Eiji Aonuma Says They Don’t Look at Sales Figures When Making a New Zelda Game

The reaction to Zelda U‘s reveal has been a bit of a mixed bag. While there are a ton of people that seem to love the art direction—something that seems like a mix of various other styles we have seen in the past (including Twilight Princess)—there seem to almost be an equal amount of detractors. There were a lot of people hoping for something close to the original tech demo (something Nintendo has yet to ever do). This was furthered by talk that Nintendo wanted Zelda U to be the best selling game in the franchise. Speculation ran rampant, including here, on just how they could accomplish that.

Sales still matter, but prior sales don’t affect the design principles behind new

Zelda games. Could this mean that The Wind Waker sales had nothing to do with Twilight Princess?

Mases Hagopian: “Two years ago you showed the tech-demo for Zelda. It had more of a Twilight Princess look and Hyrule Warriors has somewhat carried that same design. Twilight Princess though was one of the most traditional games, but it was also one of the most successful games. Does a game’s success, in terms of sales numbers, does that affect the type of Zelda game that you personally like to create?”

Eiji Aonuma: “I don’t look back. (laughs)

“I always want to create something unique, and the reason for that is not just because it makes for a more fun game experience once the game is completed, but as a creator it also makes things more interesting for my team and myself. Images and expressions and all of those things, in order to make those unique, we don’t start with a plan that is set in stone from the beginning, it’s definitely an evolution. We may have a basic concept in the beginning, but as we are working through those concepts, they are going to evolve, they are going to change. So that’s how that particular tech demo you saw early on has evolved to what you saw in the trailer.”

This is a fairly interesting point of view. It also explains why each Zelda game tends to carry it’s own personality, and why the art style of the series changes so frequently despite most agreeing that having a singular set style would actually increase sales over time. I agree with making a unique experience each time we pick up the controller, but sometimes one has to wonder when that innovation reaches a point that it might deter the series from future growth. We haven’t gotten to that point yet.

Source: GenGAME