Final Fantasy XIV director and Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida, commonly referred to as Yoshi-P, has been heaping praise on Nintendo lately. And in an interview with Famitsu, where he talks about anime and his love of Super Mario Bros. 3, he's particularly gushing about one recent Switch game that he thinks "anyone aspiring to become a game developer" should play.
That title is The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and not for the in-game Echoes, summonable monsters, or even the puzzle design. Rather, it's how Nintendo has "used resources" and re-used assets.
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As translated by Genki on X, Yoshi-P says that he "was particularly impressed" with the top-down Zelda game, even compared to other recent games he's been playing.
"What I am about to talk about is a bit nerdy, but even from a producer's perspective there were many points [in the game] that made me think 'Wow, that's amazing', in terms of how they used resources, how they made it, and the game design."
"The base resources used in the game are almost the same as other Zelda games", the director continues, praising Nintendo's ability to keep costs down "by focusing all the efforts on making the game fun to play." Well, that last point is Nintendo to a tee.
But beyond that, Yoshi-P thinks that Echoes of Wisdom is a great case study for people wanting to get into game development; "I would encourage anyone aspiring to become a game developer or who is just starting their career to try playing this game from that perspective."
That's not the first time game developers have been wowed by a Zelda game — Breath of the Wild's huge open world and Tears of the Kingdom's incredible Ultrahand and Rewind mechanics had many in-awe back when those games launched. Zelda just has that magic, then.
Hopefully we'll see some of Yoshi-P's own work on the Switch 2; there have been hints and rumours that ports of both Final Fantasy XIV and XVI may be on the cards at some point, but nothing has been confirmed.
Let us know whether you agree with Yoshida-san in the comments.