In a recent interview between Eiji Aonuma and Official Nintendo Magazine, the Legend of Zelda series director has revealed even more details of Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time DS. Important key notes revealed about Skyward Sword are : Link’s arsenal (old and new items, etc), returning characters, a mean of transportation is hinted at, the timeline (confirming where SS takes place again) and if this new game will be a major reboot for the Zelda series.

ONM: Is the range of weapons more diverse?
EA: Of course some of the old items are back – things like the slingshot – but I really think that people will play this with MotionPlus and the items will almost feel new because of the technology. But of course if you look on the weapons menu you will see a couple of question marks – those are new items that aren’t available [in old Zelda games].

ONM: Will there be any famous Zelda characters in the game?
EA: I believe there might be! We really haven’t decided whether certain characters will re-appear or not appear. One of the things we talked about with our staff is how a character could be used in this game or would it be fun to tie in a connection that the fans would be appreciative of? I am pretty much letting the team decide how and when we implement that sort of thing.

ONM: Why have you changed the art style?
EA: The graphical style is the result of a collaboration between myself and Mr Miyamoto. We are both interested in art and it is a style that we like – we are very pleased with what we’ve done this time. One of the reasons we’ve chosen the art style we have is that we wanted to showcase the exaggerated characteristics of some of the characters, not only of the enemies, but the representation of the sword spirit itself.

Swordfighting is an important part of the gameplay, and Link is carrying the weapon and the shield. Because of the way we have put everything together you have to focus on how the enemy is carrying the weapons and there are a couple of different ways you can go about that – you can be super-realistic or not so realistic. We thought that because we wanted to highlight the swordfighting, we had to exaggerate the features and the art style we chose was suited to doing that. You have to match the art style to how the game plays, and we thought this worked better.

ONM: Is this a major reboot for the series then?
EA: It’s hard to introduce major changes to the Zelda gameplay, and one of the reasons for this is that we have some traditional elements that we have protected and continued throughout the series. You have a field, you have dungeons and there is a distinction between which area you are in and which style of gameplay you are participating in. So what we’ve tried to do is to introduce some new elements – this time we have larger fields and there are dungeons that don’t really feel like dungeons but will incorporate some of those elements. So we are reimagining some of the traditional gameplay elements.

ONM: Where does Skyward Sword stand within the Zelda timeline?
EA: There is a master timeline but it is a confidential document! The only people to have access to that document are myself, Mr. Miyamoto and the director of the title. We can’t share it with anyone else!

However, I have already talked to Mr Miyamoto about this so I am comfortable in releasing this information – this title takes place before Ocarina Of Time. If I said that a certain title was ‘the first Zelda’, then that means that we can’t make a title that takes place before that! So for us to be able to add titles to the series, we have to have a way of putting the titles before or after each other.

ONM: Has MotionPlus made it possible to create the Zelda game you’ve always wanted to make?
EA: Yes, when I first saw the Wii Remote that was one of the first things we thought about too. When Wii MotionPlus came along, and we saw how it was implemented in Wii Sports Resort’s swordplay game, we saw what we could now do in Zelda. Mr Miyamoto had thought the same thing – we then decided that we could do this in a Zelda game.

ONM: Is it a lot of fun coming up with new and different uses for M?
EA: Once we found that we could move the sword around as freely as we wanted, then we were like, ‘wow’! Through working with the sword we saw what MotionPlus could add to the game. Through that experience, ideas were born to implement the technology in other ways. So we were able to think of new ideas and items, and this time we really do have really new and unique ideas using the MotionPlus technology. I really hope you look forward to seeing how we have used it.

ONM: Will there be any vehicles in the game?
EA: Link does have to travel between Skyloft and the world below, so there will be a means of conveyance for him, but we don’t want to reveal that at this time.

ONM: Moving onto 3DS, can you tell us more about the new Ocarina Of Time game?
EA: I am excited. We are at the planning stages at the moment. I don’t want to give away too much right now, but I am looking forward to showing everyone what we have.

The 3D technology is perfect for The Legend Of Zelda series. It’s everything from the depth that you get from riding through vistas, or a more accurate sense of distance between you and the enemy you are fighting. I think it is perfect for this series. Of course we are very excited to see what it can do.

Check out the rest of the interview here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 1:22 am and is filed under Ocarina of Time 3D, Skyward Sword, Zelda News.