Aonuma talks about stories in Zelda games, wants to make a game where the player defines the story
Zelda games have never put story ahead of gameplay. Sure, the plot is important – and was more prominent in Skyward Sword than ever before – but no Zelda has ever placed a huge emphasis on the sequence of events.
But what if Nintendo did actually attempt to focus on the story? How’d that go down? According to Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, it wouldn’t be so easy:
“(I feel) like that would be a game that’s really hard to develop, if you have a story first, you’re kind of tied to that story, and locked into it, and you have to alter gameplay to make sure that the story progresses in a certain way. …that doesn’t really mean that the gameplay itself will be fun. I know that there are many games that were created to fit an existing story, and I don’t know that there are that many that have been very successful at it.”
Continuing on the theme of Zelda stories, Aonuma told MTV Multiplayer that Wind Waker was unique in that the gameplay and the story grew together at the same time.
“‘Wind Waker’ is unlike anything that has ever happened on any other ‘Zelda’ game; the gameplay and the environment, the graphic style of the environment and the story kind of came together at the same time, or as development progressed. We knew that we wanted to have the seas as our setting, and we could really bring that sea to life via the toon shading. And, because exploration is such a huge part of the experience, for example, we decided that Hyrule has to exist somewhere in this expansive sea. Got it – it’ll be under the sea, it’ll be sunken Hyrule, and part way through your character will have to go diving into the sea, and discover it there. This is how the story will progress. So, it was a very organic process almost, with the gameplay, and the environment, and the story all being created as we went, as part of the process.”
Lastly, here’s Aonuma’s ultimate goal when it comes to storytelling:
“What I really, really want to create, what my ultimate hope or goal is, to create a game without a story – not to say that the story is nonexistent, but it’s a story that isn’t already created. It’s a story that the player, in interacting with the space or environment, creates. So, a story that is defined by the player, not one that is already prepared, and a game that just kind of follows that path, if that makes sense.”
