It appears that Iwata is a very confused individual when it comes to Zelda, as once again he is “Asking”. In Mr Boss of Nintendo’s online series, “Iwata Asks”, he has once again given us a very in-depth Zelda interview to chew on.
This time, it’s all about the history of the handheld games, from Link’s Awakening right up to Spirit Tracks. Iwata is grilling Eiji Aonuma, Toshihiko Nagako and Takashi Tezuka, all who have had their hand in the creation of the portable Zelda games at some stage or another. It’s well worth a read, as it has lots of nuggets of information about the games’ development, unseen design sketches for various elements of the earlier Zelda games, and videos of Link’s Awakening that take me right back to my childhood.
I’m very sure that after the last few updates, a lot of you are already fully aware of Eiji Aonuma’s views on life, the universe and everything, but he’s gone and done another interview. Although this one is particularly interesting, as it’s with head of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata. In it, Eiji reveals the inspiration behind Spirit Tracks, among other things (I’ll admit I don’t have the time to read it myself – I have too many assignments to think about. Please forgive me *bows low*). It may surprise you!
Have a read
here, if you have the time for a six-page interview. The Iwata Asks series has always been an interesting read. Iwata also “Asked” a lot about Twilight Princess a good two-to-three years ago. If you enjoyed the Spirit Tracks interview, and want more Iwata-interrogation awesomeness, go here!
UPDATE: In a strange malfunction of my mind, I wrote this entire article referring to Eiji Aonuma as Naoto Oshima, the character designer of Sonic the Hedgehog. I don’t know why it happened, don’t ask. I corrected myself before anyone pointed it out to me, though, so I consider that acceptable.
Check out this video interview with Eiji Aonuma (who is clearly on the Spirit Tracks promotional trail right now) that IGN has created. It’s a lengthy eleven minutes, but it’s well worth a watch. Eiji talks about the development process of a Zelda game, his relationship with Shigeru Miyamoto, whether we can look forward to any Zelda remakes (short answer: No), and drops some ambiguous details about the next game on the Wii – he claims that the dungeon-village-dungeon “Flow of the game” will be altered. Sounds like there will be some big changes in store for the series!
In other news from the Spirit Tracks hype-mobile, Spirit Tracks is out in only five days in America, and nine in Europe (eight in Australia – any readers from there?). Who’s excited? Forum user General Salt posted this video for us all, showing some Snow Temple gameplay footage, and a rather obvious tease of the return of a… very popular character. If you don’t want it spoiled for you, don’t watch. Also, forum user breener96 alerted us to this video, showing a very cool box which the game was sent in to the press. Shame it’s not availible to the public – I would love to store my lunch in it and see all the confused faces come 12PM!
In possibly one of the biggest hints that has beem unveiled about the next major Zelda game (the one on the Wii), Zelda director Eiji Aonuma (who has been the main man for Zelda since Majora’s Mask, for those who don’t know their names) laid down the possibility that the next Zelda game would feature flying. In a very interesting article in The Guardian (which is a respected UK newspaper), while promoting Spirit Tracks, he had the following to say…
“I have an eight-year-old son myself at home, and quite recently he started playing The Phantom Hourglass for DS, because when the software first hit the market he was too young. When he started playing with the boat, I told him: ‘In the next Zelda, you are going to be able to ride on the train.’ He answered: ‘OK, Dad, first boat, and then train? Surely next time, Link is going to fly in the sky … ‘”
Aonuma pauses, grinning. “I just don’t know. If many people make many speculations … some of them might be correct. Right now, I have to refrain from commenting on anything.”
Whether or not Nintendo’s PR representative subsequently stuffed a sock down Eiji’s throat is not mentioned.
Air travel would certainly be an interesting addition to the Zelda franchise, one giving a lot more freedom to the player – maybe a bit too much freedom? What do you think?
The article is well worth a read. It even includes a grovelling apology from Eiji himself for making the dreaded Water Temple from Ocarina of Time so hard! When the creators admit it was too hard, you know it was too hard!
P.S. Eiji’s going grey… is the stress of being in charge of the franchise taking its toll? Poor guy…
Eiji Aonuma – that’s the dude that co-directed Ocarina of Time, solo-directed every main instalment since then (and produced aВ fair few others) – spoke about his amibitions in an interview with Nintendo Power this month -В to better himself! When speaking about Ocarina of Time, he said:
I’m happy that a title I worked on some time ago remains highly praised to this day, but that also shows how none of the subsequent games in the series have surpassed it. As someone who is still working on the series, I have mixed feelings about that. Because I haven’t yet surpassed it, I can’t quit. Surprisingly, that simply motivation may be the reason I continue to work on the Zelda series.
That’s right. He’s not content with just making the “Best Game Ever”, he wants to make one better than that! I think we can say the Zelda series is in safe hands for the time being. Let’s just hope we get some info about the next instalment soon – it’s been two years now!
You can read the rest of theВ interview in Nintendo Power, or if you’re not American (like me), well… I’m sure you can think of one or two ways to search for it.
