Zelda producer calls more linear entries ‘games of the past’
Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has said he believes that traditional linear series entries are “games of the past” and called requests from some fans to return to the style “nostalgia”.
Switch Zelda entries Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom revolutionised the series’ long-standing formula, with a shift to open-world gameplay and systems which empower players to tackle the game in a huge number of ways.
The entries have proved incredibly successful, selling a combined 50m units. Previously, the best-selling Zelda game was Wii’s Twilight Princess at around 9 million sales.
Speaking to IGN, Aonuma said he believed games “where you need to follow a specific set of steps or complete tasks in a very set order” were “kind of the games of the past”.
“Whereas currently the games of today are ones in which that can accept a player’s own decisions and give them the freedom to flexibly proceed through the game, and the game will allow for that,” he said.
“So I’m in complete agreement with that as our design philosophy, but as the producer, I do have to admit making games that way always carries with it additional development costs. And that is something I have to think about.”
The producer was then asked about those fans who enjoyed classic-style 3D Zelda games such as Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time and who would like to see a return to more linear gameplay.
“Well, I do think we as people have a tendency to want the thing that we don’t currently have, and there’s a bit of a grass is greener mentality,” he replied.
“But I also think that with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the series… there still is a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose. So I think that that is one thing I
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