 For getting to this video, I just have to remind you this is the last day to enter our Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED giveaway. We're also giving away Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition and a pin from PAX East. Three separate winners. Head to the pin comment or the link in the description and let's get into this video because we have two parts to the Ask the Developer interview with the developers behind the game and I am going to warn you right now that I'm going to butcher their names. It is what it is. I suck at pronouncing Japanese name. I just suck at pronouncing things in general. Let's get into this part four of the interview and we'll get into part five immediately after. Part four, what makes the game the Legend of Zelda like? I know that breaking conventions of the Legend of Zelda was the theme behind the previous title. However, it seems that breaking the conventions of sequels was the concept for this title because it's filled with so many new elements despite being a sequel. Dota responds and says, yes, that's right. As we are having this discussion, I was thinking that if we had created the game from scratch in a completely different world, we might've ended up with something with a similar gameplay feel to the last one just with a different map. Fuji Bayashi says, I think he has a point. We often say that we should create games through multiplication. For example, we believe that taking the main character's ability and multiplying it with a world that has a lot to offer will result in a different experience for every player, every time. For example, as we wanted to keep offering a different experience every time without changing the world as a lot to offer, it was only natural for us to change the main character's ability and create something new. That's why we completely redesigned Link's abilities. So Link's abilities are shown in Anuma-san's recent gameplay. We're completely new and different from those of the last game. But when they haven't completely redesigned, you mean all his abilities are different. Anuma responds, yes, they are all new. You'd be wrong if you thought the abilities were the same as before. Laughs in particular. One of the things that sets this title apart, the fun of attaching objects to each other was something that Fuji Bayashi-san brought up in the early stages of development saying, this is the gameplay I want implemented in the sequel. Fuji Bayashi said, back then, I tried creating vehicles using only the mechanisms and parts available in the previous game and presented them. For instance, I used spinning cog wheels as tires and attached four of them to a board to create a car. I also made a paddle streamer by attaching boards to those self-rotating cog wheels. By assembling stone slabs into a gum barrel and using a remote bomb, I also created a cannon that shoots ancient spheres. I attached it to a car to create a tank. Laughs. By showing these ideas, I proposed that if Link had the ability to attach things together, we could create this new kind of gameplay using materials we already had available. This is how we came up with the idea of creating vehicles with the ultra hand ability in this title. So I see. So the idea of attaching objects together to create something was present from the early stages of development. Watching Aonuma-san's gameplay, it was intuitive and easy to understand what you can do by attaching things. Dota responds, the object-to-object combinations are something our designers and programmers put a lot of effort into adjusting because of the sheer number of variations. I want players to experiment with lots of combinations and find their favorite. Takizawa says, not only can you attach objects with the ultra hand ability, but you can also build weapons with the fuse ability. So the variety of combinations is truly massive. Our staff worked hard to make these special adjustments to each item to ensure players won't be disappointed and think, this isn't what I expected. Thanks to their efforts, we developed lots of attractive weapons that could be created with the fuse ability. You can create a spear that looks like the Grim Reaper Scythe, as an example. Aonuma says, but you see what looks like glue bulging out in between the attached objects, right? At first I was shocked and thought, what are we really going with this? Laughs. Takizawa says, did I just get called out? Laughs. I'm pretty sure that was the most obvious way to express whether the objects are attached or not. I'm quite confident of that. Laughs. Wakai responds, that expression of glue-like substances was also present from a sound design perspective because it was easy to translate into sound into real life. So for that, I'm very thankful. Rather than unrealistic abstract sounds, unrefined sounds that give players a more realistic sense of texture and accomplishment often feel right for the Legend of Zelda games. As this game evolves repeatedly attaching and detaching objects, we wanted to develop a sound effect that informs player that an object is now ready to be attached. So regardless of what objects you're sticking together, you always hear the same attaching sound. Since it's a sound that you will hear over and over again, we thought the key was to create something that would give players a feeling of accomplishment so that they could genuinely enjoy the process. Fuji Bayashi responds, once we decided on the look and added sound effects, it felt a sense of achievement the moment the objects were attached and it was very satisfying. Onuma says, yeah, whatever you make, you end up feeling good about it. Dota says, we originally wanted to implement this gameplay so people could simply enjoy attaching things rather than building something substantial. It's like, I attached tires to a log and it moved forward. I know it looks a bit lame, but that's fine. That kind of feeling in that sense, I think the glue symbolizes the fun of sticking things together. Even if you randomly stick things together, you'll end up with something with a nice handmade feel, laughs. Onuma says, yes, so don't worry if you're not good at making things. If you attach two long things together, you can create something even longer. It's as simple as that. Though it may look odd, that makes total sense because they're stuck together with glue, laughs. I think this is very Legend of Zelda-like and I'm liking it. Takizawa responds, but Onuma-san, you were making a solid raft in that gameplay video, shaping it stylishly, laughs. You'll pass through that place early in the game, but you don't need to make such a solid raft across. If you want, you can cross without building a raft. Onuma says, I know, but the purpose of that video, and he's talking