Speaking in an interview with Wired.com, Aonuma-san has revealed that the decision to switch from the cel-shaded, cartoony visuals of predecessor The Wind Waker to a grittier, more realistic Link was not just a creative shift, but was also influenced by financial motives. 'Making video games is a business, and so you have to strategically consider what markets you're going to appeal to. With Twilight Princess, we had meetings early on with the North American localization team to discuss things like character design, particularly with Link. We're focusing heavily on the American market, and hope it will appeal strongly there.'
However, the series producer was also quick to admit that the new, realistic graphical style had posed problems. 'When you shift to realistic graphics, you can't fool the player any more,' Aonuma said. 'It no longer makes sense to have the player swing a sword with their left hand, killing an enemy that's on his right. We're definitely seeing how hard it is to work with realistic graphics. If I'm showing something realistically, then I have to show the results in a realistic manner as well.' Makes sense to us.
As well as this, Aonuma also talked about the pace of the new Zelda's gameplay. One of the sequences shown at E3 - a dramatic horse-mounted battle - was the most fast-paced and action-oriented ever seen in a Zelda title. Yet Aonuma denies this kind of sequence is indicative of the game as a whole. 'When Link gets off the horse and back down on the ground, the action is going to be a bit slower. And the reason for that, again, is that with realistic graphics you have to express the world realistically as well. You have to be able to feel the weight of Link's sword as he swings it.'
As for voiced dialogue for the characters, Aonuma is sticking to the traditions of the series, which has never seen hero Link utter a single word. 'I feel like [voiced dialogue] is unsuitable for the Zelda series,' said Aonuma. 'When the player is reading text on the screen, they're inserting a part of themselves, their imagination, into the reading. They fill out the world. But with fully spoken dialogue, everything about the character becomes fixed in place, and you lose a bit of that imaginative aspect. That said, I've always felt that if we can use voice in a way that's new and unique, it could be very positive for the Zelda series. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that in time for the E3 demo, but we do have some ideas that we're thinking about.'
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