In Nintendo’s Ask the Developer Vol. After 13 series of interviews, it was revealed that Tomomi Sano will be the first director of The Legend of Zelda game.
As Game Director on behalf of Nintendo, Sano will oversee the work of Grezzo, the developer, to ensure it meets the expectations of Nintendo and fans.
When asked about her previous roles at Nintendo, this is what she said:
“Before this project, my main role was to support the director. As for the remakes that Grezzo worked on, I was involved in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. I also worked on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, as well as some of the titles in the Mario & Luigi series released before Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood, which will be released this November.”
In the second part of the interview, Sano also detailed the game’s “echoes” mechanic and how it evolved during development.
“Princess Zelda doesn’t have a way to attack directly in the beginning, so there was a tendency for a game that uses echoes to just end up being a situation where you’re watching things you’ve copied do. It felt like they were doing everything for you and you were forced to wait… So we asked Grezzo to tweak it so that players instantly feel a sense of accomplishment like, ‘I did it!’ For example, if you made an echo monster, that echo would immediately attack the enemy, just like you swing your sword. Or if you want to start a fire, you can use an echo with that ability and it would instantly start a fire. We’ve made those kinds of adjustments throughout the game’s development to make those kinds of intuitive responses feel exciting to players.”
With Sano bringing both her expertise and perspective to the franchise, it looks like the latest Zelda game, out September 26 for the Nintendo Switch, will break barriers and tread new ground in more ways than one.
Be on the lookout for our review to see if Princess Zelda’s first major adventure proves fit for the history books and worthy of legend.