The Legend Of Zelda’s Aonuma Says Inspirations From Age Of Imprisonment “May Be Reflected In The Game We Create”
The Legend Of Zelda’s Aonuma Says Inspirations From Age Of Imprisonment “May Be Reflected In The Game We Create”
by Joseki100
31 Comments
TravelerOfLight
Ugh. Can we not just move away from this take on Zelda games by now?
I’m so sick of open world. Give me a linear, focused Majora’s Mask.
Dangerous_Jacket_129
Perhaps they’re making a larger scale battle system rather than “some dudes attacking one at a time”?
Little-Witness-1201
If they’re using the botw formula again I have 0 interest
Dreyfus2006
What would they be taking inspiration from? Haven’t played AoI but it seemed fairly boring. Is there something really inspiring that would work in a Zelda game?
GenWorldGaming
They want to stay in the design, more power to em cause I’m done with this BOTW era. So I’ll never see it. Guess we will be waiting for Grezzo to give us what we want.
EatingSmallOakTrees
I probably wouldn’t buy a new traditional linear 3D Zelda. I’ve had enough of em
DedOriginalCancer
I find it hilarious that the fanbase was asking for open world/nonlinear Zelda for DECADES, and when BotW/TotK came out and became the best-selling (and arguably the best rated) titles of the series, they expect Nintendo to just stop doing them and go back to linear titles.
Like, even if they do another open world game, it sure as hell will be different from BotW and TotK. They always try to change things up.
DaveyRocketXX
Echoes of Wisdom was darn near the perfect sweet spot for me between classic Zelda and open world Zelda. It was fairly open in many respects, but still had a defined structure for its order of scenarios and, most importantly, a linear story. More than anything I hope that’s what they took from Age of Imprisonment — a focused, straightforward narrative. If the next 3D Zelda has memory cutscenes again I’m tossing my copy off a bridge.
ODowder
Man, I wish we had a new zelda game that was morel ike a twilight princess or majoras mask. I love the story based games, with cool dungeons and interesting side character/ quests.
I open world has become to our saturated where every game feels like they need to be that now and I rather would have a more tight experience
No-Honeydew9129
I have Botw/totk fatigue. Please leave this era alone and do something new Nintendo
sludgezone
How about making a new game instead of rehashing BOTW like you did with the last one? We waited how long and got a glorified DLC.
surrealmirror
So many BOTW open world whiners… we have literally no clue what’s coming next.
GenWorldGaming
I’ll say something crazier, not one puzzle in botw or totk is a memorable as Inside the Deku Tree using falling to open up the lower area in the dungeon. There isn’t a single puzzle that hits as much as the opening dungeon in OOT. Master Quest OOT is still blowing my mind over the puzzles as of late.
Sid1889
I hope they keep making games base on the botw and totk engine, there are so many posibilities and things they can do
StevynTheHero
When the article has multiple.paragraphs talking about the history of the switch 2, which is barely 6 months old, I know that they are just word padding, making the entire article worthless because it turns out that this is just an ad revenue opportunity and nothing to do with actual news.
This is literally a nothing burger.
GreyFoxNola
I hope to CHRIST they mean story or cutscenes. Because anything else no thank you
ICE-FlGHT
Can we go away from the modern look and go back to the oot/mm/tp style again?
howdudo
If we could get some actual story archs, classic tropes of evil, that’s all I ever ask. None of their franchises take the risk of being even lightly ‘disturbing.’ I want to see a story where the bad guy comes in, stomps hard, destroys legions of powerful good guys, scares tf out of you and *then* we start.. Zelda TOTK does a better job of this than Metroid or Mario but they could really flesh it out more than they do
Brzrkrtwrkr
Pretty sure they said the same thing about BotW with the first Hyrule Warriors, how different weapons approach how you approach combat. I wonder what they can take for Imprisonment.
