Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 7.27.42 AMIn a recent interview with Polygon, Eiji Aonuma and Hiromasa Shikata shed some light on a few things from the latest addition to the Zelda franchise, Tri Force Heroes. One of the most surprising aspects to the game when it was originally announced was that although this game focuses heavily on the multiplayer aspect, there was to be no voice chat. The topic most definitely came up during the development process, but the team decided to stick with solely communicating through the various Link icons. Shikata said that through creating the communication icons those that did not know the dungeons “didn’t feel as discouraged”. The idea came while the team was testing the game themselves, split into teams they realized that the team members that where familiar with the dungeons would try and communicate that knowledge to the other players and “that became like a puzzle”. Shikata said, “So when these people who did know the dungeon were trying to communicate what to say, there was an a-ha moment.”

Jump in past the break to learn more.

When discussing the voice chat, Aonuma felt that the Link icons served as a “common language” where “everyone starts out at almost the same place”. Shikata said, “I hope that people can find a way to try to use those communication icons to communicate with other people to perhaps stop doing a certain action”.

The team focused on the multiplayer aspect of the dungeons as well as the items to be found in each area. Shikata explained how he would use Post-it notes when creating the dungeons in the game, he would use them to make notes of each of his ideas and then put them all together once he was done. They wanted to focus on smaller bite-sized dungeons that could be completed in “12 to 15 minutes” so that it would make some of the communication challenges easier to manage and be more flexible for all players involved.”With this multiplayer game, we wanted to think of a limited time because everyone is playing together, so we didn’t want someone to disconnect or end a little earlier”, said Aonuma.

Initially they had wanted to duplicate the four player aspect seen in Four Sword Adventures but interestingly Shikata shared that the idea for the “totem” mechanic came from a circus performance that he had watched, where three clowns had stood on each others shoulders. “Making it three players, everyone stays in proximity to each other,” Shikata said.

What are your thoughts on the lack of voice chat and “totem” mechanic? How have you enjoyed playing Tri Force Heroes so far? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Polygon

Sorted Under: Tri Force Heroes