Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Director Makes 2023 'Variety500' List

3 straight games directed by Fujibayashi. It’s time to get a new guy whether you liked Skyward through TotK or not. It’s time for a different perspective.

This game is dead, buried and forgotten.

Haters gonna hate 😂

Makes a lot of sense considering TOTK made good on a lot of Skyward Sword's bungled potential. Maybe the next game he works on can do the same for Twilight Princess.

@Yoshif3 I was so disappointed by Breath of the Wild that I haven't even touched Tears of the Kingdom yet, and I still think that's an awful take. I'd always prefer to leave a beloved property in the hands of someone who's proven they can do right by it than pass it off to someone who might try to create their own spin on it and end up compromising what made it special in the first place. That being said, I have no idea how to feel about this guy. He directed my favorite 2D Zelda, Minish Cap, and my favorite 3D Zelda, Skyward Sword, only to turn around and toss out everything that made me love those games. If they are finally moving on from the current version of 3D Zelda with the next game, then I'd like to give him at least one more opportunity to make something I can be truly excited for again.

@Anachronism I mean Zelda has always been a franchise in which it has progressed through different directors following the DNA stablished by the first games.... so it wouldn't be nothing new to have a new director. So... I decided to do a research of all the directors the franchise has had, just for fun:
TLOZ- Takashi Tezuka + Shigeru
AoL - Tadashi Sugiyama
ALTTP - Takashi Tezuka
LA - Takashi Tezuka
OoT - Aonuma + Koizumi + others
MM - Aonuma + Koizumi
Oracle games - Fujibayashi
Four Swords - Fujibayashi
WW - Aonuma
FSA - Suzuki
Minish - Fujibayashi
TP - Aonuma
PH - Iwamoto
ST - Iwamoto
SS - Fujibayashi
ALBW - Shikata
TriHeroes - Shikata
BoW - Fujibayashi
TotK - Fujibayashi

IMO Fujibayashi has had his time... there's nothing wrong to choose another director. The franchise has had lots of them. He's made good games in the past but it's time for a different perspective than Fujibayashi's. He's had his time with the IP. Koizumi should have a shot at least in story, planning and design again, he was the mastermind behind Majoras Mask.

That is fantastic. I really hope all the dev team is getting some sort of acknowledgment in house. To break records twice? In a row? That is amazing.

@Yoshif3 Koizumi and Tanabe contributed so much as writers too, they completely changed video games. I hope the pick up somewhere new for the next game.

Man, you guys really have the niche perspective. ToTK and BotW are the 2 best games in the Zelda franchise, and probably the best sellers. So I doubt Fujibayashi is going anywhere.

BotW/TotK returned the series to a level of greatness it hadn't known since Ocarina of Time on the N64, and skyrocketed the level of popularity to the point where new Zeldas sell Pokemon numbers.

Imagine having that to your credit.

It'll be interesting to see where the series goes next.

Love to see it. Really cool to see him get the acknowledgement he deserves.

His success with the franchise is amazing, and regardless of being the director of next game or not, he's left a mark that defines the series going forward. Bravo!

Well deserved. Great work. Historically great in the gaming sense too.

"The first Nintendo pricetag to hit $70"

That's not true. There were SNES games that cost that much or more at launch, at least in the UK. Super Mario All-Stars being one.

Ah yes. An article about how well this game was received and has done and the comments are mostly people saying “yeah but actually it was bad and people just don’t know yet”.

We do know, we know we all enjoyed it and we’re very impressed by it. You didn’t and that’s ok, doesn’t make it a bad game just means it’s not for you. And that’s ok. Stop being toxic about it.

@Ryan_Again @Ogbert Look, it's just really frustrating when someone takes your favorite thing and rips out all the parts that made it special to you while the whole world cheers. I can't say the Switch Zeldas are bad games, but they are the reason I haven't gotten a game that actually builds on the elements that mattered to me in over a decade.

I was under the impression that only corporate executives like company presidents and CEOs would be named in this kind of list, so it's cool to see someone on the creative side of the business be recognized.

@Anachronism
Cry me a river. These things happen all the time in the gaming business. Do you think yours is a special case? Look at how other franchises have evolved through the years: 3D Mario, Donkey Kong, Fire Emblem, F-Zero and Animal Crossing, just to name a few.

@TheRealMr_Carpainter Oh no, it's not a unique problem at all. Pokemon has been limping along for years because the people in charge of it just aren't interested in making the best game they can. Bungie left Halo behind and neither have been the same since. Xenoblade took a narrative nosedive after the first game and has still only halfway recovered with the last one. Mario hasn't had the kind of interconnected level design I prefer since Sunshine. Really, none of my favorite series or studios have managed to outdo themselves in my eyes for over a decade. It's taken a lot of the fun out of gaming for me lately.

