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L'Equipe (!) interviews Eiji Aonuma

O

ohyouagain

Member
Worlds collide.

The whole interview is in French but there are some interesting bits.
My favourite quote :
Link a d'abord été gaucher, avant de devenir plus à l'aise de son autre main depuis The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (en 2011). Pourquoi en avoir fait un droitier ?

Effectivement, il était au départ gaucher sans raison apparente, simplement le fruit du hasard. Mais quand on a développé l'épisode sur Nintendo Wii (Skyward Sword en 2011), on a dû s'adapter aux joueurs pour leur faciliter le gameplay. Or, la majorité d'entre eux utilise la main droite, ce qui est également mon cas. On a qu'à dire qu'il est ambidextre (rires).

Vous savez, c'est un point qui n'est absolument pas important pour nous, ni même pour Shigeru Myamoto (le créateur de la saga). D'ailleurs, lorsque les développeurs de Hyrule Warriors (un beat them all dans lequel Link était la vedette en 2014), sont venus me demander s'il était droitier ou gaucher, je leur ai dit de faire comme ils l'entendaient...
Click to expand...

The interviewer asked why Link has been right-handed from Skyward Sword onwards and Aonoma replies that due this was due to gameplay considerations. Since most users are right-handed, they decided that Link should hold his sword with this hand too. But, he added with humour, we could consider that Link is ambidextrous. He also adds that Miyamoto and he couldn't care less about this topic.

L'Equipe is a sports magazine and to see them interview Aonuma is quite interesting and completely out of the blue. I'll let French-GAF translate any other relevant information if they wish to do so.
 
K

Keinning

Member
I had a french class ten years ago, they're talking about the new Zelda Soccer game
believe.

(why the hell l'equipe did this interview i'm shocked as well)
 
O

ornery

Member
I thought I'd seen enough L'Equipe after the whole Lacazette thing.

Then I sign onto fucking GAF......
 
T

Timeaisis

Member
ohyouagain said:
The interviewer asked why Link has been right-handed from Skyward Sword onwards and Aonoma replies that due this was due to gameplay considerations. Since most users are right-handed, they decided that Link should hold his sword with this hand too. But, he added with humour, we could consider that Link is ambidextrous. He also adds that Miyamoto and he couldn't care less about this topic.
Click to expand...

Haha, well we care, Aonuma!
 
J

Jackano

Member
Yeah I saw it couple minutes ago.

They have this weird and very forced "esports" news feed with pretty bad and presumably young intern writers. Has been like that for a few months.
They also have a TV channel with new esports programs about every little championship no one knows about, discussing news and results days after the only people caring saw it online.

In short, pretty much everything I hate in esports.
But looks like their intern writers managed to go to Japan Expo and find a sport related question.

In any case, they tagged the news with "football" so in case you wanted news about Verrati or Christos Tasoulis you couldn't miss the one about Zelda's DLC :D
 
L

L~A

Member
I love how they're basically saying "Actually Link originally being a leftie never meant anything, and we don't even care tbh". Certainly makes all those debates on the matter look even sillier in retrospect.
 
Z

Zedark

Member
Jackano said:
Yeah I saw it couple minutes ago.

They have this weird and very forced "esports" news feed with pretty bad and presumably young intern writers. Has been like that for a few months.
They also have a TV channel with new esports programs about every little championship no one knows about, discussing news and results days after the only people caring saw it online.

In short, pretty much everything I hate in esports.
But looks like their intern writers managed to go to Japan Expo and find a sport related question.

In any case, they tagged the news with "football" so in case you wanted news about Verrati or Christos Tasoulis you couldn't miss the one about Zelda's DLC :D
Click to expand...

lol, l'Équipe spoiling the new minigames in the DLC pack 2!
 
N

Nyoro SF

Member
The ending of the interview is interesting. He says that if you put too much fan-service (not the sexy stuff, but callbacks to the fans) in a game, it can end up "without taste". And I 100% agree with this.

