Email: Dissolving the Zelda Team

Sometimes I get emails that are hard to format. This is going to be one of them:

 

Hi Malstrom,
At least a couple of times, I’ve heard you say that Nintendo should dissolve the Zelda Team. Though I’m not sure about everyone on the team, I generally think that this doesn’t need to happen or probably shouldn’t.

First off, I remember hearing that, during the development of Twilight princess, Nintendo moved people around within the team, switching things up and hired more staff. Apparently, this didn’t seem to make all that much of a difference in terms of a more refreshing experience (for us, that is). I think that the only reason why there is ever anything even salvageable in any “Zelda game” produced/directed by Aonuma is because the team that he is in charge of is extremely talented at designing games.

Let me give you an example: Yusuke Nakano was one of the main artists for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. He was involved early in development of the game with Satoru Takizawa as the art director and is credited for main character design/illustration and he also worked on Ocarina of time, credited for character illustration, according to a wiki.
I remember Nakano saying in an interview (the developer interview that is/was on the official Zelda site. Site is different now. now sure where to find it) that Twilight princess was his favorite Zelda (if not favorite game) to do art for because it was most in line with what he naturally likes to do, which is fantasy, and look how awesome the art for Twilight princess came out!

Direct link in case the picture doesn’t show up.:
(https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/zelda.gamepedia.com/8/87/TP_Link_vs_Stalfos.jpg?version=9b7c88b0c51c625d664aa948ddd8d175)Nakano has cited famed fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta as one of his inspirations:
(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–5mYc-MjE–/17irqn66x9m0ljpg.jpg)


(https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/zelda.gamepedia.com/9/99/OoT_Link_Sheik_Artwork.jpg?version=04e42aa2c098a490db1ea7f6a9a6a0da)
(http://frankfrazetta.net/images/Frank-Frazetta-DD1.jpg)

(https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/zelda.gamepedia.com/8/85/OoT_Young_Link_Ganondorf_Artwork.jpg?version=373be51427ef138bd9d498cebd18708b)Nakano naturally makes things like what we saw in Twilight Princess! This guy was born to make Zelda look awesome!

But Aonuma has him stuck making garbage like in the Wind Waker (I recall Nakano defending his work/reputation against the Wind Waker, stating that “even with Wind Waker”, he’d tried his best, or something like that)!Now here’s another example:

(http://i.imgur.com/vjeRm6k.png)

This chart I made demonstrates the combo system of Zelda: The Wind Waker… (The title probably should have read “combo system”, but oh well) I’m not sure how many figured it out as I never hear anyone talk about it, but I did and I loved it.

I got a lot of extra playtime out of the Wind Waker because of this system. It was fun to test it in different enemies, places and situations.

We all know that Aonuma has bad motor skills, hates action/combat, hates The Legend of Zelda and doesn’t even go outside…
So, who the hell’s idea was this combat system then!? There is no way that Aonuma could have been the one to push for this as I highly doubt that Aonuma had/has any desire to enhance the combat in any game.
I think whomever is responsible for that system probably knew better about Zelda than Aonuma, knew that the combat is
important and should be stepped up somehow. So they, themselves, likely headed this up themselves.
Don’t think so? Notice how the sophistication doesn’t match the rest of the game’s (bad) design?

-The game has no challenge
– Game never challenges you to use the system nor teaches you about it
-The enemy A.I. is garbage and there is nothing to fighting them

I think that the Zelda Team is very talented and probably shouldn’t be dissolved. They probably just need a better director/producer than Aonuma. Zelda:BOtW is already seeing a different director and things already do seem to be generally better…

What do you think, Master Malstrom?

P.S. Sorry if this email seems sloppy. Something about it comes off as rocky to me, but I’m not sure what to do about it.

P.P.S. I’d typed this message just the day before you made your latest remark about the Zelda team. I don’t know how the
Zelda Team is set up or who all is it made up of, but some of its member do work in other areas and on other games.
If you were to dissolve the Zelda Team, you might be throwing out some really good talent.

Also, I really want to thank you for responding to my email, “I agree with you about Zelda”. Since BOtW came out, I’ve been hearing from people that I find trust worthy that, despite any gripes with the game, they love it, say that it is magical and they score it high. I was waiting for you to finish the game as you were my final verdict. That verdict came a lot earlier than I was expecting when you assured me that the game is the real deal.
Now I can say for certain that I want to buy The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch!
I no longer have to keep my fanboy chained up and I can start feeding him again!

Thanks! :^)

I hear with Breath of the Wild that they got rid of the programmers and got new young people sa the programmers. This is where they put in their magic of the physics engines and all.

Here is what we do know: Breath of the Wild was inspired by the original Legend of Zelda (even has a 8 bit prototype made for BoW “Wow!”), Skyrim, and Minecraft. I have noticed a litany of gamers saying that BoW “Wow!” reminds them of some other game, or the successor to some RPG game.

How little do the gamers know that the origin of Open World all lead to a single trunk, a single Silver Seed!