With The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom releasing later this week, the upcoming title, which casts Zelda as its protagonist, instead of Link, is the latest game to to be covered as part of Nintendo’s “Ask the Developer” interview series. Across multiple chapters, many questions were asked of Series Producer, Eiji Aonuma, and Directors, Tomomi Sano, and Satoshi Terada.
When talking about their involvement with Echoes of Wisdom and The Legend of Zelda, Aonuma, Terada, and Sano discussed the hardships of maintaining the lore and history of a game series that spans over thirty years:
Echoes of Wisdom Devs on Maintaining the Lore & History of Zelda:
Eiji Aonuma: Right, it’s very difficult to balance how much to add or change. At first, we were intentionally leaving any parts that might delve into Hyrule’s history vague, but partway through, we just couldn’t find a way forward that way… So, around last summer, we decided to hold a boot camp and work out the story there.
Satoshi Terada: It truly was a boot camp, indeed.
Eiji Aonuma: Even there, Grezzo didn’t offer any in-depth suggestions about the story at first. So, I went back to the hotel, quickly wrote a script that would work, and brought it with me the next day. Then, we all contributed various elements that often occur in The Legend of Zelda series to the script. Using this method, we eventually completed the game’s story.
Tomomi Sano: Over a few sessions, we spent nine days at the boot camps in total, working from morning until night. (Laughs)
Eiji Aonuma: These days, even for us, it’s not easy to touch on the lore of The Legend of Zelda series. When you address the history of The Legend of Zelda, you naturally have to be conscious of how things have been expressed previously in the series. But when we think about a new game, we need to think about new developments while being mindful of the past games in the series, so the scope of what you can do becomes increasingly narrow if you think in the same way every time.
On top of that, because the series has been running for a long time, players are interested in its history and lore. So, when we’ve adopted a game plot that was not in line with the other games in the series because we prioritised the gameplay, we’ve been told by our fans that it didn’t make sense. We realised that even if the developers didn’t intend to make nonsensical changes, players could interpret otherwise.
Even with this title, we had no intention of establishing any new theories in the series’ lore. Link goes on an adventure every time and experiences many things. But Princess Zelda has always had to take a step back in The Legend of Zelda series.
But this time, Princess Zelda is on her own adventure, so the story takes on a different perspective than before. I think that’s why we were able to create something new in terms of the story as well.
For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 13, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Chapter 3:
Ask the Developer | The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Participating Developers)
- Eiji Aonuma | Senior Officer, Entertainment Planning & Development Division (and Series Producer)
- Tomomi Sano | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Production Group No.3 (and Director)
- Satoshi Terada | Director, Grezzo
