Comments 4

Re: Eiji Aonuma Confirms Majora's Mask 3D Has Been In Development Since 2011

jbunker7

While I haven't read ALL 120+ comments, I'm interested as many other sources speculate that the fact that a simple update-textures/graphics port similar to that of OoT 3D would take very little time at all. This is due to the game being done and only textures, etc. being needed to be updated so that cuts the development time A TON, and on top of this, a bulk of the models required can be more or less carried over from Grezzo's work with the 1st LoZ remake. One source I read put the required development time at around 3-4 months.

I understand that while work has been done next to immediately after OoT 3D finished, but I very much believe that the actual hardcore, texture development started. In other words, I bet Nintendo was spending a bulk of this 4 years thinking up differences and how to handle the remake. I see two possibilities: either it was put to the back burner and ideas were slowly bounced off each other while Nintendo developers focused on other products, and thus actual development time would probably be around 6 months to a full year (including Grezzo's work), or Nintendo actually spent quite a bit of time reworking Zelda.

Personally, I expect the former, but it's interesting when considering the second case - what kind of changes could be made to take up so much time? Could it be that they added more side-quests? More dungeons apart from the main quest (i.e., something along the "dungeon" involved with the Mask of Truth or perhaps closer to a traditional dungeon)? More masks? Or could it be more formula related or subtle changes like altering the flow of time, etc.? In either case, I expect at least some formula-related changes at the bare minimum, but I also do think we'll see an expansion of content like dungeons of at least some scale or more side quests since that's one of the biggest complaints I've heard from critics. I personally don't think the main story and dungeons should be altered for reasons concerning making these additions fit.

TL;DR - what possibly could have been done to make this 4x the development time of OoT 3D?