4Players: What are your favourite Zelda games and why?
Kondo: The Wind Waker, because of its anime style and cell-shading graphics. It felt like I am watching my favourite anime, but I was playing a game actually. I'm very fond of Wind Waker.
Aonuma: For me maybe now it's Skyward Sword, although it sounds a bit like PR [laughs]. We're always trying to make the game that we're working on the best ever. And I really think that Skyward Sword really came up very well. So I'm really proud of the game and happy.
4Players: What's the challenge in creating a soundtrack for a Zelda game and where do you get your inspiration from?
Kondo: One of the big challenges...well, it's something that I enjoy, but it's quite challenging, because Zelda games always have these new worlds and environments. And everytime I'm challenged to find the r
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| Lucky coincidence: Skyward Sword was finished right in time for the anniversary. |
ight music that will fit this new world. So what I do when I watch movies or TV or I listen to CDs I try to get an idea of what kind of music could fit with this new world we're creating. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges but also I enjoy that very much. If I didn't enjoy it, I would have probably quit my job already.
4Players: The remastered version of Ocarina of Time was a great idea. Do you have any plans to remaster more of the older Zelda games or even develop anything completly new for the 3DS?
Aonuma: Actually if we do remasters all the time then I think people would be angry with us. So what we want to do for the 3DS now is a brand new game. Our whole team was very very busy with Skyward Sword so we didn't have people who could start working on that. But it's something I think we will start now.
4Players: When the first Zelda games came out many players were were kids but are grown-ups now. Have you ever thought of a more mature approach for the Zelda games or do you think the series should stick to this fairytale image so both kids and adults can play it?
Aonuma: I'm not quite sure what you mean with this word mature. Are you saying you need more violence? Do you want to see heads getting ripped off and blood all over the place? Because I think if that violence is meaningless it doesn't really make the game much better. I truly believe that the games we are creating are insteresting, fascinating – also for grown-ups. And I think probably even grown-ups who are busy with work all day, it's great for them to enjoy a fairytale,a fantasy world and experience something different. I really believe that grown-ups also can enjoy those games.
4Players: Absolutely. What I meant was that Zelda games today are for everyone and if you ever thought of a darker approach, something like dark fantasy or whatever...
Aonuma: I think that Twilight Princess is in a way is a darker game. And I don't think that I want to create an even darker version of Zelda.
4Players: Your professional career is deeply connected to the Zelda series. Do you sometimes wish to do something completely different? I remembered Hideo Kojima saying something like that concerning his connection to the Metal Gear series. Actually he wants to do something else but nevertheless sticks or has to stick to Metal Gear.
Aonuma: In my case I would say I really like working on Zelda. I'm not tired a bit in any way. It's more the other way: This time the director was actually a young director named Hidemaro Fujibayashi. He created Skyward Sword and I'm hoping that he will also create future titles of the series. So I'm quite on the opposite: I'm now i
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| Nintendo celebrated the anniversary with a great concert in London. |
n a kind of mixed emotion about my own future. If Mr. Fujibayashi decides to take over what am I going to do? Do I have to do something else? That's more the kind of things I'm thinking about right now...
4Players: And with more and more games moving to the big screen with their own movies – have you ever considered bringing Zelda to cinemas as well?
Aonuma: I've spoken about this topic with Mr. Miyamoto and we both agreed that making a Zelda movie just without any special reason would be kind of boring. It would be just another movie based on a videogame. What we want is something special: Maybe people will bring their consoles and do something that changes something in the movie. I don't know. I'm not a movie expert. I don't know what's possible. There are probably some possibilities today I don't know about. We would definitely want to have something where people will have a surprise or a special experience. That would be a reason to do a movie, but just to spin a movie off the series I don't think this would be a good idea.
And there is another reason: Link is a player character. The games are designed in a way the players can identify with him. If we now create a movie with Link in it and we give Link a lot of personality I think it could be that lots of players will be very disappointed, because it's not the Link they know. They could be very disappointed to see that this Link is not what they always had in their imagination while playing the games.
4Players: Is this also the reason you don't localize and give Link and other characters a voice so everything will be in the player's imagination?
Aonuma: Exactly.
