Aonuma was not a fan of the LoZ GameCube tech demo

In an interview with IGN concerning the story of Wind Waker, Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed that the original tech demo for The Legend of Zelda on GameCube was not something that he enjoyed. When asked about the demo, Aonuma says it doesn’t feel like the Zelda that he knew and loved and the lack of surprises made it feel like a cutscene from Ocarina of Time.

It should be noted that the above footage was used purely for a tech demo to illustrate the GameCube’s graphical capabilities and was never intended to be used in a game.

“I saw that movie and I thought, ‘No, this isn’t Zelda. This isn’t Zelda at all.’ I felt like this wasn’t what I imagined Zelda to be. It wasn’t the Zelda I wanted to make. That video clip didn’t actually contain any big surprises. There wasn’t any kind of revelation going on. It was more like a continuation of the previous version.”

Given that we’ve seen several installments of Zelda games since that demo, including Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, it seems Aonuma knows that the magic of Zelda games is more than just the final encounter with Ganon. Be sure to check out the full review for more insight into the history of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.