Aonuma On Zelda In Spirit Tracks

In a reflective look at Spirit Tracks with Japanese magazine Famitsu, Eiji Aonuma revealed the real reason behind Princess Zelda’s ghostly state in the latest Zelda adventure: “People on the staff have wanted to have Zelda in the game for ages, but if we did that, then her skirt becomes an issue. Having girls in dresses in an action game is kind of hard to deal with. That’s how we got the idea of having her body stolen and her soul going inside Phantom Guardians.”

He also commented on why Phantoms were included in the first place: “I thought the idea of working together with the Phantom Guardians in your adventure was pretty fun. But they’re enemies, after all, so we had to think up some kind of motive for them to be your friends. At the same time, though, I liked how the Phantoms were a sort of ‘unbeatable enemy’ in the last game and I didn’t want to change that. That’s how we began to think about some way to use Princess Zelda.”

1UP has the full scoop, including why Phantom Hourglass is Eiji’s dream come true.