Boosh!

The core development team behind the forthcoming Hyrule Warriors has spoken to Famitsu about the reasons for combining the hitherto unassociated Warriors and Zelda franchises. The Japanese publication spoke to Tecmo Koei producers Hisashi Koinuma and Yosuke Hayashi — as well as Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma — about the makeup of the team, with Koinuma confirming that Team Ninja and Omega Force collaborating on the title is a first for the two companies:

When it comes to getting a good feeling out of beating down enemies, Omega Force, who develop the Dynasty Warriors games, would surely have an edge in that department. However, as far as one-to-one combat goes, I felt that that Team Ninja, who worked on the Dead or Alive series, could also come up with something good. So, we just decided ‘let’s just mix them together!’

When asked about what elements of the Zelda franchise the team wasn't allowed to mess about with, Hayashi replied:

When we first began working on the plans [for the game], there were many things that we couldn't decide on from within our company alone, so we often went to Nintendo and also consulted with Aonuma for the more detailed parts. As this process went on, we were able to see a fine line between what we could and couldn't do with Hyrule Warriors.

It got to the point where we and Aonuma reached a common understanding of what we could do with Hyrule Warriors, and from there, development really really sped up.

Hayashi added that one of the key reasons for creating Hyrule Warriors was to change the perception of what a Zelda game should be:

The Legend of Zelda has a history of 27 years, and the way it is played has already been well-established. So at first, we went in the direction of wanting to make something that could follow the way The Legend of Zelda is played.

However, that is something you could experience by playing any game of The Legend of Zelda series, and even if we could imitate the surface of it, it’s not something we could actually make. In the end, we realized that it would be best to make a Warriors title that has elements from The Legend of Zelda series.

Aonuma added that Hyrule Warriors is not a game he could have made solely on his own:

There wouldn't be a reason for making it a Warriors [game] otherwise, right? I wanted Tecmo Koei to make a Zelda game that I can’t make. And for this reason, I asked them to ‘give it more of a Warriors approach’.

Elsewhere, Nintendo of America has put the official Hyrule Warriors site live along with an English logo, which suggests the working title is in fact the final name of the game.

Hyrule Warriors launches in Japan on August 14th.

[source siliconera.com]