It also sounds like the game’s origins revolved around a Zelda dungeon maker idea.
By Evan Campbell on September 23, 2024 at 12:28PM PDT
You probably haven’t heard of Tomomi Sano before, but the Nintendo employee just broke a big barrier for The Legend of Zelda series. She is now the first female director for the franchise after helping to helm The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which comes out in mere days.
Nintendo revealed the milestone for Sano in a new Ask the Developer volume focusing on Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. She is part of the company’s Entertainment Planning and Development Department with Production Group 3 and previously collaborated with Grezzo on a handful of Zelda remakes: Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D, and Link’s Awakening. (Yes, Nintendo is finally confirming Grezzo’s involvement as the developer behind the new Switch exclusive.)
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Additionally, Nintendo and Grezzo shared the beginnings of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Interestingly, the game initially emerged similar to a Zelda Maker concept—akin to the Super Mario Maker series, but centered around dungeon crafting and sharing. Grezzo’s Satoshi Terada, a co-director of the game alongside Sano, spoke about the chance to develop a novel Zelda installment and their assorted concepts.
“We were testing various gameplay methods simultaneously. In one version, Link had the ability to duplicate and arrange objects like doors and candlesticks, to invent unique dungeons,” Terada explained. “This phase of experimentation was termed ‘edit dungeon’ as it allowed players to craft their own Legend of Zelda scenarios.”
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma noted that while crafting personal dungeons and enabling others to experience them was entertaining, what truly appealed to him was the duplication and arrangement of items. This idea ultimately became a core aspect of the game, transitioning the focus from dungeon creation to utilizing these replicated items to further personal quests.
This led to Sano mentioning that Aonuma basically upended the tea table, a phrase usually attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto. But she backed up Aonuma on the shift, saying: “Of course, creating dungeons was fun, but being able to copy various objects and use them in different places was even more fun.”
Earlier this month, the Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom ROM reportedly leaked, so be careful of spoilers online with the game releasing later this week on September 26. For more, check out GameSpot’s Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom preview, which notes the game plays like a mini Tears of the Kingdom.
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