Legendary producer Eiji Aonuma has written a new segment for the official Nintendo website, which details his plans for the upcoming Zelda Wii U game. Aonuma wanted to stress that he wasn’t giving too much away, but that the enormous landscapes he hinted at during the E3 presentation would be entirely possible. Here’s what he had to say:
I still won’t say so much about this, but we made it a theme of sorts to review the commonplaces of Zelda. In the Wii U version, I feel like I have to say, “the game will take place in a vast world!” For example, “If you go to the other side of that mountain, what will happen?” or “I have seen this from this side, but I wonder what appears from the other side.” You can play like this, but you might not be that free in the game quite yet. At this time in the Wii U version, if you just think you can continue walking freely, beyond the mountains, over the valleys, you will just continue to walk until you’re very far away. So how you will play the new Zelda, well… I look forward to how everyone will do so!
From this description of the game it sounds as though the game is being designed to be as open world as a game like Skyrim, where you can go and explore anywhere right from the start. We know from Aonuma’s discussion about A Link Between Worlds that Aonuma is becoming fond of game design that lets you explore any dungeon you’d like whenever you like, instead of being required to head somewhere for a specific upgrade.
What do you want to see Aonuma talk about next? We haven’t heard much about the dungeons inside Zelda Wii U, which is arguably one of the most important points of gameplay.
