Miyamoto talks Wind Waker HD’s balance, Triforce Hunt, Tingle Bottles
Don’t expect new content in Zelda: Wind Waker HD. For this project, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma says the main goal was to “balance” the experience.
“My main goal in making Wind Waker HD was to stay true to the original and really balance the game. When we released the GameCube version we weren’t able to fully do that and make the adjustments I felt were necessary to optimize the experience. So there will be no new content, but overall gameplay should be improved.”
As far as balance is concerned, Aonuma believes that the number of dungeons and content amount is “just right.”
“I think when the GameCube version of Wind Waker was released I might have said that I cut some dungeons, but what I was actually meaning to say was that there was a lot of frustration on my part, because there was a lot of content that I couldn’t include that I wanted to.
“As for the overall balance of the game, in terms of number of dungeons and amount of content, I think it’s just right. But the one thing that I am trying to improve in Wind Waker HD is some of the process of getting to [some] places took too long. You would travel for a long time, and the payoff would not be there.”
One element that will change is Wind Waker’s Triforce hunt. This was something that players felt put a dent in the pacing of the original, so Aonuma and his team will be streamlining it.
“As for the Triforce quest, it was basically a process of finding maps and then following that map to another location, but I think what some people didn’t like is that sometimes you would find a map and it would take you to another map. It was a series of steps you had to take in order to get to the Triforce. Maybe people felt like they were getting the runaround a little bit.
“I thought that whole process of adventuring was kind of fun, but it also did take a while to get to some of the maps.
“We’re planning on streamlining that a little bit. Maybe you’ll get a map, and it’ll lead you to the Triforce and then you’ll get it and move on to the next one. The longer it took to get to your destination, the more disconnected, I think, the players felt. It’s not that we’re cutting out all of those steps, but we will streamline them.”
Zelda: Wind Waker HD does introduce the Tingle Bottle, which allows players to exchange messages with each other. Nintendo will mainly allow players “who are close to you” to send and receive notes.
“We’re going to make it possible to maybe only get bottles from people who are close to you, but certainly there will be people who leave less helpful information. That too is part of the experience of interacting with others. My hope is just that lots of people leave bottles.”
