Tons of Zelda: Skyward Sword details from the latest Iwata Asks
The third volume of the Iwata Asks interviews featuring Zelda: Skyward Sword has gone live. It’s lengthy, but I’ve posted a bunch of details from the discussion. The information comes from Satoru Iwata, Yoshiyuki Oyama, Takafumi Kiuchi, Kentaro Tominaga, Hideramo Fujbayashi.
– Volcano game field included because they wanted an area that had ups and downs to provide a wide variety of gameplay
– A mountain was an obvious choice for this
– This is in contrast to the forest field that is a flat plane
– Volcano chosen over a mountain since it offers new ideas for gameplay
– Tominaga thought about combining the Stamina Dash with ups and downs
– He believed he could make something fun based around slopes
– Scramble up steep mountain slopes with dash
– Wanted players to be able to look down from up on high
– Link can climb up at a good pace
– Previous mountains in Zelda games had to be a zigzag, so it took awhile to climb up high
– Tominga hopes players enjoy the scenery as they make their way up
– Lava bubbles up in the dungeons and the game field
– Lava goes up and down in some places
– Have to empty the lava in some areas to progress
– Oyama tried numerous effects for when Link falls into lava
– It’s not as serious as Link falling into the lava as in Twilight Princess, but not as comical as in Wind Waker
– It was similar to Twilight Princess early on, but the staff told Oyama, “This time isn’t like that” and “It doesn’t feel right”
– Tried to make it look like Link was hot rather than being in pain
– Key item at the volcano is the bomb
– Bomb is the first item you get in the volcano game field
– Bombs will explode if you’re not careful
– Enemies will roll down a hill once they’re defeated rather than explode
– Bokoblins fire arrows at you or throw rocks
– They say “Foogyah” once they’ve found you, so you know they’ve found you
– It looks like they’re grinning when the Bokoblins trample on you
– They aren’t really, it just looks that way
– Bokoblins can react in surprising ways
– Dev. team gave the Bokoblins a touch of humanity
– There are different types of Bokoblins
– Bokoblins in the forst are primitive-looking
– Bokoblins in the desert are in a slightly different style with surprisingly modernish weapons
– One walks around with a lattern
– Another has a sword crackling with electricity
– If his attack gets blocked, it shocks him and he can’t move for awhile
– Different groups created for each field – forest, volcano, desert
– Bokoblins are in every game field
– They shout “Neeaahh!” as they come down off the ropes
– Link can swing his sword in any direction, so the team came up with as much variation in enemy movement as possible
– Bokoblins appointed to be Link’s opponent in sword battles
– Oyama believes the enemies in this game have really evolved
– When fighting Ghirahim, you need to look at his anticipatory movements and dodge, block, parry with your sword
– Shield Attack: when it looks like an enemy will beat you, hold out your left hand and attack with the shield
– If you don’t do it right, the Shield gauge goes down
– Made this way since Link would be too strong otherwise
– Because Link doesn’t talk, Fi was necessary to represent Link’s emotions and explain the world of the game
– Fi acts as a sidekick, but she is a character with personality
– Team made it so when you first entered a new field, Fi would explain the area, such as what kind of place it was and offer warnings
– Emphasis that Link isn’t alone on his journey
– Events occur that make you realize how important Fi is to Link
– Oyama asked to work on connecting elements because when each area was taking shape, Fujibayashi noticed that the connections between various areas weren’t very good
– “gang leader system”: when Fujibayashi couldn’t handle all the work or when things were beyond his ability, he appointed “gang leaders” to polish it up
– Fi’s messages focusing on each area were written by planners, so differences in Fi’s verbal mannerisms arose
– Oyama appointed as a gang leader to handle dungeon entrances
– When you first enter the volcano dungeon, there’s an effect like a wall of heat hitting you
– That effect is only seen the first time you enter; otherwise it’s the “tump-tump-tump” atmosphere from the original Zelda
– A great deal of effort was put into dungeon entrances; frames were adjusted even slightly
– The next time you go to the volcano, the Bow is the featured item rather than Bombs
– Shoot enemies far away
– Have to advance while protecting a certain character the next time around in this area
– Bokoblins with bows/arrows also show up
– They will fight back if Link shoots an arrow
– You’ll know where the good places to hide are since it’s your second time around
– A lot of effort put into Ghirahim as well to realize new gameplay using MotionPlus
– Tominaga put in as much effort into Ghirahim as into the Bokoblins
– Some enemies will respond in ways you never imagined
– Team slipped in some low-key elements to make gameplay comfortable
– If you cut Chuchu horizontally, they divide up and down; they divide left/right if you slice vertically
– If they divide into upper/lower halves, they just fall back together
– If they divide into left and right halves, they become two separate Chuchus
– Players may fight the Chuchus difficult to defeat
– Cut them horizontally so they split into upper/lower halves in midair; before they rejoin, vertically slash them to finish them off
