Mr. Aonuma has been fairly talkative recently. In an interview with Eurogamer, he said the following concerning his working relationship with Shigeru Miyamoto:
“When we were creating Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, the department we were working in, called Entertainment, Analysis and Development (EAD), was rather a small team. So with something as big as Ocarina and Majora, the entire EAD had to work on the same project by co-operating with each other. Everybody including me was closely communicating with Mr Miyamoto. Since then, gradually, the number of people working in our group has been on the increase and the number of titles EAD has been taking care of at any given time is increasing. Mr Miyamoto is on the board of directors at Nintendo and he has to take care of all the first-party software Nintendo publishes while I can concentrate on the Zelda games. In that sense, the distance between me and Mr Miyamoto – any producer and Mr Miyamoto – has been expanding, and even I have been taking care of multiple titles simultaneously. But actually Mr Miyamoto doesn’t like the idea: he would like to be as close as possible to the actual game development. That’s why, in the case of the new Legend of Zelda on Wii, he’s trying to take more direct hands-on and specifically at least once every month we are having a very intimate meeting where we confirm the status quo, we discuss what needs to be done and Mr Miyamoto gives instructions as to what we need to do. And in such a situation, of course there are some heated arguments, because each of us has his own idea as to what a Zelda game should look like, should play like. As time passes and as we are growing in terms of number of people working for the same department, naturally Mr Miyamoto has to keep some distance away from any other producers and developers, but I think we always try to have as close communications as possible in one way or the other. That’s how I think everyone including me has been communicating with Mr Miyamoto at Nintendo.” – Eiji Aonuma
Aonuma also had some interesting things to say concerning Zelda Wii:
“Talking first on Wii MotionPlus, I’ve been working on the Wii version of The Legend of Zelda simultaneously with working on Spirit Tracks and now we have already come to the stage that Link is wielding his sword just as you are shaking your Wii remote. It’s so natural I sometimes have to wonder why it was not available in previous games. I think it’s going to be quite surprising, but it’s so natural maybe not so surprising for new Zelda fans. But it must be quite a surprise for existing and long-term Zelda fans. Maybe they will say, ‘why couldn’t Nintendo apply the same system to Twilight Princess? You already had the Wii remote.’ Among the fans I think it’s going to be quite a big difference. As to other elements of Wii MotionPlus, I’m afraid I have to refrain from talking anything probably until E3 next year. The only thing I may be able to confirm is, we are trying to change the structure, how the game proceeds, in terms of how you have been playing The Legend of Zelda franchise so far. That’s a little thing I can say, but I hope people will be surprised by knowing what I mean right now.”
If you’re hungry for more, check out the full interview here!
