Eiji Aonuma Promises to Stop Overdoing Tutorials in Future Zelda Games

One thing I think the internet can agree upon is that the tutorial in Skyward Sword was overly long, to the point it actually turned some people off. Of course, with reviewers and journalists out there like Tom McShea, it’s understandable why the tutorials can be so lengthy. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop those people from not understanding the controls (It’s okay Tom, you’re not all bad, but we’ll never forget the whole Skyward Sword fiasco). However, for the rest of us, we’re about to get some sweet relief, which started in A Link Between Worlds and will likely continue in Zelda U.

Schreier: So in Skyward Sword, a few years ago, I think that a lot of people loved that game—I enjoyed that game quite a bit—but one of the biggest criticisms or complaints was that it took a very long time to actually jump into the gameplay because there were a lot of tutorials and a lot of introduction and cut-scenes in the beginning. Then Link Between Worlds came along and you just jumped in right away. So I wonder, when planning for future games, are you going to go more towards that Link Between Worlds approach or Skyward Sword, or something in between? How do you feel about intros and tutorials these days?

Aonuma: Yes. When we created Skyward Sword, I really felt the need to make sure that everyone playing the game understood it. But I also understand now, in hindsight, that when you go out and buy a game, you buy the game because you want to play it, and you don’t want to have any obstacles in the way. And I guess it was received as a bit of an obstacle. In a game, it’s when you get stuck, when you want that help. And I kinda frontloaded all that in Skyward Sword, and it doesn’t really help to get that information when you don’t know what to do with it. So that was a real learning experience for me. So I’m going to be careful not to do that.

As I promised to some, here is my obligatory “Eiji Aonuma is doing it right, and just doesn’t give a fuck” moment:

Source: Kotaku