Hyrule Warriors Almost Placed Greater Emphasis on Zelda Than Dynasty Warriors

When Koei Tecmo's Hyrule Warriors was originally announced, it was met with pleasant shock from one side and extreme skepticism from the other. But as news and impressions continued to pour in, Zelda fans quickly warmed up to the concept. This would be a great opportunity to introduce a wider group of people to the Dynasty Warriors style of play, and it's all thanks to this unconventional partnership with Nintendo.

But at one point, Hyrule Warriors was going to hew much closer to the standard Legend of Zelda template with only light Dynasty Warriors elements, rather than the other way around. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto put his foot down and ecouraged Koei Tecmo to stick with what the team knows best. In a Nintendo Life interview with Zelda series producer Eiji Aounuma, he explains how this decision was settled:

At first, when Hayashi-san [Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja, which assisted Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force on this title] approached me, he wanted to make this title closer to a Zelda game than a Dynasty Warriors game — that extended to having boss battles in the dungeons and [having] certain characters in the game. However, Mr. Miyamoto came along and up-ended the tea table, saying, 'No, that should not be the case. What we’re doing here is grafting Zelda onto the Dynasty Warriors experience.' It was a reversal of the original proposal from Hayashi-san, which was adding elements of Dynasty Warriors onto the Zelda franchise. It ended up being the other way around based on Miyamoto’s direction.

I'm happy that it turned out this way, because I don't think fans would have been as surprised if the final product turned out to just be a slightly different Zelda of a familiar mold. That's what next year's proper Zelda sequel is for!

Hyrule Warriors will be out for Wii U on September 26.