Nintendo’s developers have done it once again! And by that, I mean, insist in a new interview that they try to make their games as original as possible.
This line from their developers has often faced criticism, as it has been interpreted by some as Nintendo denying they are influenced by other developers and games. That perception isn’t entirely true either, but it is interesting that this is essentially a Nintendo trope art this point.
As reported and translated for NintendoEverything, these are the things The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and Zelda franchise manager Eiji Aonuma, said about the game’s development.
Fujibayashi was asked point blank if they were influenced by FromSoftware’s own take on the open world genre, Elden Ring. He said this:
“Sorry, but we didn’t really have the chance to play the game. We were too occupied with the development of Tears of the Kingdom, which resulted in us not really being able to play games. We did hear about it, though.
Even if we had the time to play games, we wouldn’t reuse ideas from them. When we make a game, we come up with a general concept to come up with new ideas based on that.”
Aonuma made more comment on the way Nintendo makes games, and addressed the trope that Nintendo denies they are influenced by other games or developers:
“Of course there are situations where you make something that’s similar to an existing game, but I would never try to put the ideas of others in my game. I’m too proud for that. I’m always looking for original ideas.
When I made A Link Between Worlds, you had a 3D system when you jumped, which made it look like Link was coming right at you.
When I showed this to former Nintendo president (Satoru) Iwata, he said he “didn’t know this was possible”. I was very happy to hear that, because to me that’s the essence of game development: figuring out things no one else has thought of.”
So hopefully that brings clarity to a trope that has come about from either unintentional or willful misinterpretation. It’s not that Nintendo’s developers don’t want to acknowledge other games and developers exist. The studio’s development philosophy is to come up with entirely new game ideas of their own.
That is, of course, not 100 % completely possible, but we do see how striving for originality has been to their benefit.
