Shigeru Miyamoto Talks about Skyward Sword’s Difficulty

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I just completed Skyward Sword, which really makes good use of the Motion Plus controller. Can you talk a little bit about how existence of Motion Control changes the development process of these videogames?

SHIGERU MIYAMOTO: First of all, thank you for completing Skyward Sword. You probably know more than I do when it comes to the game, because the version I played was actually the prototype. The version I played through was more challenging than the version you did.

The very first Legend of Zelda game for Wii was Twilight Princess. At the time when we were designing the Wii remote, we were thinking about incorporating the pointer functionality into the new Legend of Zelda game. I think, to some extent, our efforts worked out. For example: When players were trying to aim at some objects in order to shoot an arrow, or fire the hookshot, we came up with something really handy. Unfortunately, when the player was required to take a sudden and immediate action, and aim at something with a pointer, it took some time. And Link could not perfectly reproduce whatever you were doing.

We really wanted to do that. With the Wii Motion Sensing technology, it became possible. So we were able to incorporate the real sword-fight feature. It’s not like you’re just fighting by freely waving your sword. [In Skyward Sword], you need to see how your opponent is acting. You’re taking into consideration your opponent’s movements. It’s actually a real sword fight!

You said that you had played an earlier version of Skyward Sword that was more challenging. How much more difficult was it?

As the development period goes on, we get accustomed to the content and the gameplay and the riddles and whatnot. The developer is almost always thinking, “It’s too easy for me. It must be too easy for the player, as well.” The same with designing bosses: Because the developers are supposed to be very, very skillful in challenging these tough enemies, they often make the boss too tough. It’s a dilemma we always have as developers.