doing his best

There’s no way this is a thing

Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma says The Wind Waker 2 was in development before they switched to Twilight Princess to appeal to the North American market! (via 2007 GDC Talk) "At one point, I had heard that even Wind Waker, which had reached the million mark in sales, was quickly losing steam, and that things were sluggish even in North America, where the market was much healthier than in Japan." "I asked [Nintendo of America] why this was. What I was told was that the toon-shading technique was in fact giving the impression that this Zelda was for a younger audience, and that for this reason, it alienated the upper-teen audience that had represented the typical Zelda player." "I went to Miyamoto and said, want to make a realistic Zelda.' Miyamoto was skeptical at first – I was so focused on changing the look of the game as being the solution we were looking for without coming up with a breakthrough in gameplay. And he advised me that, 'if you really want to make a realistic Zelda, then you should start by doing what you couldn’t in Ocarina of Time. Make it so Link can attack enemies while riding on his horse using the Wind Waker engine, and make your decision based on how that feels.'" "Four months later, development had progressed to a point where Link could swing his sword in battle against enemies while riding on his horse in a realistic-looking world. When it was announced with a surprise trailer at the 2004 E3, it received a standing ovation by the media audience. This was a very exciting moment for us, but we were still very much in the early stages of converting the game into something more realistic. We knew that we had to create a Zelda game that would live up to the expectations of fans in North America, and that if we didn't, it could mean the end of the franchise. But I also trusted the ability of the team, which was able to bring the game so far in just four short months." gamesradar.com/games/the-leg…