Nintendo of America Reportedly Had Concerns About Hyrule Warriors Finding Its Audience
Posted on June 02 2024 by Leslie Jacobson
Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang (who previously worked at Nintendo of America for over 10 years, and were also the hosts of the Nintendo Minute web series) recently shared some interesting information about the original Hyrule Warriors in Episode 120 of their own hit Kit & Krysta Podcast. In the “Questions from Our Patreon Subscribers” segment of the show, user Gartooth asked, “When you were working at Nintendo did you ever release a game that other people in the company thought was bad or wouldn’t live up to expectations?”
Kit and Krysta said the issue oftentimes was not one of quality, and Krysta specified the issue was more, “What audience is going to want this?” Krysta gave the example of JRPGs, which have fewer sales numbers in America than they do in Japan. Kit then specifically mentioned Hyrule Warriors.
Within NOA [Nintendo of America] there was a lot of worry… like this game’s not going to be good, or this is going to like drop the status of Zelda. Like, maybe we should just tell Japan we’re not going to put it out and just keep it in Japan.
He continued:
I had the opposite impression. As a Dynasty Warriors fan I was like, “This is awesome, I love these games.” There’s a surprisingly big audience for these games so maybe get over it? … They eventually did and it sold great.
Krysta also pointed out the prequel Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was quite good. You can watch and listen to the specific question and the response here.
Hyrule Warriors, of course, has become a successful spinoff of the Zelda series. The original game for the Wii U was ported over to the 3DS with additional features in Hyrule Warriors: Legends, as well as ported to the Switch in Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity did quite well sales-wise. The Hyrule Warriors series is well-liked enough that many fans speculate that a Hyrule Warriors game centered around the Imprisoning War mentioned in Tears of the Kingdom would be an excellent addition.
What do you think? Are you surprised Nintendo had reservations about Hyrule Warriors? Did it drop the status of the Zelda brand? Let us know in the comments!
Source: Kit & Krysta Podcast (via Nintendo Everything)
Leslie is a mom, a cosplayer, an educator, and a fervent fan of The Legend of Zelda series. She lives in an area of the United States that reminds her of the Akkala region in the fall and Hebra the other 11 months of the year. She owns The Legend of Zelda t-shirts older than most of her students.
