The lights are on
Last month, Zelda fans experienced mass anxiety at news of Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto's intent to make the next Zelda game easier. Yet, when The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was announced a couple days ago at E3, it certainly didn't look easier. Due to the game's fully-realized motion controls, players will need to attack enemies from specific angles just to injure them.
I was curious about the meaning behind the quote, so I asked Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma during an interview yesterday. He responded in the most straightforward manner possible: "I do not want to make Zelda easier."
"Easy to me does not equal fun," Aonuma explained. "I want puzzles where people have to think about it, and when they solve the puzzle, there's that feeling of accomplishment. That's something that's really valuable, that concrete feeling that when you accomplish something [in the game], it feels like you've done something worth doing. If the game is too easy, the accomplishments aren't valuable."
Aonuma also elaborated on the quote from Miyamoto that caused this worry in the first place:
"When Mr. Miyamoto says easy, he doesn't mean simple. He means easily -- this is the difficulty of the language here. It's accessible, and you know how to do things, if not necessarily what to do. You may have a series of puzzles to figure out, and it may be difficult to decipher the meaning, but it's not difficult to accomplish what you need to do."
Essentially, I think what Aonuma was saying (and what Miyamoto was trying to hint at) is that the new motion controls make the combat natural without having to learn many button combinations. It was an unfortunate misunderstanding, but one that's nice to have cleared up.
That's cool... They know what there doing.
well you learned your lesson miyamato. Be carefull what you say.
WHEW! I'm glad to see that they aren't going to water down Zelda with simplified puzzles or any nonsense like that. Thx for asking him about that Phil!
good. but a word of advice: make the next Zelda harder. the last few were far too easy and disappointed me to some extent. hopefully we get a Master Quest mode.
Good. Just be sure to polish the animation to a Wind Waker level (or beyond) and I'm completely sold.
i really cant wait for this game! too many games are coming out!
AWESOME
I'm really worried, from the demo at E3, it looked like there was not much room for other items in the selection screen. Gameinformer, does this mean that this will be a short Zelda game, and tha there will not be many dungeons?
...And there was much rejoicing.
that's good.
Yay!
Aonuma is absolutely correct in that statement, if the game is too easy, the accomplishments aren't valuable. I'm happy they won't make it easy.
I knew Miyamota have not let us down!
I knew what he meant the whole time. everybody just jumped to conclusions and went all crazy.
Im up for some harder puzzels. The past types have been used in so many past games that you know what to do.
Aonuma FTW!
if miyamoto really wants to make it easier then just make and Easy and Hard modes, but really, Zelda games only need one difficulty
Yahoo!
I remember one time in OoT when me and my friend were seriously stuck on a puzzle. we were trying to figure out how to progress, leaving the dungeon, then returning, and never getting farther than that puzzle. and you all will laugh about this: it was in the Dodongo's Cavern, where you simply had to drop the bombs into the eyes of the giant Dodongo carving. the clue for the puzzle was "Giant dead Dodongo...when it sees red, a new way to go will be open." but it actually stumped us more.
and when we finally just simply dropped the bombs into the eyes, we had the feeling of "DUH!!!", but also that feeling that you get when you solve something difficult. the newer games have never given me that. I hope this game will.
I'm glad Aonuma is on the same page as me. Miyamoto is right to make it simpler but the game itself doesn't need to be easier.