about that gameplay presentation, was to show what's special about the game. I wanted to give players a clear example, laughs. I mean, who wouldn't want to cross a river on a self-made raft? Everyone laughs. Takizawa responds, indeed, watching the development staff doing test plays, some people created very elaborate inventions while others focused on efficiency and only use the very essentials. It's interesting how persons play style can say a lot about their personality. Onuma responds, I feel that designers in particular tend to create intricate inventions. Dota, by placing the attaching feature at the center of the gameplay, I think we have created a mechanism that meets the needs of both those who want to create something elaborate and those who want to do the bare minimum needing an order to progress. Fujibayashi responds, we were very conscious of defining the right balance. All right, the next question says, it's nice that players can enjoy creating something elaborate while those who just want to keep moving forward in the game don't have to think too hard. So people can enjoy the game in their own way. Dota responds, in terms of features, one of the things we ended up not including in the last game was magic. Previously, we had a stamina wheel for physical actions, but there was nothing equivalent to a magic gauge. This time, however, we wanted to incorporate that feature. So we added another unique ability, the magical zonai devices. As you can see in Alnumason's gameplay demonstration video, you can generate wind or move objects with a zonai device. Using this power, for example, you can create something absurd, such as an omnidirectional flamethrower. There are many moments where you can cheat in a good way. Alnumason says, well, you say magic gauge, it's visual is actually a battery, laughs. Everyone laughs. Tagizawa says, the initial concept of this game was to use the supernatural power of an unknown civilization, as opposed to the Sheikah civilization's super ancient technology. In the previous game, we decided to create lots of handy items with magical properties. However, even if we describe these items as supernatural, players won't use them unless they know what they are. So this thing we were calling magic ultimately became an electric fan. Everyone laughs. Tagizawa says, since we felt it was important for our players to get what those items are at a glance, our designers ended up creating various home appliances, laughs. Coming up with ways to present them as something supernatural in the world of Breath of the Wild was quite a challenge. It was a great opportunity for us designers to put our skills to the test, laughs. Alnuma, if players are shown something they never seen in real life, they'll have no idea how to use it. But if it looks similar to an everyday item, they'll understand how it should be used intuitively. Having these items in the world of Legend of Zelda game where magic exists surprisingly worked. I see how the fun is sticking things together and magic have both been expressed in a slightly comical manner, typical to the Legend of Zelda series. So the players understand how they work intuitively. So having a lot of fun with those new abilities, let's get into part five where it says if the players think they can do it, they can. Let's zoom in a bit here and get going on. All right. So if players think they can do it, they can. You mentioned that every player will have a different experience with this game. However, given this degree of freedom, some of the abilities may be used in ways contrary to the developer's intentions. Do you have any concerns about that? Fuji Bayashi responds. I wouldn't worry too much about that. The programmers made sure these features won't cause issues on the system side and the gameplay is designed so the players can freely create whatever comes to mind, just like an experiment. We'd rather our players surprise us by creating something we've never even thought of. Dota responds. This can also be said for the previous title, but I think we've placed more importance on creating a game that enables players to do exactly what they think they can do rather than how we want them to play the game. Fuji Bayashi responds because once we define how we want players to play the game, it ends up becoming more and more linear. We once had a place with stacks of crates that couldn't be moved, but we decided to make them movable because we knew our players would definitely be disappointed if they couldn't move them. Since then, for any objects we don't want players to move, our designers have put ropes around them or covered them with a cloth to symbolize they cannot be moved. A lot of attention has been given to the details like this. As an example here, we see we got movable items right here and then this means immovable items right there. By the way, we placed a lid. This comes from Dota on every single unbreakable jar. The more you play the game, the faster your brain processes it. After a while, your brain starts to automatically sort out what's an enemy, what not to touch, and what to take. For parts of the game that require players to look and make decisions, our designers did a good job creating rules and signs. So I think players will understand what they should do intuitively, even without explanation. All right, so as you mentioned, you worked on this game from the perspective of enabling players to do exactly what they think they can do. I recall players at the previous time those playing in lots of different ways. Do you ever watch fan-made gameplay videos? Here's a nice question, hey, I like this one. Aonuma says, there was some talk about them among the development team. The direction of giving players the freedom to do anything in this game came about precisely because of the reactions to people who played the last game. Even though it's been six years since the last title was released, many fans still post drawings, comments, and videos on social media. Takizawa responds and said, even though it's been six years since the last title was released, many fans still post drawing comments and videos on social media, especially when the team is facing difficulties during development. These things light up the eyes of our staff and make them think, all right, let's show them what we got. I really want to thank all our fans. That's kind of incredible to know that us as fans have like a direct influence on the actual development team and inspiring them. Dude, that's really cool. You don't really hear that very often. That's, I did not expect that in this interview. Fujiwara actually said, I totally agree. Our fans have motivated us so much in the development of this game. Thank you so much. Everyone gives a big nod. Aonuma, I've seen