Zelda U: Eiji Aonuma talks about the open world, fan feedback
IGN recently had the opportunity to chat with Eiji Aonuma (Producer of The Legend of Zelda series), and they asked him a couple of questions regarding the next entry in the series, for the Wii U. Aonuma explained that the team was well aware of the criticism regarding the world of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which left many players disappointed by its size.
So for Zelda U, Eiji Aonuma hopes to put a “surprise” to his own view of an open-world game:
“Unfortunately, I can’t go into details but I’m hoping to put a surprise, or kind of a twist, on my view of an open world game. I hope that you’ll look forward to it.”
Last year, Eiji Aonuma already explained that the open world of The Legend of Zelda on Wii U wouldn’t be like the one found in other games:
“Since we’re talking about open worlds, let’s state upfront that we don’t plan to have an open world in the same way other companies have been doing in recent years.”
What is this “surprise”? Unfortunately, we will have to wait before we find out!
Eiji Aonuma also talked about fan feedback, and the way they approached it. He explained that while they do read fan feedback, they don’t put everything in the game they make: if they did, there wouldn’t be any element of surprise anymore. What’s more, trying to please everyone never really works, and adding everything fans ask in a game is more often than not a recipe for disaster.
What they do is take a look at something fans are asking for, and wondering how they could add it to the game in a surprising way (which is how they create new elements for Zelda games):
“If there’s a comment and they’re asking for certain element, I would think, ‘Oh, why not interpret this in a different way that you wouldn’t expect?’ That’s how we create a new element in a Zelda game.”
In other words: Nintendo doesn’t simply look at what fans are asking and add everything as it is. For Eiji Aonuma, being able to surprise people seems to be a major focus, and one way to achieve it is to go with a surprising take on what fans want to see in Zelda games.
Source: IGN