Front_Pain_7162
God, Im terrified of the next mainline game. I have a really bad feeling that it’s gonna be the breakoff point for me. There are still plenty of great memories from the oldies, though, I guess.
Omega-A
I don’t understand what he means by “he and his team wanted to be the first to release a Zelda game on the switch 2”. Who else could release a Zelda game besides them?
Walking-Radiance
More cutscenes intertwined with the gameplay?
Maybe combo based combat (please lord, something more akin to twilight or windwaker at the least 🙏. So tired of battling long/radial menus instead of the actual enemies.)
Idk. There’s a lot they could take from the warriors games to enhance mainline I think. Especially combat wise.
jfxck
I’d rather they look at their own games and why they were so beloved in the first place, instead of musou games. BOTW and especially TOTK were so desperately trying to reinvent the franchise that they felt hostile to the previous games. “No, you can’t have heart pieces, Triforces, lock-and-keys – that was from the old, bad Zelda.”
SvenHudson
The new Link is going to be stretchy like Robo-Link and I’m here for it.
Gamer857
For those that want a traditional zelda game, I am with you! I also miss those days. I am currently (well was lol) developing a zelda-like game thats very linear (i know some dont like that but I dont mind it). Its a top down game as I am a one person team lol. But dont worry, even though I am one person, you can expect a top quality game as long as you dont mind the music being…not that great.
I dont want to give out too much details on the game but if you played most zelda games pre-botw then you will know what to expect from a design and gameplay perspective. All I will say is you will be weaponless until you get your sword.
I would love to expand the team size one day and make a 3D traditional zelda like game .
I had to take a break from the game for a while but development will continue again.
Dont expect the game to be out anytime soon, its so early in development that I still dont know how long it will take until you get your sword
Yesshua
He said something similar about the original Hyrule Warriors. He liked the experience of the classic bosses freely roaming across a map, and that influenced how they approached enemies in Breath of the Wild.
The dude is open minded and doesn’t think of spinoffs as lesser games beneath what he’s working on. If there’s something he thinks is rad and makes sense for the next mainline, he’ll absolutely lift it
Hopefully the thing that’s caught his imagination from Age of Imprisonment is how the flying gizmos got evolved into something Starfox adjacent. Monolith software has already made an open world game with mechs! You co develop with Monolith Soft! Give me open world Zelda with a Link who’s a pilot! That shit was awesome!
SirQuibblestick
I don’t think the inspiration has anything to do with the combat honestly, I like the warriors games but that combat has no place in the Zelda combat flow. Zelda isn’t a high octane action game of combos and the like, it’s a slower pace adventure/puzzle game. The souls combat style is probably the most intense it could get too, and by that I don’t mean Elden Ring, more like DS1 or DS2, since that fits more of the Zelda rhythm. I personally think his comments are about story telling, and how AoC told a cohesive, straight forward story, with multiple characters.
I could 100% see Zelda Next have you play as more than just Link for different gameplay sections, but that’s just my thoughts. I just can’t see warriors combat translating to a core Zelda game well, but I’m of course happy to be wrong if it ends up being the case
ThrowawayProllyNot
Hope they’re inspired to find a different art style than BotW while they’re at it
ProjectSubject6284
This is garbage. If the next Zelda is just a Botw type game with no actual Zelda game design again, thatll be a massive L. Hes been super anti zelda which is absolutely insane to me. Tradtional Zelda (which is what the series is) is wholly unique, fun, and there was never anything like it. There was absolutely zero reason to make it an open world game except to try and appeal to casual speds that dont actually like Zelda.
BOTW is popular because 1. it released on the switch and two. it appeals to a group of people that like it because its not zelda. As a triple a game, sure, its better than the slop that gets produced from triple a companies and sony and microsoft. But as a zelda game is terrible and they need a return the series to normal.
