In an interview with Kotaku, Zelda series director Eiji Aonuma has confessed that the forced tutorials in Skyward Sword were too much, which potentially put players off from actually playing the game. This effectively means future Zelda titles, including the recently announced Zelda Wii U, will have few fewer tutorials. Aonuma highlights the relevance of needing guidance in a game but only when it is most appropriate, as follows:
“When we created Skyward Sword, I really felt the need to make sure that everyone playing the game understood it. But I also understand now, in hindsight, that when you go out and buy a game, you buy the game because you want to play it, and you don’t want to have any obstacles in the way. And I guess it was received as a bit of an obstacle. In a game, it’s when you get stuck, when you want that help. And I kinda frontloaded all that in Skyward Sword, and it doesn’t really help to get that information when you don’t know what to do with it. So that was a real learning experience for me. So I’m going to be careful not to do that.”
Interestingly enough, A Link Between Worlds cut down on tutorials considerably, perhaps meaning Aonuma was already aware of the problem quite a while ago. Instead of making the player go through these training sequences, there is an option to seek help as and when it was needed.
Zelda Wii U was first shown at this year’s E3, promising a vast world that is fully explorable, which is something no other Zelda game has managed to completely achieve. Much like The Legend of Zelda on NES, players will simply be put in the game, in which they must decide where to explore first, how to tackle certain areas, and so forth – this adds a level of non-linear gameplay that should breathe some fresh air into the franchise.
