Skyward Sword team on the difficulties of incorporating Wii MotionPlus
This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…
Iwata: What obstacles appeared in making a game for Wii MotionPlus?
Kobayashi: In Wii Sports Resort, we use Mii characters, so making them is simple, but Link has a realistic figure.
Iwata: And he’s equipped with items like a shield.
Kobayashi: That’s right. And Swordplay in Wii Sports Resort uses sticks, so whichever way you swing, as long as the trajectory is right, no problem. But Link is holding a sword. You can’t have him flap an enemy with the flat of his blade.
Iwata: Oh, I see. If the edge isn’t facing the direction you swing, handsome Link would look rather foolish.
Aonuma: Exactly. He has to look cool when he swings his sword. He can’t just have a sword stuck to his hand and simply move it. So we tried all kinds of things for that at first.
Kobayashi: Yes, we tried many things many times.
Fujibayashi: We really studied a person’s elbows skeletal structure.
Aonuma: At first we were too serious about faithfully representing human movement. Link still didn’t look that cool, so we decided it was necessary to fake some parts.
Iwata: In other words, even if his movement isn’t perfectly realistic in some ways, your brain smoothes over it.
Aonuma: That’s right. Then Link’s movement seemed more natural that way and we knew swordplay would work out. What’s more, we were able to swing the sword in the direction we wanted and got to where we could think, “Which direction shall I swing from?” when fighting an enemy. But there’s a really tough boss named Ghirahim who can read your movements.
Iwata: What he actually does is determine which direction he can be hit from.
Aonuma: Yes. Ghirahim fights barehanded. You’ll think, “All right, I’ll strike at him from this angle,” but he expects that and stops Link’s sword with his hands.
Iwata: At Nintendo 3DS Conference 20117, Miyamoto-san said he struggled with that.
Aonuma: That’s right. Miyamoto-san kept saying, “You can’t beat this guy!” (laughs)
Iwata: As a player, he was steamed. (laughs)
Aonuma: Yes. Well, he complained more than getting mad! (laughs) But he didn’t tell us to scrap it, so I think he liked something about it. He said that he wanted us to make the way to win more instinctive, though.
Iwata: You can beat him by tricking him.
Aonuma: Right, you can. Ghirahim moves his hands wherever Link’s sword is, so you trick him. I can’t go in to it in detail, but I would like for people to fight him thinking how you can trick him with your attacked.
