Let no one tell you otherwise; when game developers go and unveil a new title for the first time, there’s a bunch of nervous people on the development and publishing side of things. After all, the “first reactions” to a title can heavily determine both the faith in the developer/publisher, while also stating how much “hype” there will be in the game. Plus, as we’ve seen in recent times, gamers can sometimes predict how successful or not a game will be based on its reveal. In the case of The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, the combined teams at Nintendo and Grezzo were indeed nervous about showing off this much different take on the franchise.
For example, in a chat with the BBC, series producer Eiji Aonuma noted that there were layers to the nervousness that he and the others on the team had:
“A lot of the focus of the topic of conversation was going to be on Zelda being the main protagonist.” He began before noting that he was more concerned about “whether or not the unique gameplay of the echoes was going to be conveyed properly and understood properly by the viewers.”
Thankfully, everything was conveyed properly, and gamers were thrilled that they could play as Princess Zelda for the first time in a true mainline title and not just one of the spinoff games.
It wasn’t just Aonuma who was nervous, though. This was Grezzo’s first time making a new Legend of Zelda title, so many of its heads were anxious to see what fans thought:
“Whether or not the Zelda fans would accept these new elements was something I was watching over nervously,” revealed co-director Satoshi Terada.
Fellow director Tomoni Sano added that she was “relieved to see that it was being accepted positively, and was really watching closely over my smartphone to see people’s reactions the following day as well.”
Once the reveal was a success, the goal was to keep building up the game until launch and then see what people said after it. Sure enough, the trio took the criticisms that were spelled out to heart, so it’s likely that you won’t see some of the smaller issues in any follow-ups that may occur.
Speaking of which, Aonuma noted that the game wasn’t just a success in his mind, but one that proved that they could have something fresh happening within the top-down style of games while also doing the “dynamic 3D” titles that have been Game of the Year contenders. So, you can likely expect more games like this in the future.
