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The fine folks at Source Gaming published a translation of the newest The Legend of Zelda book: Master Works.
Some excerpts:
“Why does the art style change for each game in the Zelda series?” That’s a question many have probably considered. It’s the result of trial and error during the development of each title to figure out what would best make the world feel like something players would be excited to adventure in. The conclusion was to marry the believability of the world with playability – this would help them satisfy the goal of “rethinking the conventions of Zelda” and creating an art style that could be considered the definitive standard for Zelda. This lead to things such as the “comical” effect of tree wood magically “poofing” into bundles of wood – anything more realistic would feel like a waste of time for the player.
--Art Director Satoru Takizawa
There were ideas that didn’t get implemented, but have been left in the game in some form – such as the reason the Yiga clan’s mark is the reverse of the Sheikah symbol, or the fact that the King of Hyrule is dead- but then how did he die? He had even come up with very detailed backgrounds for the Heroes during development, but it wasn’t until DLC2 where they actually had the opportunity to include that.
--Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi
Aonuma-san admits he was the one to give the order that BotW would rethink just what Zelda’s conventions are and what it should be. One of the reasons for that was how players would say, “I want to know what’s in between the different areas.” in relation to the ground world Link jumps down to in Skyward Sword. Even though they had always created Zelda with the goal of creating a vast world to adventure in, more and more they became bound by things that “Zelda is supposed to have”. So he said, “Let’s throw away any thoughts we have of what Zelda is supposed to be.” What the team delivered, though, went beyond even his expectations.
--Producer Eiji Aonuma
