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Legend of Zelda mastermind Eiji Aonuma says he always focuses on gameplay before story: 'I've never really made a game where you think of the story first'
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma reveals Nintendo prioritizes gameplay design over story development in the Zelda series, finding it challenging to reverse this process. This approach allows for greater flexibility and iterative improvements during game development.
In a recent interview, Legend of Zelda series producer and developer Eiji Aonuma explains how his games' stories always come to light after their gameplay has been established first - and why he thinks doing things the other way around would be "difficult."
Speaking recently with the Washington Post, Aonuma describes how Nintendo goes against the grain with its games and focuses on gameplay before even touching on the story. "I've never really made a game where you think of the story first and then go into gameplay," says the producer. "First when you think of the gameplay, what you're trying to think of after that is how you can get players to understand that gameplay."
According to Aonuma, this unique approach helps developers improve upon their games more easily as there are no restrictions set in place by a predetermined narrative. Instead, the gameplay helps shape the story rather than the reverse. "The story becomes used as a vessel because it has a beginning and end, and the player moves through it," details the dev. It's certainly an interesting way to do it, but he'd not have it any other way.
As Aonuma states, he would find it hard to make games differently and to start the process with narrative rather than gameplay. "I think it would actually be kind of difficult to do the reverse and start with the story, then try to match the gameplay mechanics to that." After playing The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom recently and being a long-time Zelda stan myself, I'm surprised to learn Aonuma's approach - but it certainly seems to work well.