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 three chapters, many questions were asked of Series Producer, Eiji Aonuma, and Directors, Tomomi Sano, and Satoshi Terada.
When talking about Echoes of Wisdom, Aonuma and Sano had plenty to say about how sound impacted the game and helped to give it more of that “The Legend of Zelda” feeling:
Echoes of Wisdom Devs on How Much Sound Impacted the Game:
Eiji Aonuma: Speaking of that “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling, creation of the sound starts later in development, and for this game, it really helped increase that feeling at the end of development.
Earlier in development, we spent a long time making the game without any sound implemented. But then, towards the end, as we started mass production of data and shifted the work to move towards the final product, the sound team came to us saying, “Here’s what the main theme sounds like”, and had us listen. And it was just like, “Wow, this is it!”.
It’s like you’re pulled right into the world of the Legend of Zelda… It’s amazing how much difference there is between having music and not having any. The sound team has spent many years working on the Legend of Zelda series, so I guess you can say there is a certain “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling ingrained in the audio too.
Tomomi Sano: The scene where you first confront Ganon is really good.
Eiji Aonuma: For me, it’s when you enter Suthorn Prairie from Suthorn Beach, and the main theme starts playing. That part really got me.
Tomomi Sano: The moment you leave the cave and that theme starts playing, that’s the first time you hear it in the game. I feel like that scene was really created to resonate with the player’s feelings. You don’t know where it is that you’ve arrived, but you get the feeling that the real adventure is about to start.
Eiji Aonuma: The sound team takes the near-finished game, and while imagining how players would feel in each scene, they compose music to fit those scenes and have it play each part at exactly the right moment.
And I didn’t notice this in the beginning because I was too busy with the gameplay, but on my sixth, seventh, or eighth playthrough of this game, I was relaxed enough to make pleasant discoveries like, “Oh, so this music plays in this scene!”. (Laughs)
Tomomi Sano: You’re enjoying the game more than anyone else. (Laughs)
Eiji Aonuma: You know, that final scene…
Satoshi Terada: Oh yeah, I know what you mean. (Laughs)
Tomomi Sano: You can’t talk about that here! (Laughs)
Eiji Aonuma: I know, I know. (Laughs) But I felt the power of music was so strong, it nearly brought me to tears. As the music played, I thought, “Wow, that’s good”. It was really moving. Agh, I’ve got to play it through again now.
For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 13, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Chapter 4:
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
