On the eve of the release of "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker," "Extended Play" sat down with the game's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. In this candid discussion we asked him about the history of "Zelda" games, the element of wind in "Wind Waker," and the controversial new 'toon shading graphics.
The beginnings
TechTV: The first "Zelda" game violated some of the traditions of games by not being linear. Was it hard to convince people that this was the new way to go?
Shigeru Miyamoto: I was actually very lucky, in the sense that I was able to work freely within the company and essentially create what I wanted to create without having to earn someone's approval. But it's definitely true that when we took the uncompleted "Zelda" game and showed it to people and had them play it, they kind of reeled back and said, "What am I supposed to do with this? I don't know what to do." We were able to use the feedback and I was able to find ways to give hints to people and almost guide them to where they were supposed to go. It became a very big learning process for me, and I think it turned out to have gone quite well.
The element of wind
TechTV: What are you trying to capture by having the wind element in "Wind Waker"?
Miyamoto: We are able to inspire our staff by getting them to work on graphic styles and gameplay styles that haven't been seen in other games. So trying to draw the wind was something that was very fun for them to do. We were able to do some very unique things with wind, specifically with the 'toon-shading graphics style that we've chosen for this "Zelda" game.
The 'toon-style animation
TechTV: Why did you decide to use these very stylized animations within the game?
Miyamoto: Last year in the United States we released "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" for the Game Boy Advance along with the multiplayer "Zelda" game "Four Swords." We have another Game Boy Advance "Zelda" game in the works right now. I was really worried that we might end up with many different "Zelda" games, with everything looking very different. And I didn't want that to happen. So, looking at the fact that Link is not maturing in the game, we really thought that this [graphical style] would be the most natural expression for Link and that he would be able to have a consistent look across all platforms.
TechTV: Were the graphics an issue in Japan, or were people happy with it from the very beginning? And how are the graphics being received now?
Miyamoto: There are some very passionate "Zelda" fans among Japan's female population, and by taking Link and making him so young, they lost that possibility for a love for this character. A lot of them were very upset about that, and other people of course were not so happy with the less-realistic graphic style.
[But] we found both in Japan and in the United States that once people [were] able to play the game, they completely forgot about the graphics.
Watch the streaming video above for more of Miyamoto's thoughts.
