Miyamoto discusses gameplay changes in The Legend of Zelda Wii U
In an interview on the official Nintendo website, Shigeru Miyamoto has been speaking about the latest The Legend of Zelda game. The Wii U title, which was first announced at this year’s E3, is already highly anticipated, especially with the series producer, Eiji Aonuma, describing it as an open world game. Miyamoto moved to explain what this meant and how they are looking to change move forward the gameplay from the franchise to make it more modern.
“This term means that there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily,” said Miyamoto. “In the traditional ‘The Legend of Zelda’ series, the player would play one dungeon at a time. We are trying to gradually break down such mechanism and develop a game style in which you can enjoy “The Legend of Zelda” freely in a vast world, whenever you find the time to do so.”
He later went on to say how last year’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was part of this same move to make Zelda less linear. He talked about how the 3DS title had evolved the traditional gameplay associated with the series, saying: “[In]The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, we broke that down and let the player rent different items from the beginning, so the player could use different combinations of items. In this way, we are gradually changing the structure of “The Legend of Zelda” series, and we are preparing to newly evolve the series for Wii U.”
From what Miyamoto has said it is clear the team at Nintendo are not just resting on their laurels. Instead, they are trying to change some of the fundamental gameplay features of The Legend of Zelda that fans have grown accustomed to in the series’ long life. It may well prove to be successful, A Link Between Worlds proved to be a critical and commercial success.
In a final note, Miyamoto also hinted that a new The Legend of Zelda title was in the works for the 3DS. The gaming legend stated: “In addition to that, we have ideas for Nintendo 3DS which we have not announced yet, so I hope you will look forward to them.”