It’s no secret that Eiji Aonuma, producer of the Legend of Zelda series of games, is an artist unwilling to be confined by expectations. He’s tried different directions for the series, changing art styles and attempting new things, refusing to be boxed in and freely giving his creativity space to breathe.
In the previous issue’s interview with magazine GamesTM, he has explored this a little bit more, revealing that every time he gets ready to create a new Zelda adventure, he’s really striving to create the perfect Zelda game. He expects each new title to be his last, and just like most artists, when the game is finally released into the world, he feels a strange sense of loss and regret over things that could have been changed, or could have been made different to make it better.
Aonuma has admitted that before he ends his career in game development, he wants to get as close as humanly possible to creating that perfect masterpiece of a Zelda game, so that he doesn’t spend his retirement years with any regrets, wondering what might have been.
“I always make these games with the thought that this is going to be my last. However, every time we finish work on it, I always still have regrets, wishing that we could do this or that, and end up wanting to make another Zelda game. I guess that could come to a close if I finally make a perfect game, but perhaps I would not be able to create such a thing even if I spent my whole life on it. However, I know I won’t be able to keep working as a developer forever, so I really would like to create something as close to perfection as possible not too far into the future and be able to retire with no regrets.”
With A Link Between Worlds and its changes, and the possible changes he has suggested about Hyrule when Link comes to the Wii U in the future, who knows… this dream may be reachable yet!
