Director Hiromasa Shikata Talks Tri-Force Heroes

Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes, is easily one of the more bold directions the series has taken in its long run, mainly because it focuses more on co-op play than a single-player adventure. Talking with IGN,   Director Hiromasa Shikata talked about how numerous decisions were made about the gameplay through tests with gamers, such as why three players instead of four:

“When we tried four player, we definitely wanted to incorporate the totem mechanic,” Shikata told IGN, “but what happened is that when you totem, the middle two players have nothing to do.“

He also notes how the dynamics between players was better suited for three players instead of four:

“When it was four players, the players split up into two and two and each of them would do their own thing,” Shikata explained. “So we thought that three players was the best number to have.”

Shikata had other ideas he thought would work, such as players fusing together…but it didn’t pan out:

“[The fused heroes] could only go in one direction if both players wanted to go in that direction,” Shikata said. “Unfortunately, that made the gameplay very hard, so we had to take that mechanic out.”

Oh, and what was the inspiration for Tri-Force Heroes?

“One of my teammates brought a picture of a circus act where people were stacked on top of each other,” Shikata said. “Looking at that picture, I thought that was a good way to use the 3D feature on the 3DS.”

Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes is available now.