"For Twilight Princess we used the adult Link and one of the interesting things about that was how we considered the precise proportions of Link and the world. The scale is because we aimed for a more realistic quality in the size of the environments of Hyrule and what that Link faced," Aonuma said. "But the question is whether or not we were able to incorporate any and all of the interesting game ideas that were able to take advantage of that kind of sheer grand scale within the Zelda universe. I am afraid that definitely no, we were not able to do all the things that perhaps with hindsight we had the capabilities to do."
His biggest regret when creating Twilight Princess, however, is the discrepancy between imagination and representation, and uses the recently released Spirit Tracks as an example:
"In the case of Spirit Tracks it was relatively easier, because regardless of the actual proportions between the player character and the other objects, we can simply concentrate upon the many game ideas we want to realize. But in the case of trying to depict a relatively photorealistic three-dimensional world, we have to be very careful to adapt the ideas so that they seem to perfectly fit with that world."
It's great to have this "grand scale" but if there is nothing to do in it, then what is the point?
He really is beating himself up a bit too much on Twilight Princess recently, though. Even a "good" Zelda game is better than most games on the market by far, and of all Nintendo's series Zelda is IMO the hardest one to hit "great" with considering how high the bar has already been set.
Chalk me up as one of those disappointed with Twilight Princess, so Aonouma saying this gives me hope.
It's important to analyse that disappointment though.
Are they disappointed because Twilight Princess was not worth the wait? Or that it wasn't the definitive Wii Zelda we were expecting or that it's just a mirrored widescreened gamecube game?
Oh, you just convinced me to not pick it up again.
Are they disappointed because Twilight Princess was not worth the wait? Or that it wasn't the definitive Wii Zelda we were expecting or that it's just a mirrored widescreened gamecube game?
It seems the series is now torn between the whimsical fantasy world that Hyrule is supposed to be and the gritty, cold, medieval LotR landscape that has been a trend for so many movies lately. Aonuma is faced with the charge of choosing which direction to take things, or finding a comfortable middle-ground between fantasy and reality.
thanks to tripe reviewers like Yahtzee and his mindless followers of "It sucks because I say so" flunkies.
And what was wrong with Twilight Princess' ending? I thought it was one of the best payoffs in the entire series. Sure it wasn't entirely a happy ending but it was good.
I think you guys are off the point a bit here. This isn't about visual style or how similar in game structure it is to Ocarina of Time he is talking about the very physical size of Hyrule and whether it can realistically operate as a place. He's saying that because console Zeldas now have this realistic style (at least compared to the handheld outings) he feels he has to deliver a world of equally realistic scale. Compounding this desire is the fact that games are coming out with a similar fantasy/historical grounding to Zelda that are absolutely massive - Oblivion and Assassin's Creed the best examples. Epic games like Zelda (and say Fallout for an example of a thematically different epic game) are moving towards simulating entire societies to make their stories feel real and add value to the intellectual property. Hyrule as presented in TP didn't cut it. Hyrule; properous and wealthy kingdom, population; 143. It just doesn't make sense.
TP's dungeons were full of meaningless one-time chests, like the god-awful "5th" Heart Pieces.
And I did do some voluntary dungeon backtracking... I DIDN'T FIND ****. In some cases it got me stuck or killed cuz some of the moving puzzle elements were no longer active despite my additional mobility.
I don't think an abundance of money is too much of a problem. As long as they let you overfill your wallet I think it's fine. Actually, LTTP seemed to have some very effective money sinks for most of the game.
Everytime I opened a treasure chest in a dungeon in TP, found yet MORE rupees, and then had to stick them back in the chest because I had already had full rupees for the last 6 hours, leaving that treasure chest icon BORING INTO MY GAMING EYES on the map screen, I died a little inside.I thought I was the only one who was bothered by that. I hated that so much, it was such an insult that they actually thought they were doing you a favour by putting it back. They could have least asked "Do you want to put it back? Yes/No". What a nice way to drive completionists crazy. I had to find ways to empty the wallet before going into a dungeon because I knew it'd be full again by the time I was finished.
That item was available too late in the game to matter. It's was only useful for useless backtracking to get the other chests.
It's great to have this "grand scale" but if there is nothing to do in it, then what is the point?
To sell it to fans that don't know any better.