IGN - Aonuma on A Link Between Worlds' timeline placement, Yuga, dark Triforce, item changes, difficulty and more
Coming from an IGN interview with Eiji Aonuma.
Where A Link Between Worlds fits in the timeline
“As you probably know, after A Link to the Past, Link goes off on a trip. The Link in this game is a different one. So I think we can assume that it’s quite a bit farther in the future.”
On there being references to Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Link’s Awakening and the original Zelda games on the NES
“I’ll leave that to your imagination. Although, for example, Link’s Awakening is not a game that takes place in Hyrule itself, so it’s not like it directly connects to that one. Maybe that’s the right track to get you there?”
On Yuga's similarities to Ganon
“I don’t think he’s a Gerudo. I think perhaps the designers were a bit influenced by the art from past games. One of things we did with him, actually, was to make him a little bit ambiguous gender-wise, whether he’s a man or a woman. Having the longer hair and all. He also actually sings in the game.”
On the dark Triforce
“When you look at the logo, what that two-Triforce symbol is really trying to show the difference between Lorule and Hyrule. But I don’t think that necessarily corresponds to the way the Triforce operates in Lorule. How the Triforce in Lorule works connects to what happened to Lorule. I think you’ll see that in the game.”
On the handling of items being available from the start
“What I wanted to do was make a game where you could get stuck and get lost and you’d have to think about things, but you’d have fun doing that. Obviously, If you just get stuck and stay stuck, that’s not fun. If you get lost and stay lost, that’s not fun. But if there’s a way out that you’re able to get to, that’s where I think the fun of a Zelda game lies. In previous Zelda games, we've created the scenarios and linked them together in a line. But ultimately that becomes super linear. I think that’s not really that much fun. What I wanted to do with this new game, A Link Between Worlds, is to be able to give players lots of choices and let them be able to think about things for themselves.
You might come across one obstacle and have some idea, so you go and get an item and try to use that item to solve that problem. You might not be able to do it. You might fail the first time or the first couple of times and have to go back to get another item and do it again. But if you’re finally able to overcome something, that’s what makes it a fun game. As far as trying to bring that about and meet that challenge, which is what I wanted to accomplish with this game, the rental system is a big part of that. There are also lots of other things you’ll find in the game that are part of the process of bringing that type of gameplay about.”
- earlier dungeons are easier since they’re the first dungeons in the game
- later dungeons are tougher and have more obstacles
On items themselves
“As far as the items themselves, even though you have the items from the beginning, some of them are more difficult to use. Some of them will take more practice. I think that’s where you’ll find the differences in difficulty showing up. You might find a dungeon that requires you to use an item that you maybe haven’t used a lot yet, so you have to train yourself in order to overcome something.”
On why a bracelet is used for the paintings, instead of the series' magic mirror
“It just doesn’t really make sense to use a mirror. You see yourself reflected in the mirror, but then how does that translate to you becoming a picture on the wall? It just didn’t make a lot of sense. The magic mirror, after all, was really just an item for going to that other world. Here, with the ability to turn into a picture and the item that grants you that ability, that’s an ability you get, and just one of its uses is being able to go to the other world. Using the magic mirror as that item would have been kind of strange.”
On the idea of becoming a painting
“that was very much an early-on idea. I don’t remember exactly where the idea came from, but I started to have these discussions with my staff. You had Phantom Ganon in Ocarina of Time. He was able to go into a wall and move around. I thought that would be a cool thing to do. You could use it to slip through cracks in the walls and sneak around people and do all sorts of things.
That was the start of it. But then it became a question of, ‘How do we put that in a game?’ We could make that a regular item that you equip and use, but then it’s more like something you have to equip for that specific purpose and it becomes something that’s harder to use. We wanted it to be something that Link would use all the time. He’d be able to use it throughout the game. So we made it an A button action.
Once you have that ability, you’re able to do it at any time. Everything else came later, really. For being able to go into a wall, we felt like the side view was most appropriate for that. Then we thought that if we combined that with the top view and we move between those two things, we’d have an interesting tonal shift there, a contrast. That would give us different ways of looking at the world that would be more interesting. Once we had that, we could use the world of Link to the Past to create the rest of the game. We could use that as a kind of base.”
