Aonuma Motivated By Impressing Miyamoto

In a recent interview Legend of Zelda series director Eiji Aonuma talks about his work and his motivations. He mentions what inspired his ideas behind the last few games and why he made certain changes for each title. He talks about how each game should be a totally unique experience for the player and mentions that later games improve upon what he thinks were imperfections in previous titles. However after ten years of working on the series he admits that ultimately his main motivation is impressing the series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Jump inside to see what he had to say.

And how do you keep yourself and those staff creatively motivated and enthusiastic when the Zelda series has been around for so long?
My staff really are driven and kept motivated by the idea of seeing the players enjoy their creations. That is what I try and make them strive for and that is why they invest part of their life over many years into these games.
In my case, for me it is about impressing Mr Miyamoto; that’s the big one and that’s what keeps me motivated.

And does working in the shadow of the success of Ocarina of Time concern you?
Of course, I wouldn’t deny that I am always aware of the game and the praise it has received, and how much people like the game.
On the other hand, I do believe that all the Zelda games since have offered new aspects to the gameplay and setting.
We just recently did the 3DS version of Ocarina where we changed some things, and there were still difficulties.
Even with that version of the game there were things we could improve upon. One big issue we have dealt with is the saving system, where now you do not have to start the game over from the start point.

So does bettering Ocarina motivate you?
Yes, absolutely. But it’s not only Ocarina of Time. We look at every past Zelda title in the franchise, with a view to make people realise that the game has grown and improved. This is what we are aiming for with every release.

What is most core to the Zelda experience? What is so sacred to the series it could never be changed?
Well. Zelda has to be in the title. That’s something we could never change [much laughter].
That’s not everything though. There’s something that makes even the most distinct Zelda games feel similar in spirit.
Many people ask about that ‘Zelda-ness’, and I think Mr Miyamoto would say the same as me. What makes a game a Zelda game is the theme of uniqueness that we strive for.
A Zelda game should never be similar to anything else or resemble other games. This is always what we aim for, and that striving for uniqueness is the common denominator across the series.

You can view the complete interview here.

It is always interesting to get inside the heads of the creators of various series and see just what they were thinking when they made their games. I am always curious as to why they did some things differently. And this time it shows. I did view Skyward Sword as somewhat of an inversion of Twilight Princess. whereas Twilight Princess lad a large but relatively empty world, Skyward Sword had a much smaller but very filled world. It is good to see that they are constantly working to improve on what may not have worked in the past like this.

So what do you think? Did you learn anything new? Think he might surpass Ocarina of Time some day? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Develop-Online

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