Aonuma several years ago: “I wonder what a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda would be like.”
☆ NintendObs Weekly – Monday, May 19, 2014 – Sunday, May 25, 2014.
This week’s issue of Famitsu magazine has a lot to share about Tecmo Koei and Nintendo’s upcoming collaboration, Hyrule Warriors. The game, known as “Zelda Musou” in Japan, is part of Tecmo Koei’s Warriors series of games, which employ the concept of a single character doing battle against dozens of enemies as once.
In Japan, the Warriors—or “Musou” games, as they’re referred to there—encompass a wide range of franchises, ranging from Tecmo Koei’s own Dynasty Warriors to collaborations with other companies, such as One Piece: Pirate Warriors or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. This week’s Famitsu features an interview with three key developers working on Hyrule Warriors, including Eiji Aonuma, known for directing and producing several Zelda games.
Aonuma, who is currently taking on the role of Hyrule Warriors’ supervisor, is joined by general producer Hisashi Koinuma and producer Yosuke Hayashi, both from Tecmo Koei. Famitsu starts out the interview by expressing their surprise upon first hearing about a collaboration between The Legend of Zelda and the Warriors series. They ask how it all began.
“Warriors has teamed up with series such as Gundam, Fist of the North Star and One Piece, and I thought about doing something with Nintendo,” explains Koinuma. “While thinking about what would make for a good collaboration, it was Hayashi that proposed [the idea] by saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda?’”
Koinuma explains that it was from there that they eventually spoke with Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo, who agreed on the collaboration to create Hyrule Warriors.
“This presentation was actually from several years ago, when they showed us One Piece: Pirate Warriors,” says Aonuma. “At first, when they said that One Piece would become a Warriors [game], I wondered, ‘How will that turn out?’ but once I actually played it, I felt that they did a good job of implementing the Warriors system.”
“So, it sparked my interest when I thought: ‘I wonder what a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda would be like.’ Shortly afterwards, Miyamoto told me, ‘The folks at Tecmo Koei are talking about a Zelda Musou. Are you interested?’ and I responded with ‘definitely!’”
Famitsu mentions that it seems like Nintendo were being very forward-looking about the entire affair.
“Yes, given Tecmo Koei and their ability to plan things out, along with many other titles they’ve shaped into the form of a Warriors game, when thinking about how The Legend of Zelda could be reborn [in such a way], we had far more expectations than uncertainties.”
Next, they ask Tecmo Koei how they decided on a Zelda collaboration, when considering the numerous titles Nintendo have.
“With Koinuma and myself included, we have many fans of The Legend of Zelda in our company, and that would be the ultimate reason,” replies Hayashi. “The basic fights in The Legend of Zelda series involve one-on-one fights, so ‘having over 100 enemies like the Musou games would surely make things interesting,’ was something we discussed among the staff.”
“You can say that luck also played a role,” adds Koinuma. “The title that our company wanted to do a Musou game collaboration with the most just so happened to be the one title that the folks at Nintendo said ‘we can entrust them with this one’ to, so we were both able to come to an agreement regarding The Legend of Zelda.”
Hyrule Warriors will be released on August 14, 2014 for Wii U in Japan. It is set for release this year 2014 in the West.
Source: Famitsu Magazine via Siliconera.
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