Zelda’s top devs not worried about getting stuck working on the series

As the director and producer respectively, Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma are two of the most important people working on the Zelda series currently and they recently finished up Tears of the Kingdom as director and producer respectively. Both have been involved with the franchise for decades at this point. Fujibayashi started out with Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages in 2001 while Aonuma has been around even longer – specifically in 1998 with Ocarina of Time.

Fujibayashi and Aonuma, speaking with RTL Nieuws, were recently asked if they’re afraid of getting “stuck” in the sense that they only continue to work on Zelda games. However, both don’t seem to view it that way.

Here’s what the two shared:

Fujibayashi: I get that question quite often, but I think that the possibilities with Zelda are endless. I never felt like I was stuck. When I come up with an idea, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with Zelda. But later I can still make it part of a Zelda game, because you can really go anywhere with the series.

Aonuma: I get bored pretty quickly – when I play a soccer/football game, I already want to do something else after five minutes. But with Zelda I keep on playing, because things like soccer/football are implemented into the game. The games transcend genre conventions, allowing you to put all kinds of different experiences in them. In that respect, I have all the freedom to explore new ideas. I might be stuck with Zelda, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a very comfortable place to be stuck.

Translation provided by TheBrasem on behalf of Nintendo Everything.