Topic: Steven Kent Interviews Zelda Produer Eiji Aonuma

[StrikerObi]

Zelda DS Confirmed.

GameSpy has posted a new interview with Zelda director Eiji Aonuma. The interview covers Aonuma's life, views on videogames, and also what he's currently working on. Among other things he mentions his fear of jumping in videogames and the fact that he is currently working on a Legend of Zelda title for the forthcoming Nintendo DS handheld.

[Djunknown]

Great Interview.

Still the irony of him unable to play the original Zelda back when he was younger and today just gets to me a little.

Zelda DS? Let the speculating begin....

[Bill Aurion]

Everytime a Zelda game is confirmed, my heart skips a beat... ^_^

I would love another game that involves a Light World and Dark World, with each on one screen...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Imagine Light World and Dark World.... with CO-OP!  One screen for you, and one screen to view your partner's progress and simultaneously see how one's progress affects the other's!

LALALALALALALALA

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Well, he severly hinted at a Zelda DS title at GDC, but it's good to finally hear him come clean on the subject!

This really is a great interview--I wish I had asked more about MM when I had the chance!

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

Jumping freaks him out?  ahahahahahaha.....

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Aonuma: I went to an art university and studied design. I worked on mechanical figures that moved. (Here the translator interjects: "I am not exactly sure how to translate this. What he is describing is not exactly a robot, it is more of a doll type of figure.)

Is Aonuma-san refering to karakuri?

[Caillan]

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This really is a great interview--I wish I had asked more about MM when I had the chance!

I really would be interested in hearing more about MM, particuarly in the design section. Where did all that character development come from after ALttP and OoT?

[Bill Aurion]

Aiai, I think he means the old-fashioned mechanical dolls that aren't electronic...

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

That was what I linked to

And I know b/c the person who made the website gave a lecture about it in my university course.

[Bill Aurion]

Oh, really?  I just clicked the link and saw the robot dog...Too tired to read right now... ^_^;

[Ian Sane]

I find this quote particularly interesting:

"When I played A Link to the Past on the Super Famicom, I really enjoyed that game. I thought it was great. The reason I enjoyed that game was that there were so many things to do other than fighting enemies. You could lift rocks and chop grass, and the more you did this, the larger the world that you could travel through grew. I really felt like I was playing along with Link through this adventure"

This totally explains why Majora's Mask and Wind Waker had more focus on side quests than the previous games.  That unfortunately probably explains why Wind Waker was too easy.  He likes A Link to the Past for the same reasons I do and doesn't really care for the original Zelda because of the same reasons I do.  It's pretty good for me to have him in charge of the series and I think this direction has the potential to work out really well.  One thing I didn't really like about LttP and OoT was that towards the end of the game it was just dungeon after dungeon without any "breaks" in between.   A tough dungeon can be pretty draining and I think it's a better design to have non-dungeon content in between to balance out the experience.

[KDR_11k]

(was thinking about pointing out how his previous job and those preorder ideas from another thread would go hand in hand...)

[Caillan]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty interesting when Aonuma said he didn't like the first game. I always held a supostition that whoever would take over such an important franchise would be some sort of Zelda fanatic: someone who loved Zelda and played it so much they indeed grokked all that was contained within it. Giving Aonuma the position, however, has allowed the series to branch in more and more directions.

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One thing I didn't really like about LttP and OoT was that towards the end of the game it was just dungeon after dungeon without any "breaks" in between.

I have a habit to just stop playing a game altogether if I spend too much time concentrated on a broad goal, and see myself to be doing a lot of 'work' for progress that is noticable, but not rewarded with anything more than abstract. For example, getting the longshot would be the sort of thing that would make me enthusiastic about playing through the water temple; a medellion that I cannot interact with (yet is supposedly of great importance) would not. I feel the Zelda series has always been pretty good like this.