Hyrule Warriors devs talk all about the game’s origins
Siliconera has translated parts of Famitsu’s interview with the developers behind Hyrule Warriors. Supervisor Eiji Aonuma, producer Hisashi Koinuma, and producer Yosuke Hayashi discussed the game’s origins in-depth. You’ll find translations from the interview after the break.
Koinuma on how the collaboration began…
“Warriors has teamed up with series such as Gundam, Fist of the North Star and One Piece, and I thought about doing something with Nintendo. While thinking about what would make for a good collaboration, it was Hayashi that proposed [the idea] by saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda?’”
– Koinuma explains that it was from there that they eventually spoke with Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo, who agreed on the collaboration to create Hyrule Warriors.
Aonuma on the presentation…
“This presentation was actually from several years ago, when they showed us One Piece: Pirate Warriors. At first, when they said that One Piece would become a Warriors [game], I wondered, ‘How will that turn out?’ but once I actually played it, I felt that they did a good job of implementing the Warriors system.”
“So, it sparked my interest when I thought: ‘I wonder what a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda would be like.’ Shortly afterwards, Miyamoto told me, ‘The folks at Tecmo Koei are talking about a Zelda Musou. Are you interested?’ and I responded with ‘definitely!’”
Aonuma on how it seems like Nintendo were being very forward-looking about the entire affair…
“Yes, given Tecmo Koei and their ability to plan things out, along with many other titles they’ve shaped into the form of a Warriors game, when thinking about how The Legend of Zelda could be reborn [in such a way], we had far more expectations than uncertainties.”
Hayashi on how they decided on a Zelda collaboration, when considering the numerous titles Nintendo have…
“With Koinuma and myself included, we have many fans of The Legend of Zelda in our company, and that would be the ultimate reason. The basic fights in The Legend of Zelda series involve one-on-one fights, so ‘having over 100 enemies like the Musou games would surely make things interesting,’ was something we discussed among the staff.”
Koinuma also speaking about why Zelda was chosen…
“You can say that luck also played a role. The title that our company wanted to do a Musou game collaboration with the most just so happened to be the one title that the folks at Nintendo said ‘we can entrust them with this one’ to, so we were both able to come to an agreement regarding The Legend of Zelda.”
