"People on the staff have wanted to have Zelda in the game for ages, but if we did that, then her skirt becomes an issue," Aonuma revealed. "Having girls in dresses in an action game is kind of hard to deal with. That's how we got the idea of having her body stolen and her soul going inside Phantom Guardians."

Where does it say they can't animate a skirt? If you read it, it seems that they simply didn't want a princess in a dress wandering around with Link. It wouldn't work throughout the whole game, and her being a spirit is both technically feasible and adds an extra dimension to the gameplay, as well as satisfying the teams' wish to include Zelda more directly into the game. Not being able to animate the skirt isn't the issue here, it's the issue of having Zelda as an active character throughout the game and what the best way to achieve that was. 

We have come a long way if all it takes are some skirts before the "hardcorez" starts to complain.....

Once again, the art of making videogames is the art of working around limitations. Not the art of taking on herculian tasks that swallow resources needlessly. If you read recent Iwata Asks, it's exactly what they've been trying to communicate.

Less is more.

And yes, he is kind of taking the piss out of people not understanding their tactics, misreading it as lazy, rather than intentional starvation. I think he will continue joking about it until it becomes clear.

After "teh hardcorez" meltdown as of late, this was pretty clever from Nintendo.

Nintendo's being lazy???? lol. They shouldve done it while back in the SNES days where 2D 16bits doesnt require skirt movements hehe.

Animating a dress = herculian task!

It's not a big deal. The game isn't any worse for it and every dev cuts corners in places. I just find it funny that something so small could have such a large influence on the way the game is designed.

Omg I think you're right. Look at the meltdown here, while it's got nothing to do with dress-physics at all... That's pretty funny XD

lol, Nintendo has a great sense of humor

Could care less as long as the game is as epic as it sounds. But look at the bright side. Their unwillingness to deal with skirts has cause them to get creative.

so instead of joking nintnedo are being serious? guess we are gunna get nintencats anyday now