Kirby dev says Forgotten Land was a Zelda: Breath of the Wild moment for the series

With Kirby and the Forgotten Land marking the series’ first true attempt at 3D gameplay, some have compared it to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the sense that it took a new direction for the franchise. Kirby director Shinya Kumazaki has now shared his thoughts on this.

Speaking with IGN, Kumazaki stated:

“If we’re talking about what Breath of the Wild perhaps did for the Zelda series in that it was a revolution, revolutionized the series, I think Kirby [and the] Forgotten Land was kind of at a turning point. And I think you can consider it as the first step in our kind of ongoing moving forward challenge of now also creating 3D Kirby games.”

Kumazaki went on to say that Kirby won’t be all about 3D going forward. Rather, the best possible gameplay experience will be the focus.

“Really, it’s about the kind of gameplay experience that we can provide to the players, and how best to optimally bring that gameplay experience that really dictates how we kind of express that in the game. It’s just that now we have this new genre of 3D as another method, another way, another form of providing that optimal gameplay experience through an optimal Kirby gameplay experience.”

Reiterating the importance of gameplay, HAL thinks about whether 2D or 3D makes sense after thinking about the experience and core idea for a project. It sounds like Kirby’s Blowout Blast on 3DS, which had a bit of 3D in it, was really the first time that the studio was comfortable enough to go full on with that in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

According to Kumazaki:

“With titles like Air Ride, we had the environment to create a 3D [game]…but it’s the creative skill and experience that we didn’t have as much. And we wanted to really be able to experiment and see if that’s something we can bring to the mainline series…We understood the hurdle for creating a 3D Kirby game was going to be high. And really with Kirby’s Blowout [Blast] is when I looked into some of the previous challenges that the series have had, and really tapped into the experience that people have gained, the teams have gained while we’re developing for that. And we got to a point where we felt like we had the skills, we had the experience. And when we tested out, it started to kind of come together, and that’s why we felt like we’re able to provide a 3D Kirby experience that’s going to be approachable for many people.”