It might be tempting to repeat all the hallmarks of past Zelda titles and shove in references at every opportunity, but if you do that too much it will end up a stale game.

L~A said:
I love how they're basically saying "Actually Link originally being a leftie never meant anything, and we don't even care tbh". Certainly makes all those debates on the matter look even sillier in retrospect.
Click to expand...

Now we just need them to do this with the "timeline".
 
D

DrArchon

Member
Nyoro SF said:
The ending of the interview is interesting. He says that if you put too much fan-service (not the sexy stuff, but callbacks to the fans) in a game, it can end up "without taste". And I 100% agree with this.

It might be tempting to repeat all the hallmarks of past Zelda titles and shove in references at every opportunity, but if you do that too much it will end up a stale game.
Click to expand...

You also end up with a game that new players feel left out of.

I think the fanservice of the location names in BotW was perfect. It's subtle enough that new players won't feel like they're missing out on a joke or something, but vets will see them and feel good that Nintendo still remembers the old games.
 
Jigolo

Jigolo

Member
Reminds me of the game informer interview where he said basically the same thing about the sun having a face in Majoras Mask. I love these kind of responses, personally. The internet runs rampant with speculation and theory and sometimes the answer from the creators is basically they don't give a shit.
 
L

LinkSlayer64

Member
Nere said:
Why would you care if he is left handed or right handed? It makes 0 difference.
Click to expand...

Growing lefty who played being a hero, loved to be Link because he held his sword in his left hand too, unlike most other protagonists.

Fuck all those tools made for rightys.
 
S

soqquatto

Member
Lights and Waves said:
Finally! Now hopefully everyone will shut up with the stupid theories based on what hand Link is holding the sword.
Click to expand...

the true Link was caught in a huge explosion after Skyward Sword and was put in stasis. This is someone posing as Link, a clone, or maybe a surgically altered and hypnotised person that really thinks he's Link.

wait, wrong game.
 
K

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
Can't even get his facts straight. Link didn't become right-handed with Skyward Sword like he claims. Twilight Princess Wii was when they made him right-handed.
 
M

maxcriden

Member
Nyoro SF said:
The ending of the interview is interesting. He says that if you put too much fan-service (not the sexy stuff, but callbacks to the fans) in a game, it can end up "without taste". And I 100% agree with this.

It might be tempting to repeat all the hallmarks of past Zelda titles and shove in references at every opportunity, but if you do that too much it will end up a stale game.

Now we just need them to do this with the "timeline".
Click to expand...

For a long time they did this with the timeline essentially and then it became a much bigger thing.
 
E

evil monkey

Member
This contradicts the numerous times he's said in the past (around TP release) that there was a good reason for Link being a leftie and that they were planning on revealing it later down the road.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
https://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/560103/Eiji+Aonuma+reflects+on+Zelda+Breath+of+the+Wild/?page=1
https://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/560103/Eiji+Aonuma+reflects+on+Zelda+Breath+of+the+Wild/?page=2

This is the same interview but in English.

There was a multi-outlet press event in Paris apparently.

I noticed that Link was left-handed this time. Normally Link is left-handed, except on Wii for obvious gameplay reasons. Is there an explanation for that?

It is a matter of chance that Link is left-handed in the first episodes, for a reason that we could not really explain today. When we developed the game on Wii, we actually had to change and adapt to the majority of players - and that's my case too, I'm right-handed - so we had to make sure that Link was right-handed on that version. But it was to adapt to the gameplay, so in the end I think we can say that Link is ambidextrous [laughs]. When the developers at Koei Tecmo, who are in charge of Hyrule Warriors, asked me a few months ago whether he was left-handed or right-handed, I replied that it was absolutely not important to me. Nor for Shigeru Miyamoto for that matter [laughs].
Click to expand...
 