@rushiosan what do you mean its dead??there's literally new videos on YouTube everyday, new speed run, new discover, new lore, new let's play etc

@hd94 Far from having the same buzz that BotW held for years after its release. It's not even close to being as popular/discussed.

@Anachronism wasn’t calling you out personally, that’s a totally fine perspective to have. Honestly though, looking at your previous comment saying Skyward Sword is your favourite… unfortunately that’s a really uncommon view so even from just a business perspective, it wouldn’t make sense to make more in that vein.

And don’t get me wrong I get it I really do, I had the exact same feeling for the Paper Mario series until TTYD remake was announced. But it was no surprise or secret that after a long string of very similar games (punctuated by a few oddities like Majora’s Mask and Triforce Heroes) it was a common consensus that the Zelda series was getting quite samey and a little stale. Not an opinion I expect you shared which is fine and valid, but when it’s the more common one you have to shake it up to keep the IP relevant. BotW did that, for better or worse, and succeeded to regain faith in the series and then some. Of course they are going to try and build on that success with sequels, at least for a short while. It sucks for those who didn’t like that direction (though anecdotally I know a lot of people who first time round hated BotW after 10-20 hours because it was not the game they expected, but after coming back after a year really liked it) but that’s no reason to poop on it or be mean spirited to those who did. Things change and you’ll always have the previous games. Most of which were lead by the same people as the last two.

@rushiosan just because you didn't follow it doesn't mean it's not popular

Almost every gaming website has nominated this game as GOTY, the game has multiple subreddit that have people sharing their gameplay every single day.

This year simply have too many great games, and it didn't reinvented the whole genre like BOTW, but saying the game is dead is ridiculous

@Ogbert I definitely gave Breath of the Wild a fair chance. Actually, I'm sure I put in more time than most of the people who love it, but giving a completionist an open world is kind of like giving someone with OCD a mountain of mismatched socks. It's not actually fun to go through all of it, but it'll drive you crazy if you don't at least try. Like I said, it's not a bad game, but the lack of variety or progression becomes mind-numbing if you actually try to do everything.

As for Skyward Sword, the negativity around it really confuses me. It flat out wasn't there, or at least was a minority opinion, when the game released. Despite coming out at the tail end of the Wii's life, when motion control fatigue and open world hype were at their peak, it still got an amazing critical reception, and I remember user polls at the time on other sites where it was voted best game in the series, or won category by category in comparison with Ocarina of Time. Even when the HD remaster released, I saw tons of comments along the lines of "This game was way better than I remembered" or "Why was everyone hating on this?", and that version's motion controls are actually worse than the original's.

Meanwhile, I've seen a lot of people complain about fatigue for the sandbox Zelda model since Tears of the Kingdom released, so I do think there are plenty of fans who would be excited for a return to traditional dungeons and equipment progression, at least, though I'm not sure I'll ever get the full on 3D metroidvania that I want.

@Ogbert Also, I've got to tell you I really hate when people say all the old games are still there as if that means a series shouldn't try to satisfy the people who preferred those games. The fact is you can't play a game for the first time twice. It can still be fun to replay, but it will never be exciting. And with Zelda specifically, half the challenge is built around puzzles, meaning half the game is just gone after the first playthrough if you have a decent memory.

@Anachronism Fact is, Skyward Sword was the worst-selling 3D Zelda up to that point. They had to pivot to keep the series fresh, rather than keep milking the same formula.

At the end of the day, the creative leads and their team have to live with the design decisions for 5+ years of development and then await public reception. Success is not a given.

@Anachronism no you can’t experience the game for the first time more than once. You also can’t expect a series that sells millions to be aimed squarely at you. This is a franchise lived by millions in millions of different ways. Yes you and a vocal few here did not like the last two games, that’s fine I haven’t liked every game in the series, and I’ve loved other that didn’t do well (I stand by Triforce Heroes being a ton of fun). But when the majority is enjoying what you are not, at least for now, you just have to suck it up. Demanding that they make a project that will appeal to less people and sell less well is, frankly, selfish. If your OCD makes open-world games an issue then yeah that sucks but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be made for others.

Skyward Sword was better than many remembered… specifically after a break in the more linear formula. There is no denying that at the time of release people were not as fussed by it. Personally I didn’t bother finishing it. It was fine but I moved on to something else halfway through, and it remains to this day the only Zelda I have ever done that with. It’s not bad at all but at the time it was the epitome of the formula fatigue and the motion controls, whilst actually really good, didn’t help. Let’s not rewrite history and pretend it’s the most loved in the series whilst BotW sits near the bottom. It’s the other way around.

