Aonuma talks Zelda Wii, Spirit Tracks, and more

The Official Nintendo Magazine recently interviewed Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma discussed Zelda Wii, Spirit Tracks, and much more. I’ve posted a number of quotes that I believe you guys will find interesting, but you can check out the full interview here

ONM: How did you manage to release another Zelda adventure on DS so soon after Phantom Hourglass?

Eiji Aonuma: First of all, we have two separate teams, one working on the Wii version of Zelda and one on the DS version of Zelda, so it is not the case that now we have finished the DS game we are moving forward to the Wii version. No, we have already been working on the Wii version for some time and right now at Nintendo in Japan they are doing their very best in order to complete the product as soon as possible.

Talking about Spirit Tracks though, when we completed development of Phantom Hourglass, we decided we liked the touch screen system so much that we wanted to use the same scheme once again. Our mission was to try to launch this new DS Zelda game in a very short time period.

ONM: So even when you were working on Phantom Hourglass you were stockpiling ideas that you wanted to use in Spirit Tracks?

EA: Yes. In fact, when were developing certain aspects of Phantom Hourglass, such as the wi-fi battle mode where Link is fighting against the phantom character, I thought that kind of system would be able to be used in some additional ways, not just for the battle mode. And that’s actually what we did for Spirit Tracks.

ONM: What was the thinking behind ‘killing’ Zelda and using her spirit as a playable character?

EA: Well, it’s not exactly ‘killing’, so I would not want your readers to be too concerned by that! It is simply that her body is taken by the evil and only her spirit remains. Only Link can speak to her and, of course, one of the most important missions in the game is to get back her body as soon as possible.

Zelda, just like in Phantom Hourglass, is very co-operative and really wants to assist Link in his adventure, but how? The only way to do this without her own body is to take somebody else’s body, and it happens to be a Phantom. It is one of the most attractive features of the game.

ONM: What was Mr. Iwata’s (Nintendo President) reaction to the idea?

EA: As far as the Legend Of Zelda series is concerned, I have never consulted with Mr Iwata as to what we’d like to do in the initial concept-building stage, and we did not talk to Mr. Iwata when we started making Spirit Tracks either.

However, I am actually making a point of speaking to Mr Miyamoto. We proposed the idea of Zelda being a spirit and being able to take the body of the Phantom and Mr Miyamoto said “Okay, let’s go”. That’s where we started building from. So, when it comes to The Legend of Zelda series, Mr Iwata trusts Mr Miyamoto, and Mr Miyamoto trusts me.

ONM: Are you happy with the finished game? Is there anything in Spirit Tracks that you’d go back and change?

EA: One of the most important missions with this game was to complete a new DS version of Zelda in a relatively short time period. To tell you the truth, with the train line aspect of the game, it is brand new for the Legend of Zelda and it ended up occupying almost half of the total development period.

In other words, it was just about one year ago when we were able to start working on anything other than the train ride aspect of this game. I am really, really glad and very proud of our staff who were able to complete the missions with such a limited amount of time and still they are able to make such high quality software… after finishing the title and playing the game myself I am very proud of it.

Having said that however, whenever we complete work on a piece of software, I almost always feel that we could have changed this, or we should have done that, or that something should be incorporated into a future game. It is always the case and this time around was no different, but now our sentiment is that we are glad it is finished and probably, in the near future, we will feel like making something new.

ONM: So with Zelda Wii on the way and your desire to make something new on DS too, could Spirit Tracks be considered the last of the ‘old style’ of Zelda games?

EA: I always have ideas for making something new on a portable videogame device. It is possible for us to use a similar or identical engine that we’ve already created, or it’s possible that we may want to create something brand new.

But the fact of the matter is that now that the DS version is finished, I have to concentrate upon making the new Wii version of Legend Of Zelda.

I just don’t know if the team who used to work on the DS version of this Legend Of Zelda game should be participating in the making of the Wii version. I don’t know. The inclusion or non-inclusion of the DS team in the Wii team may have some influence on the outcome of the game.

ONM: So what can you tell us about the new Zelda game on the Wii? How far into development is it?

EA: As Mr Miyamoto has already confirmed elsewhere, we are going to use MotionPlus. With the help of MotionPlus technology, we have already completed certain aspects of the Wii version of the software, namely that Link is already reproducing almost perfectly what you do with the Remote and MotionPlus. Our team has already got a very solid response from that aspect of the software.

We have set our minds on fulfilling our mission of making a brand new Legend of Zelda this time. Like I said, we’ve just completed the DS version of the Legend of Zelda so I really have to focus on making the Wii version when I get back to Japan.

I don’t have any clear cut ideas of what we are going to do on DS after that!

ONM: What about the structure of the game? Do you think that will change significantly as well?

EA: Actually that is something I used to talk about with Mr Miyamoto. He and I agree that if we were simply following the same structure again and again, we might not be able to offer a fresh surprise to long-time Zelda fans.

So we have been trying something new when it comes to the structure of the Wii version of the Legend of Zelda this time. I am really hopeful that people will be surprised with the changes that we are trying to implement for the Wii version of Zelda.

Although you may be under the impression that we are still only in the early stages of development, in fact we are well into the making of the game.

What I just told you about MotionPlus is interesting. The fact of the matter is that Wii MotionPlus was actually not conceived at the beginning of the development of this new Wii version of the game. We thought about the possibility of integrating the Wii MotionPlus technology into the Legend of Zelda idea so we then had to start experimenting. Now we have come to the stage where a very convenient result has been realised. In the end, Wii MotionPlus will be something really great for improving the playability of the game.

Simultaneously, our team has been working on making the building blocks regarding the action – the scenarios, dungeon-making, and so on. We are well under way and we are not in the early stages of development. As soon as I go back to Japan I am really keen on brushing up the existing elements of the game and bringing our plan to fruition. I hope that we can show you something at the E3 show and it is something that we are hopeful will be surprising.

ONM: And what about the look of the game? Will it be in the style of Twilight Princess, Wind Waker or could it be something new?

EA: At the moment I cannot say. Our way of making videogames is that first of all we confirm what new play experience we want people to enjoy.

So in Spirit Tracks, as you know, after Phantom Hourglass we considered what to do next and in the end we used the same cel shading approach. And that is for an obvious reason – players have to play games on the DS and it has two small screens. For such a small screen we need to think about how we handle small objects, lighting effects and what kind of person or character we want.

With three dimensional videogames, or those that you might call more realistic, you have to have the appropriate proportions between all the objects and enemies. Human beings must be depicted naturally as we are. That would be rather strange on a small screen if you wanted to identify what a small object is or put in characters’ actions, for example.

So that’s why we always use what we call ‘deformation’ in the DS games. Cel shading is much more preferable than the more realistic look we have for the home console games. For DS, first we decided to use the touch screen controls and top screen angle. We thought that was best, and we also thought cel shading was a must.

So, as I said, we need to determine exactly what play style would be best for the next Wii version of Zelda. The fact of the matter is that we are currently approaching it from a variety of different ways and it is possible that we will come up with something new. So right now, I am sorry, nothing complete has been decided and there is nothing I can share with you regarding the graphical style of the new Legend of Zelda for Wii.