A Message from Aonuma & Why Zelda Wii U is Also Zelda NX

Since we finally got to learn about and see The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Eiji Aonuma has had a lot to say on the subject and given us plenty of interesting tidbits, such as why there is no playable female Link in new title. Why Link is right-handed this time around and so much more and now he and Miyamoto are telling us why Zelda Wii is to be a dual release!

But just before we do get to the all important reason why the game is to be on both consoles, first we will start with Nintendo UK. Posted on Nintendo UK’s site is a new post concerning the new Zelda title due to it being announced at E3. Among the new post, which you can see for yourself by clicking here, is a message from Aonuma regarding Breath of the Wild. A message we have right below:

“Dear Zelda fans,

The new Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Wii U, has finally been presented at E3. The theme for this new title is “rethinking the conventions of the Zelda series”. Breaking from tradition, the player has the freedom to go wherever they wish to go, to do whatever they wish to do, in a vast open world. This is a whole new, unprecedented game in the history of Zelda.

In the Nintendo booth at E3, we arranged statues of characters from the game in diorama-like settings, borrowed from the game. We wanted to entertain visitors and help them experience the world of the new Zelda game. The picture here shows Mr Miyamoto and I bravely challenging an in-game monster called a Bokoblin. I know we are acting a bit silly for our age, but I hope this gives you a bit of a laugh…”

And now that we’ve taken care of that little bit, it’s time to talk about why Breath of the Wild is to also be on the NX, but before we get to Aonuma, first we have to start with Shigeru Miyamoto as it was thanks to him and IGN that we got the answer. So when IGN asked Miyamoto why the game is to release on both titles, Miyamoto responded with this:

“It’s complicated because as we’re developing this — obviously development of NX started a while ago — and unfortunately, I’m sorry, but the development of this game took a lot longer than expected. We really felt like we would be able to get it done last year, but there was a lot of struggle with using the physics engine, so that’s why it took a long time.

Also, when we thought about developing a Zelda game for the NX, it would have to be way further down the life cycle of the system. And this game, rather than really focusing on the unique features of the Wii U, it’s really a game you sit down and get into. There was a change in direction, so we decided to develop for both consoles a while ago.”

Then not to be left out, Aonuma also had something to add, especially after IGN mentioned to him the similarity between Breath coming to the Wii U and NX, and Twilight Princess releasing on both GameCube and Wii. Interestingly Aonuma actually responded by revealing that “From the beginning” they were “thinking of releasing this title on both platforms.” He also followed up with the following statement:

“From the beginning we were thinking of releasing this title on both platforms. With Twilight Princess, I was looking at, this [then-new] platform called Wii and I had more of an outsider objective view of, ‘Oh this is coming out,’ he said. “But for this one I was slightly more involved with NX and just judging on the timing of development. When we were going to finish this, we thought it might be fun to have that available for NX as well. I don’t see it as something too unfortunate. I think it’s nice to have a single title that can be played on two different platforms.”

I should preface, I probably shouldn’t say that because the staff working on this game. It’s probably a lot of extra work for them so maybe they’ll get mad. To them it might be an unfortunate circumstance.”

I would imagine a great number of us wouldn’t be happy with this “answer,” but at least it’s something straight from their mouths as opposed to the occasional bloggers with a big mouth.

Source: Nintendo UK & Jose Otero of IGN