The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues to pave a new path for the Zelda franchise, building on the gorgeous open-world formula that Nintendo introduced Link to in Breath of the Wild. But while these games have received critical acclaim, some fans desperately miss the "old-style" of Zelda — the more "linear" games.
Well, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma is aware of that, and in an interview with IGN, he has a rather interesting response. Acknowledging that Tears of the Kingdom has taken the series in a different direction, Aonuma puts fans' desires partially down to nostalgia, but also on wanting "the thing that we don't currently have".
However, Aonuma also feels like, particularly in Tears of the Kingdom, there is a "set path, it just happens to be the path that [the players] chose.":
"...it's interesting when I hear people say [they want more linear Zelda] because I am wondering, "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?" But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect."
Tears of the Kingdom certainly feels like it took on a lot of feedback, particularly surrounding dungeons. While Divine Beasts were the pseudo dungeons of Breath of the Wild, many felt they weren't enough. Tears of the Kingdom introduces dungeons, and Aonuma talks about those in one of his responses.
He mentions that it was the team's intention when dungeons in this follow-up "to put a bit more density or thoughtfulness into the designs". And these dungeons include puzzles, many of which can be solved through multiple solutions. With Breath of the wild, the idea was to "rethink the conventions of the series" which meant the team "broke apart" the traditional Zelda. Though Aonuma heard fan's requests:
"But then we did hear the desire from fans for a bit more of a designed dungeon, and that led to our approach to dungeons for Tears of the Kingdom. And so as we proceed, whenever we're making a game, we look back at our past and then consider where we are now with the freedom that we give to the player in these games."
IGN's interview with Aonuma and the game's director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, is rather extensive and gives us an insight into what the team was aiming for with this sequel, as well as other potentials in the Zelda series.
One of these is the potential of a playable Zelda in a future game in the series. Aonuma is vague, but he certainly leaves the door open.