The middle Nintendo Dream recently interviewed the Koei Tecmo team about their work with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Cataclysm, and PushDustIn has gone ahead to translate the information, giving us a more in-depth look behind the development of this release.
Something interesting about this interview is that the producer Yosuke Hayashi has stated that the team was very concerned with working with the story, as the role of narrative in their games “musou” usually serves to connect characters, but is not a main feature. In this case it was much more relevant, being a canonical story of the series The Legend of Zelda.
The developers relied on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including their DLC, to elaborate the combat style of the 4 champions. They were also based on the weapons Revali left for Link, as well as the journal entries and mementos. The official Zelda team played an important role in this phase, as they were in charge of adjusting the concepts proposed by Koei Tecmo instead of rejecting them.
Daruk was created as a heavy character, but he was too slow, which they fixed by adding his magma attacks. At first all the characters had the same Paravela, but because Daruk was too big, they decided that each character would have their own.
If you are interested in more parts of the interview, you have a summary below, courtesy of GoNintendo:
- With Mipha, the team started with their weapon as a base, and then added their special abilities
- The team wanted all 4 champions to be easy to learn to use
- Mipha was made before Link’s Trident move was established
- It was important to make each character true to the original source
- Revali’s concept was flight, and it took the team several tries to reach the final result.
- Sheikah items can be used in the air as well, and it’s different from using them on the ground.
- Urbosa’s special action is to be able to charge lightning, and the team jokes as if it were charging a mobile
- Impa’s feeling was that of a “Trickster”, Zelda’s was that of a “Magician”, and both Link and Urbosa were “Orthodox.”
- Urbosa’s style of play is probably the most direct of the 4 champions
- Urbosa is very popular in North America
- Obab was one of the first characters decided and the whole team was in favor of his inclusion. His theme was to wear koroks and dance
- The team had problems with Obab’s size, so they decided to make his head semi-transparent to help the player
- It was decided early in development that Monk Makkosh would represent the 120 monks in BoTW
- Since Monk Makkosh was the last boss of the DLC, the team felt that he would be the most memorable. They also felt that Obab and Monk Makkosh would appear naturally during the events that happened 100 years before BoTW.
- Doing the voice for Monk Makkosh was very difficult, and they worked closely with the Zelda team to make sure it remained mysterious.
