Aonuma Talks Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time 3D

IGN got a chance to sit down with Eiji Aonuma and talk one-on-one about Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time‘s 3DS makeover, and thanks to them, we have an interesting new tidbit. Skyward Sword‘s director was revealed to be Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who was the director of Minish Cap and did some work with the two DS Zeldas as well.

It seems that the team has wanted to truly “remix” Ocarina of Time for some time, but with the 3DS they’ve finally gotten a worthy opportunity to do so. Also, for those of you wondering what the future might have in store for Toon Link or Four Swords: no current projects are in planning, but they may come up at a later date. Aonuma also commented at length on how he feels tied down to the Zelda series:

IGN: So I’ve been sitting here just asking questions to you about Zelda. Kind of assuming that all you do at Nintendo is Zelda. But is there anything else you’d like to talk about? Other tasks at Nintendo that you work on, and maybe not everyone knows about?

Aonuma: It’s interesting—because we’re doing this with Nintendo 3DS as well—when we look at new hardware platforms and consult with software teams, we ask “what are you guys looking for, what do you want?” And everyone who comes and talks to me says, “Hey, if we’re going to put Zelda on this platform, what would you like to do?” I always have to be thinking about, OK, Zelda. Zelda. And then more Zelda. It’s all I’m able to think about, because I know all those questions will be coming to me and I have to prepare some answers. So if I ever wanted to do anything away from Zelda or outside of the Zelda universe, I think really what I’d have to do is take something like a year-long sabbatical, leave the company and go somewhere else. Otherwise I’m just trapped in the Zelda cage.

IGN: You don’t have any pet projects you’re working on that don’t involve Link or Zelda?

Aonuma: Well, I can’t really say that, because I do. I sit and think about stuff that has nothing to do with Link or Zelda, and I’ll start writing down the ideas I have and start doing some character designs, and then before I know it I’ll look at those character designs that I’ve set off to the side and they somehow make their way into Zelda.

You can read the full interview here.