BOTW/TOTK lack any of the awesome game design, personality, hard work, vibe, music, etc of a real zelda game and its massively frustrating to see him constantly affirm that hes trying to make sequels to the series not be Zelda games.
pocket_arsenal
I’m not really happy to hear this. I think the spinoffs should be their own thing.
EDIT: Jesus this thread fucking sucks. I would say “I hate how divisive this series has become” but it’s not like this is a recent thing. People act like this the open air is what divided the franchise but let’s be real, it’s been divisive since Wind Waker. Probably even sooner, I was too young to remember what ALTTP fans thought about 3D.
31 Comments
Ugh. Can we not just move away from this take on Zelda games by now?
I’m so sick of open world. Give me a linear, focused Majora’s Mask.
Perhaps they’re making a larger scale battle system rather than “some dudes attacking one at a time”?
If they’re using the botw formula again I have 0 interest
What would they be taking inspiration from? Haven’t played AoI but it seemed fairly boring. Is there something really inspiring that would work in a Zelda game?
They want to stay in the design, more power to em cause I’m done with this BOTW era. So I’ll never see it. Guess we will be waiting for Grezzo to give us what we want.
I probably wouldn’t buy a new traditional linear 3D Zelda. I’ve had enough of em
I find it hilarious that the fanbase was asking for open world/nonlinear Zelda for DECADES, and when BotW/TotK came out and became the best-selling (and arguably the best rated) titles of the series, they expect Nintendo to just stop doing them and go back to linear titles.
Like, even if they do another open world game, it sure as hell will be different from BotW and TotK. They always try to change things up.
Echoes of Wisdom was darn near the perfect sweet spot for me between classic Zelda and open world Zelda. It was fairly open in many respects, but still had a defined structure for its order of scenarios and, most importantly, a linear story. More than anything I hope that’s what they took from Age of Imprisonment — a focused, straightforward narrative. If the next 3D Zelda has memory cutscenes again I’m tossing my copy off a bridge.
Man, I wish we had a new zelda game that was morel ike a twilight princess or majoras mask. I love the story based games, with cool dungeons and interesting side character/ quests.
I open world has become to our saturated where every game feels like they need to be that now and I rather would have a more tight experience
I have Botw/totk fatigue. Please leave this era alone and do something new Nintendo
How about making a new game instead of rehashing BOTW like you did with the last one? We waited how long and got a glorified DLC.
So many BOTW open world whiners… we have literally no clue what’s coming next.
I’ll say something crazier, not one puzzle in botw or totk is a memorable as Inside the Deku Tree using falling to open up the lower area in the dungeon. There isn’t a single puzzle that hits as much as the opening dungeon in OOT. Master Quest OOT is still blowing my mind over the puzzles as of late.
I hope they keep making games base on the botw and totk engine, there are so many posibilities and things they can do
When the article has multiple.paragraphs talking about the history of the switch 2, which is barely 6 months old, I know that they are just word padding, making the entire article worthless because it turns out that this is just an ad revenue opportunity and nothing to do with actual news.
This is literally a nothing burger.
I hope to CHRIST they mean story or cutscenes. Because anything else no thank you
Can we go away from the modern look and go back to the oot/mm/tp style again?
If we could get some actual story archs, classic tropes of evil, that’s all I ever ask. None of their franchises take the risk of being even lightly ‘disturbing.’ I want to see a story where the bad guy comes in, stomps hard, destroys legions of powerful good guys, scares tf out of you and *then* we start.. Zelda TOTK does a better job of this than Metroid or Mario but they could really flesh it out more than they do
Pretty sure they said the same thing about BotW with the first Hyrule Warriors, how different weapons approach how you approach combat. I wonder what they can take for Imprisonment.
God, Im terrified of the next mainline game. I have a really bad feeling that it’s gonna be the breakoff point for me. There are still plenty of great memories from the oldies, though, I guess.
I don’t understand what he means by “he and his team wanted to be the first to release a Zelda game on the switch 2”. Who else could release a Zelda game besides them?
