Zelda: Tri Force Heroes first reviews [Metacritic: 75]

[DivinePaladin]

noname2200 said:

DivinePaladin said:

The usage of the assets, according to somebody actually involved (I will take Aonuma's word over somebody uninvolved with the game, with all due respect to Iwata), was purely a design choice.

Hmm, I might just be misunderstanding you here, but one of the persons who said the reuse of assets was a necessity instead of a choice was Aonouma.

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/majoras-mask-3d/0/0

Iwata:    First let's start by asking you about the Nintendo 64 version. If I remember correctly, the development for Majora's Mask began when somebody requested that it be made in one year.  

Aonuma:   You're right. Since we already made The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time², we had 3D models that we invested a lot of time in to build. This all started by (Shigeru) Miyamoto-san asking whether we could make a game in one year if we repurpose the models. But we were already talking about trying to make Master Quest³ for Nintendo 64DD⁴.

 

Essentially, the way I read it Majora's Mask was always distinct from Master Quest, but it would only be allowed to proceed if they recycled Ocarina of Time stuff so as to pop it out in a year. In that sense, it really does seem to be a cousin to Tri Force Heroes. Both games were part of a deliberate attempt to reuse one game to quickly pump out another, and while both games are quite distinct from their predecessor I'd argue with confidence that Tri Force Heroes set out to be more different from its origin than Majora's Mask did.*

 

*Not a slam against Majora's though. I <3 that game...

The way it was always described before the IA you linked was that it was very briefly Zelda Gaiden and then Aonuma was able to convince Miyamoto very early into development to do a new game instead of an expansion, which is where the one year challenge came in. 

 

Though you're correct, it WAS a necessity - IF Aonuma wanted to get the game done on time. But it could've been done should Aonuma have chosen to. Before the IA I recall it always  being described that they chose to reuse assets to save time,not because gun to their head they had to, if you get what I'm saying. Remember this is the same guy who said that they worked on TP for two consoles at once when the likely scenario was that it was ported by a small group in the last year, not remade with two consoles in mind. He's known for embellishing quite a bit and rewriting history a bit tooz