K

Kwame120

Banned
ohyouagain said:
The interviewer asked why Link has been right-handed from Skyward Sword onwards and Aonoma replies that due this was due to gameplay considerations. Since most users are right-handed, they decided that Link should hold his sword with this hand too. But, he added with humour, we could consider that Link is ambidextrous. He also adds that Miyamoto and he couldn't care less about this topic.
Click to expand...
This hurts my soul, a leftie hero is important.
 
O

Oberon

Banned
Nere said:
Why would you care if he is left handed or right handed? It makes 0 difference.
Click to expand...

We lefties already have little representation, they can't take link away from us too!

dozens.gif
 
R

RedToad64

Member
L~A said:
I love how they're basically saying "Actually Link originally being a leftie never meant anything, and we don't even care tbh". Certainly makes all those debates on the matter look even sillier in retrospect.
Click to expand...
I'm sure they think about the same thing regarding the "timeline." They really don't care.
 
Moff

Moff

Member
I didn't even notice he changed his swordhand for skyward sword but I guess it made sense because of the direct sword motion controls since most players are right handed
 
Nitpicker_Red

Nitpicker_Red

Member
TheMoon said:
https://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/560103/Eiji+Aonuma+reflects+on+Zelda+Breath+of+the+Wild/?page=1
https://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/560103/Eiji+Aonuma+reflects+on+Zelda+Breath+of+the+Wild/?page=2

This is the same interview but in English.

There was a multi-outlet press event in Paris apparently.
Click to expand...

The structure is similar but some questions don't seem to be the same. Edit: or maybe the order is shuffled around!

•Quatre mois après la sortie de The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild, quel bilan en tirez-vous?
•On n'a pas suffisamment de recul car on n'a pas arrêté de plancher sur les DLC** depuis. Du coup, on n'a pas vraiment l'impression d'avoir terminé et de pouvoir dresser un bilan. On a essayé de tenir compte du retour des joueurs pour les DLC, corriger ce qui ne leur a pas plus. Cela dit, on fait quand même attention à l'excès de fan-service, parce qu'à trop vouloir contenter les gens, on rend les jeux insipides.
Click to expand...
He talks about the DLC and how it takes in account players feedback and correct what they didn't like. Speculate away on what that means.
(Followed by the already quoted part about "not too much fan-service to not make the game tasteless", still about the DLC probably.)

Edit: it was present in TheMoon's link too, in english. Just at a different place in the article.
What is your assessment of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, given the four months that have passed since its release?

Excellent obviously. But I realise that during these four months I have not stopped working on the DLC, so we kept our nose to the grindstone and we never felt like our work was done and that it was time for us to review it. One thing is for sure: for the last four months, we have focused on the player's feelings, analysing their feedback and possibly changing via the DLC what they did not like. That said, we are still very cautious with fan-service, because too much fan-service can make the game tasteless. What I enjoyed during these four months was seeing the players and the sometimes unique and unexpected ways in which they play our game. Because the truth is we designed a game by saying that they were going to play as we wanted, or at least we knew how they were going to play. But when you see on YouTube how some people use the content we've created, we're extremely surprised. We really did not expect that type of use.
Click to expand...

L'Équipe doesn't have questions like future Zeldas, eSports or VR, but GameReactor doesn't have questions about how sports are included in the games, which sports are off-limit for Link and which Link is the most sportive.
 
A

ASaiyan

Banned
TheMagician said:
They also reported that PSG are trying to buy Link for 100 million Euros.
Click to expand...
Real talk, how good do we think Link would even be at football
soccer
?

Can't recall ever seeing him kick something really far or really well. Not very muscular (though he does swing a metal sword around all day), and he can only run for a fairly short time without getting tired. And before BotW he didn't even have a jump, so goalkeep is definitely out.

I dunno if he could even make League Two, lol.
Though conversely, I'd like to see Ronaldo slay a freaking Gohma.
 
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