some fans say that Legend of Zelda games make them feel like they're the only player to have solved the puzzle and that's what they like about the series. I think letting players come up with their own solutions to puzzles because they have a stronger sense of being the only one to have figured them out rather than if we got them to use predefined solutions. In a sense, this is something unique to the Zelda series and I think it's something that's brought out even more in this title. Thank you very much. Here's the next question. I feel your passion for the development of not just this title, but also the series in general. Now, to wrap up the interview, could you tell us what you want players to pay close attention to and what you particularly focused on in this game? What Kai says, for me, it's the expression of realism in the game. For example, the sense of distance created by a player who moves away from a nearby sound and it becomes increasingly hazy and echoey, disappearing into other ambient sounds. Ever since the previous title we've been developing our games to provide a surround sound experience and you can enjoy it with headphones or stereo speakers. We hope you'll notice those details. I heard some of our development staff saying just chilling by the sea makes me feel relaxed. I wish I could listen to that sound forever. Laugh, we hope you'll have fun playing around and finding your own way to enjoy the game's sound like in this example. Takizawa responds as for the design and art of the core elements of this title such as the new civilization, the motifs have been completely redesigned from those of the previous title which were inspired by ancient Japanese culture. At the same time, all our designers have focused on once again building completely original supernatural imagery while creating a mysterious atmosphere that existed in Japan since ancient times. We'd like you to take the time to enjoy your adventure in this new and different world that's filled with this somewhat mysterious yet refreshing energy. And please look forward to Hyrule that's both familiar and changed since the previous game including its expanded new world. Also, don't forget to check out new characters and enemies as well as familiar faces and how they've changed and grown. We hope you'll enjoy interacting with various elements created around the theme of hands that we discussed earlier in the interview. That was in part two, by the way guys. Dota responds as was the case with the previous game. The best case scenario would be for players to start playing at the same time and when they get together later they realize that they don't know what each other is talking about cause each of them is experiencing something completely different even though they're enjoying the same game. They're taking different routes doing different things in their own ways. And when they ask each other how far they've gotten each learns the first time what the other is playing. I hope there'll be conversations between players like I never knew there was such a thing or I didn't know there was such a place again in the title. Fujibayashi responds, in the early stages of development on this title we received comments from fans saying they wish they could forget everything about Breath of the Wild and play it for the first time again. The feeling you get when the game starts and the world opens up and the moment you're about to embark on an epic adventure that encounters with powerful enemies and the excitement when you reach the ending. In The Legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom we tried our best to ensure players can experience those feelings as much or more than in previous titles and I'm confident fans will recapture that same feeling and I'll hope you look forward to that. I'm really glad the director of the game is like hey man, dude we understand the magic that was you know that whole Breath of the Wild experience we really think we topped it. So let's see what happens. Last but not least, Onuma-san do you have any comments for the fans? Here we go Onuma, what do we got here? Onuma says, I wonder how many times I've played the game to debug it. I've played this game from start to finish about 20 times, holy crud. Good for you. Sorry that's my own commentary. And can I say that it's more fun with detours even more fun than in the previous game. When testing the game I sometimes needed to rush ahead to clear the story but later on I started to go off on side paths. I realized it's a whole different game laughs. Some discoveries made me think wow you can even do this at this point in the game even when sticking things together there are so many different combinations that even I don't know all of them. I even discovered something new the other day while shooting the gameplay demonstration video. So it may take some time but as you take detours and try out whatever you can at the time I think you'll be able to enjoy the game in your own very own way. So don't head straight for the ending laughs. I've cleared the game many times myself and never felt bored once. You have my word. Then it ends by saying I look forward to discovering lots of new things in the further expanded Hyrule of the Law. I look forward to discovering lots of new things in the further expanded Land of Hyrule. Thank you very much. Also they put a fun note near that the process of playing in development games for quality assurance and investigating issues with games. Like why the heck was the newest I'm playing through it 20 times? I don't know why they felt like they need to explain that. The guy is the producer of the Legend of Zelda series. I'm sure between him, Fubi Ashi. I'm sure between him and Fuji Byashi and the QA team. Like there's probably been many people that had to play through this game dozens and dozens and dozens of times during development because like how else would you be able to bug fix and make sure the game clicks and everything. So anyways, look guys that's some amazing interviews. I thank you so much Nintendo for providing these incredible interviews. Look forward to more and more cheers to the Kingdom of Coverage folks. This game launches tomorrow, tonight, today for some people in the world. I am so excited to experience this game. Remember we'll be live streaming this game at 8 a.m. tomorrow, 12 hour live stream. We're gonna be doing a launch stream tonight where we're gonna be waiting outside of GameStop. Obviously Nintendo has their Treehouse event as well. So we have lots of stuff to look forward to. More videos coming your way. You guys are awesome, amazing, epic. Remember to tell someone you love them today because you're about to vanish into tears of the Kingdom coma. I'll catch you guys in the next video.