Majora’s Mask: Aonuma talks about the changes made in the 3DS version

In its latest issue, Game Informer got to interview Eiji Aonuma: some of the topics discussed include the 3-day cycle, how he came to work on Zelda, but also the various changes made in the 3DS version of The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask 3D.

In the interview, Eiji Aonuma explains how the team approached those changes. In the original game, there’s various parts where players would have slowed down, like a brand new area for example. When they first reach that new area, they might not know what they have to do or where they have to go, so they’re just going to spend some time wandering around. In other words, they’re not going to get to the content the developers want them to play.

It’s a problem similar to the one encountered with peaking difficulty, like boss battles. If the weak point isn’t clear enough, players might need several attempts to beat that particular boss. Worse: they might give up and simply look up the solution online. If that happens, it’s a double-defeat for the developers: not only the players didn’t find the solution by themselves, but the tempo of the game was lost.

In other words, when the developers looked at what needed to be changed in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, they paid particular attention to the tempo of the game, in order to make the experience as seamless as possible.

Source: Game Informer (via ZeldaInformer)