@Qwiff It sold poorly because it came out when the Wii was on life support and in the same year as Skyrim at the peak of the open world craze and motion control fatigue.

@Ogbert I'm bitter, not delusional. I just said I don't expect them to make exactly the game I want. That being said, the most common complaints about the last couple games are also things I'm not happy about, so I'm hopeful they'll at least take those into consideration moving forward.

@hd94 It doesn't even come close.

@rushiosan
Again, just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not a good game. Millions of people enjoyed it.

@hd94 It's groundbreaking if you're not a BotW veteran. That's pretty much a consensus among all opinions we've seen since launch. Outside Ultrahand builds (which are the highlight here), It's pretty much DLC for the first game placed in the same map. TikTok was filled with build shorts for about two months, then it started dying.

@rushiosan every trend dies after awhile on tiktok, and like I said there's simply too many good games this year who took the spotlight when they were newly released.

Just visit any of the totk reddit boards or simply youtube search totk sort by date, and you will know why I said the game is not even close to dying. Not every game needs to be on trending to have a active community. Furthermore, I am sure this game is on the wish list for many younger gamers for Xmas.

The idea that TOTK is a "dead game" is ludicrous - its still selling extremely well and is getting a bunch of GOTYs (even if Baldur's Gate 3 is winning more overall). One couldn't ask for much more.

@hd94 That's my point - BotW had a much wider lifespan in said social networks OUTSIDE its bunker on Reddit or game-specific forums. Talking about general media here. We have GOTY news because it was obviously nominated, but that's about it, it's been months since the last "player xxyyz makes impossible ultrahand build" article.

@Anachronism How do you know these were the reasons for SS selling poorly? I'm sure Nintendo did some soul-searching before taking the series in a new direction, rather than chalking it up to poor launch circumstances. Remember that the Wii U flopped, so there was barely any audience for a mainline Zelda anyway.

I'm not trying to change your mind, just saying that the team had very good reasons for overhauling the formula. Inevitably, that's going to leave some people disappointed. Again, success is not a given. If BOTW had flopped, they might have pivoted, again, in an entirely different direction that none of us would be happy with.

@rushiosan Just for some perspective. The 135 hours I spent on TOTK over the course of this summer were so thoroughly enjoyable that, for me, it's the game of a lifetime. So, yeah, it's a "dead" game to me in the sense that I felt that all good things must come to an end, at least for now. I have plenty of shrines and light roots left to discover, but I'll revisit the game, in due time, hopefully on the next gen Switch.

@Anachronism I appreciate your comment was balanced and self-aware. I can relate to your perspective better. Did you say you hadn’t played TotK? Because that one is much more linear and guided compared to BotW, it has more direction, progression, pacing and each of the dungeons feels unique. It may not be your preferred Zelda-style, but I think they were trying to meet gamers like you half-way at least.

@Ryan_Again I can only echo your comments.

@Anachronism You're missing out if you dismiss TOTK based on superficial similarities to BOTW. They really did listen to criticism, but the way they integrated the more guided approach into their design only becomes apparent after playing the game for a longer time.

@Qwiff @Ryan_Again Fair enough. One disappointment isn't enough to make me give up one of my favorite series, so I do intend to play it eventually. Though my issue with open worlds is more the corners that are almost always cut to make them rather than the literal lack of direction. I love Xenoblade X for it's beautifully designed world and Witcher 3 for its endless cast of interesting and unique characters...and Gwent. I'm even fond of Saints Row 3 for the sheer variety of weird weapons, vehicles, and challenges it offers. But most open worlds seem to expect you to fight the same dozen enemies with the same dozen weapons in the same handful of identical camps/towers/caves while doing endless fetch quests for a bunch of bland, lifeless NPCs for 300 hours straight and somehow not get bored. I'm at least hopeful that the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom will offer some unique challenges, but I'll have to see if it found a way around all the other pitfalls Breath of the Wild fell into.

@rushiosan totk didn't change the redefines the entire genre like BoTW, and when BOTW came out it was also the launch period of Switch, and 2017 didn't pack nearly as much good games as this year. There's simply way too many newsworthy stuff going on this year, we have some of the best games and worst games ever made, tons of news about xxx gaming companies getting hacked / staffs getting fired ETC
I don't think it's fair to call a game dead just because is not on the headlines any more, the sales are still going very strong for this game, but hey, whatever man I am kinda tired of arguing this.

@Anachronism Your criticism hits the bullseye for weakness in Open World games. Even the best ones can feel watered down at times. I’ll admit TotK also left me feeling that with the hidden Yiga clan hideouts. Each one has a seed of gameplay potential that ultimately feels super shallow in execution, even when you try to meet it for what it offers. I think the trick is to make-up your own reasons for doing some things. “Head canon” is important for open worlds, IMO.