Transcript from a French Interview: Rencontre avec Eiji Aonuma : Zelda Breath of the Wild, Nintendo Switch, VR, les joueurs...
In it we learn that they could've opted to include features exclusive to the Switch using HD Rumble but decided not to in order to be equal with Wii-U.
(00:26-01:55) He says that after the release of Skyward Sword, some players missed having an open overworld and that they would have liked to travel by themselves between the areas rather than going into the sky, and that's why they decided to have the huge overworld in BotW since the Wii U has better capabilities.
(02:21-03:45) It was very challenging to have such a huge overworld with enough interesting stuff to do so that the game doesn't feel empty, and that the development team worked together (rather than each working on their own part of the game) and played the game at the same time, before reaching the next stage of the game (so all of the programmers, designers, illustrators, and music team played the game at the same time).
(04:04-04:56) If the game was intended exclusively for the Switch (rather than both the Wii U and Switch), they would have benefited from the different capacities of the console, such as the HD vibrations. For example, you could try to see how many balls are hidden inside of the controller. But they wanted to have the same features for both the Wii U and Switch, and it wouldn't have been the same game otherwise, apart from the graphics.
(05:18-06:02) Aonuma still has plenty of ideas for more Zelda games, and there were elements that were put aside to save for later Zelda games. While he can't predict what the future will bring for later installments, BotW helped them to think outside the box.
(06:26-07:26) As for any elements that he would never want to bring into the series, while he hasn't told the development team, he doesn't want the games to become too gory. He doesn't want to have blood spraying, or heads blowing up because he feels it wouldn't bring anything new. He acknowledges that they create the battle scenes in Zelda games so that they have a positive impact, but it would be useless to make them more violent. He also doesn't want to be forced by the story to do something which would be illegal or immoral. The goal of every game is to have Link start off at the bottom, and then gradually become stronger and more competent, to be able to surpass all of the obstacles in the game.
(07:48-08:38) He doesn't know which incarnation of Link he is the most similar to, since Link is, in every game, pretty much a blank slate for the player to identify as. He's just someone who wants to do the right thing, but in the end, he is what the player makes of him.
(09:07-09:24) He isn't sure about making a virtual-reality Zelda game since the appeal of the games is to see Link evolve, and that wouldn't be the case in a VR game since it would be a first-person view.
(09:40-11:27) Aonuma recaps his childhood and why he decided to have BotW have an emphasis on nature: he was born in Nagano Prefecture, which was a very mountainous place. After he started to work, he wasn't able to explore nature that much anymore, and that's why he always wants to put elements of nature in his games. He also would go to the mountains on his motorcycle and see the Sea of Japan in the distance, and so he wanted to give that impression to the player in the game.
(11:59-12:58) After being asked what he thinks makes Nintendo games so easily recognisable, he says that it's that the games get to the point more quickly without having too many cinematic intros.
(13:21-15:46) He thinks that one thing that has changed about video games is that western video games used to be inferior to Japanese games, but now they are just as good, if not better, which made the bar of expectations go up. The challenge is to stay on, or above that bar of quality. So video games have changed in that they take less risks than they did before so as to not lose money. Since there are more video games on Smartphones nowadays, and people have less time to play video games, he hopes that Nintendo will still be popular among gamers for as long as possible.
(16:14-16:52) He says that there is more of an emphasis on Princess Zelda because he feels that she is just an important of a character as Link. To him, it is important that players could spend more time with her and get to know her better.
(17:46-18:18) When asked about how he motivates the development team to make a game that lives up to Ocarina of Time, he replies that when he talks about surpassing OoT, he means to say that most of the games that came after it have OoT as a very important element in its backstory, and BotW is a new universe in comparison, with a more revolutionary style of gameplay compared to OoT.
(18:45-19:37) He says that he hasn't dreamed about being in a Zelda game, but that he has dreamed about games that he has worked on. For example, when working on Majora's Mask, he had dreamed about something, then he told the director about it and it became a cutscene.
