Why do Zelda Console games take 5 years to develop.... ?

[Arlo]

bigtakilla said:

Arlo said:

I don't think that's an accurate comparison.  Other M was a failure because of its terrible ideas, which I don't think has anything to do with how quickly it was developed.

And I'm not saying they need to rush.  I'm saying they need to use their time wisely.  Say I built a model plane, then wanted to change it.  Instead of putting on a new coat of paint and swapping out some of the parts, I threw it away and built one entirely from scratch, yet in the end it was still the exact same model, only with a new coat of paint and some swapped-out parts.  I could have spent a fraction of the time and basically gotten the same product, or at least a product that I was still happy with.

It's not a sin to use a game's assets more than once.  I don't want a new art style and everything every single time if it means it takes this long to develop.  Majora's Mask came out two years after OOT, and it's amazing.  If this new Zelda came out, then was followed by another using the same engine and style a few years down the line, I would be ecstatic.

They didn't throw all of Zelda U away though... All I got from his statements is that there were new gameplay mechanics he wanted to implement into LoZ Wii U. His exact statement:

"Since I declared at the Game Awards in December that the game would launch in 2015, the directors and the many members of the development team have been working hard developing the game," Aonuma said. "In these last three months, as the team has experienced first-hand the freedom of exploration that hasn't existed in any Zelda game to date, we have discovered several new possibilities for this game."

"As we have worked to turn these possibilities into reality, new ideas have continued to spring forth, and it now feels like we have the potential to create something that exceeds my own expectations," he added. "As I have watched our development progress, I have come to think that rather than work with meeting a specific schedule as our main objective, and releasing a game that reflects only what we can create within that scheduled time, I feel strongly that our focus should be to bring all these ideas to life in a way that will make Zelda on Wii U the best game it can possibly be."

I'm not so much saying that they threw away Zelda U; it's more that going into it, they threw away Skyward Sword.  Going into Skyward Sword, they threw away Twilight Princess.  Going into Twilight Princes...  Well, you get the idea.  They keep recreating the entire world and art style, when they could easily get away with using each one at least twice and producing games (that are just as good, I might add) at a much faster rate.

Imagine if the Gamecube got two exclusive Zeldas--Wind Waker, and a sequel that continued the ocean thing but expanded on the idea, and gave us an even more awesome world to explore.  Then imagine that after Twilight Princess we got another one just like it, but in a new land with a new story and characters, that came out about halfway through the Wii's life.  Then that would have given them the time to release Zelda U closer to launch, and by now we would be hearing rumblings about the even-more-incredible sequel, that again improved upon the open world theme.

This is my dream.  But alas, 'tis only a dream...