Link
Where A Link Between Worlds fits in the timeline
“As you probably know, after A Link to the Past, Link goes off on a trip. The Link in this game is a different one. So I think we can assume that it’s quite a bit farther in the future.”
On there being references to Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Link’s Awakening and the original Zelda games on the NES
“I’ll leave that to your imagination. Although, for example, Link’s Awakening is not a game that takes place in Hyrule itself, so it’s not like it directly connects to that one. Maybe that’s the right track to get you there?”
On Yuga's similarities to Ganon
“I don’t think he’s a Gerudo. I think perhaps the designers were a bit influenced by the art from past games. One of things we did with him, actually, was to make him a little bit ambiguous gender-wise, whether he’s a man or a woman. Having the longer hair and all. He also actually sings in the game.”
On the dark Triforce
“When you look at the logo, what that two-Triforce symbol is really trying to show the difference between Lorule and Hyrule. But I don’t think that necessarily corresponds to the way the Triforce operates in Lorule. How the Triforce in Lorule works connects to what happened to Lorule. I think you’ll see that in the game.”
On the handling of items being available from the start
“What I wanted to do was make a game where you could get stuck and get lost and you’d have to think about things, but you’d have fun doing that. Obviously, If you just get stuck and stay stuck, that’s not fun. If you get lost and stay lost, that’s not fun. But if there’s a way out that you’re able to get to, that’s where I think the fun of a Zelda game lies. In previous Zelda games, we've created the scenarios and linked them together in a line. But ultimately that becomes super linear. I think that’s not really that much fun. What I wanted to do with this new game, A Link Between Worlds, is to be able to give players lots of choices and let them be able to think about things for themselves.
You might come across one obstacle and have some idea, so you go and get an item and try to use that item to solve that problem. You might not be able to do it. You might fail the first time or the first couple of times and have to go back to get another item and do it again. But if you’re finally able to overcome something, that’s what makes it a fun game. As far as trying to bring that about and meet that challenge, which is what I wanted to accomplish with this game, the rental system is a big part of that. There are also lots of other things you’ll find in the game that are part of the process of bringing that type of gameplay about.”
- earlier dungeons are easier since they’re the first dungeons in the game
- later dungeons are tougher and have more obstacles
On items themselves
“As far as the items themselves, even though you have the items from the beginning, some of them are more difficult to use. Some of them will take more practice. I think that’s where you’ll find the differences in difficulty showing up. You might find a dungeon that requires you to use an item that you maybe haven’t used a lot yet, so you have to train yourself in order to overcome something.”
On why a bracelet is used for the paintings, instead of the series' magic mirror
“It just doesn’t really make sense to use a mirror. You see yourself reflected in the mirror, but then how does that translate to you becoming a picture on the wall? It just didn’t make a lot of sense. The magic mirror, after all, was really just an item for going to that other world. Here, with the ability to turn into a picture and the item that grants you that ability, that’s an ability you get, and just one of its uses is being able to go to the other world. Using the magic mirror as that item would have been kind of strange.”
On the idea of becoming a painting
“that was very much an early-on idea. I don’t remember exactly where the idea came from, but I started to have these discussions with my staff. You had Phantom Ganon in Ocarina of Time. He was able to go into a wall and move around. I thought that would be a cool thing to do. You could use it to slip through cracks in the walls and sneak around people and do all sorts of things.
That was the start of it. But then it became a question of, ‘How do we put that in a game?’ We could make that a regular item that you equip and use, but then it’s more like something you have to equip for that specific purpose and it becomes something that’s harder to use. We wanted it to be something that Link would use all the time. He’d be able to use it throughout the game. So we made it an A button action.
Once you have that ability, you’re able to do it at any time. Everything else came later, really. For being able to go into a wall, we felt like the side view was most appropriate for that. Then we thought that if we combined that with the top view and we move between those two things, we’d have an interesting tonal shift there, a contrast. That would give us different ways of looking at the world that would be more interesting. Once we had that, we could use the world of Link to the Past to create the rest of the game. We could use that as a kind of base.”
Link
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