In it we learn that they could've opted to include features exclusive to the Switch using HD Rumble but decided not to in order to be equal with Wii-U.
(00:26-01:55) He says that after the release of Skyward Sword, some players missed having an open overworld and that they would have liked to travel by themselves between the areas rather than going into the sky, and that's why they decided to have the huge overworld in BotW since the Wii U has better capabilities.
(02:21-03:45) It was very challenging to have such a huge overworld with enough interesting stuff to do so that the game doesn't feel empty, and that the development team worked together (rather than each working on their own part of the game) and played the game at the same time, before reaching the next stage of the game (so all of the programmers, designers, illustrators, and music team played the game at the same time).
(04:04-04:56) If the game was intended exclusively for the Switch (rather than both the Wii U and Switch), they would have benefited from the different capacities of the console, such as the HD vibrations. For example, you could try to see how many balls are hidden inside of the controller. But they wanted to have the same features for both the Wii U and Switch, and it wouldn't have been the same game otherwise, apart from the graphics.
(05:18-06:02) Aonuma still has plenty of ideas for more Zelda games, and there were elements that were put aside to save for later Zelda games. While he can't predict what the future will bring for later installments, BotW helped them to think outside the box.
(06:26-07:26) As for any elements that he would never want to bring into the series, while he hasn't told the development team, he doesn't want the games to become too gory. He doesn't want to have blood spraying, or heads blowing up because he feels it wouldn't bring anything new. He acknowledges that they create the battle scenes in Zelda games so that they have a positive impact, but it would be useless to make them more violent. He also doesn't want to be forced by the story to do something which would be illegal or immoral. The goal of every game is to have Link start off at the bottom, and then gradually become stronger and more competent, to be able to surpass all of the obstacles in the game.
(07:48-08:38) He doesn't know which incarnation of Link he is the most similar to, since Link is, in every game, pretty much a blank slate for the player to identify as. He's just someone who wants to do the right thing, but in the end, he is what the player makes of him.
(09:07-09:24) He isn't sure about making a virtual-reality Zelda game since the appeal of the games is to see Link evolve, and that wouldn't be the case in a VR game since it would be a first-person view.
(09:40-11:27) Aonuma recaps his childhood and why he decided to have BotW have an emphasis on nature: he was born in Nagano Prefecture, which was a very mountainous place. After he started to work, he wasn't able to explore nature that much anymore, and that's why he always wants to put elements of nature in his games. He also would go to the mountains on his motorcycle and see the Sea of Japan in the distance, and so he wanted to give that impression to the player in the game.
(11:59-12:58) After being asked what he thinks makes Nintendo games so easily recognisable, he says that it's that the games get to the point more quickly without having too many cinematic intros.
(13:21-15:46) He thinks that one thing that has changed about video games is that western video games used to be inferior to Japanese games, but now they are just as good, if not better, which made the bar of expectations go up. The challenge is to stay on, or above that bar of quality. So video games have changed in that they take less risks than they did before so as to not lose money. Since there are more video games on Smartphones nowadays, and people have less time to play video games, he hopes that Nintendo will still be popular among gamers for as long as possible.
(16:14-16:52) He says that there is more of an emphasis on Princess Zelda because he feels that she is just an important of a character as Link. To him, it is important that players could spend more time with her and get to know her better.
(17:46-18:18) When asked about how he motivates the development team to make a game that lives up to Ocarina of Time, he replies that when he talks about surpassing OoT, he means to say that most of the games that came after it have OoT as a very important element in its backstory, and BotW is a new universe in comparison, with a more revolutionary style of gameplay compared to OoT.
(18:45-19:37) He says that he hasn't dreamed about being in a Zelda game, but that he has dreamed about games that he has worked on. For example, when working on Majora's Mask, he had dreamed about something, then he told the director about it and it became a cutscene.
