Aonuma says it was “a big challenge” to make collecting rupees matter in A Link Between Worlds, where the rental system idea came from
In some of the more recent Zelda titles, there hasn’t been much of a point in buying rupees. That’s all changing with Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which is almost completely dependent on the currency. Players will buy and/or rent items this time around rather than acquiring them for free in dungeons.
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma explained to Shacknews how the new direction with rupees came about:
“Collecting rupees have always been a big part of Zelda games. But there was always a point in Zelda games where even if you collect rupees, there wasn’t that much left to do with them. Making a game where there was a reason to continue collecting rupees was a big challenge for us on this game. One idea there was to make you purchase all your items, and obviously that would give you a reason to collect rupees.”
“But, that would make it very difficult to get items in the beginning. So, we made a rental service so that you could pay less money and rent items. The downside there is that if you have items that are rented, if you Game Over, you lose them all. We wanted people to feel like they want to save up their rupees and buy all these items and buy them forever.”
If you thought the idea behind collecting rupees came from free-to-play titles, well, think again. Aonuma says that the idea stems from personal experience.
“The idea of the rental system actually came from my own experience by getting into a hobby by first renting something and then deciding to actually buy something. But I can totally see how that kind of system would be a good business model, and I think that character in the game is a great businessman.”