More cutscenes intertwined with the gameplay?
Maybe combo based combat (please lord, something more akin to twilight or windwaker at the least 🙏. So tired of battling long/radial menus instead of the actual enemies.)
Idk. There’s a lot they could take from the warriors games to enhance mainline I think. Especially combat wise.
I’d rather they look at their own games and why they were so beloved in the first place, instead of musou games. BOTW and especially TOTK were so desperately trying to reinvent the franchise that they felt hostile to the previous games. “No, you can’t have heart pieces, Triforces, lock-and-keys – that was from the old, bad Zelda.”
The new Link is going to be stretchy like Robo-Link and I’m here for it.
For those that want a traditional zelda game, I am with you! I also miss those days. I am currently (well was lol) developing a zelda-like game thats very linear (i know some dont like that but I dont mind it). Its a top down game as I am a one person team lol. But dont worry, even though I am one person, you can expect a top quality game as long as you dont mind the music being…not that great.
I dont want to give out too much details on the game but if you played most zelda games pre-botw then you will know what to expect from a design and gameplay perspective. All I will say is you will be weaponless until you get your sword.
I would love to expand the team size one day and make a 3D traditional zelda like game .
I had to take a break from the game for a while but development will continue again.
Dont expect the game to be out anytime soon, its so early in development that I still dont know how long it will take until you get your sword
He said something similar about the original Hyrule Warriors. He liked the experience of the classic bosses freely roaming across a map, and that influenced how they approached enemies in Breath of the Wild.
The dude is open minded and doesn’t think of spinoffs as lesser games beneath what he’s working on. If there’s something he thinks is rad and makes sense for the next mainline, he’ll absolutely lift it
Hopefully the thing that’s caught his imagination from Age of Imprisonment is how the flying gizmos got evolved into something Starfox adjacent. Monolith software has already made an open world game with mechs! You co develop with Monolith Soft! Give me open world Zelda with a Link who’s a pilot! That shit was awesome!
I don’t think the inspiration has anything to do with the combat honestly, I like the warriors games but that combat has no place in the Zelda combat flow. Zelda isn’t a high octane action game of combos and the like, it’s a slower pace adventure/puzzle game. The souls combat style is probably the most intense it could get too, and by that I don’t mean Elden Ring, more like DS1 or DS2, since that fits more of the Zelda rhythm. I personally think his comments are about story telling, and how AoC told a cohesive, straight forward story, with multiple characters.
I could 100% see Zelda Next have you play as more than just Link for different gameplay sections, but that’s just my thoughts. I just can’t see warriors combat translating to a core Zelda game well, but I’m of course happy to be wrong if it ends up being the case
Hope they’re inspired to find a different art style than BotW while they’re at it
This is garbage. If the next Zelda is just a Botw type game with no actual Zelda game design again, thatll be a massive L. Hes been super anti zelda which is absolutely insane to me. Tradtional Zelda (which is what the series is) is wholly unique, fun, and there was never anything like it. There was absolutely zero reason to make it an open world game except to try and appeal to casual speds that dont actually like Zelda.
BOTW is popular because 1. it released on the switch and two. it appeals to a group of people that like it because its not zelda. As a triple a game, sure, its better than the slop that gets produced from triple a companies and sony and microsoft. But as a zelda game is terrible and they need a return the series to normal.
BOTW/TOTK lack any of the awesome game design, personality, hard work, vibe, music, etc of a real zelda game and its massively frustrating to see him constantly affirm that hes trying to make sequels to the series not be Zelda games.
I’m not really happy to hear this. I think the spinoffs should be their own thing.
EDIT: Jesus this thread fucking sucks. I would say “I hate how divisive this series has become” but it’s not like this is a recent thing. People act like this the open air is what divided the franchise but let’s be real, it’s been divisive since Wind Waker. Probably even sooner, I was too young to remember what ALTTP fans thought about 3D.
WE WANT WIND WAKER 2