed because throwing away the work that was already put into isn't a good decision either. I don't think Iwata will allow the Zelda team to continue to be so inefficient when the sales numbers of the games are so disappointing, but that's something that we aren't going to see until next generation. Iwata's statement that developers have to ask themselves why games didn't sell according to expectations despite high Metascores and user scores, and that it can't be blamed on marketing, that's a clear indication to me that Miyamoto's reign of terror is coming to an end. Not this generation, but next one.

Well, you got me there. Releasing a rushed game won't help, but I said that because I have the perception that the more time Aonuma has, the more wrong thing he make. I don't know why, but I have that feeling. 4 years to make Majora's Mask 3D is something I can't simply understand. They made a great graphical update, but aside of that it went backwards in some aspetcs like the boss battles and the Zora swimming.

I also have to say that I agree with the word: Zelda team is inefficient. I remember reading that the Gamepad had features that the Zelda team asked for, so if that was the case they should have at least a clear vision of their work, but rather they needed to remake firstly The Wind Waker. Something is wrong with that considering gens before they didn't need to remake anything to give us new experiences or at least new content.

Finally, since last year I believe it's time for Shigeru Miyamoto to step down too. I believe Koizumi can still make great games. For example, as much as I hate 3D World, I can't deny that the game is good. I believe there was also a team of young developers that started Twilight Princess, but later in the cycle Aonuma and Miyamoto went into it and changed the game.

BTW, I'm clear about the time that changes like these needs. Of course we are not going to see anything this gen, that's why most likely I'm going to skip it.