Skip to content

Aonuma Says Zelda Wii U Will Push Hardware With “As Large A World As Can Be Realised”

The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has explained Zelda Wii U will push the home console’s hardware to its fullest. In a recent interview with Gamereactor Magazine, the producer spoke about the upcoming Zelda game’s open world, elaborating that the team has always pushed each game in the series to its peak with “as large a world as can be realised” on the hardware. And Aonuma says it’s no different for the Wii U.

Elsewhere the iconic producer also mentions the GamePad’s map functionality within Zelda Wii U, believing it’s a great tool that gives a bigger sense of adventure. In the past, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has mentioned that the upcoming game will feature plenty of events for fans to come across in the vast overworld, so the GamePad’s interactive map will be crucial in keeping track of where you are. You can find a snippet of Aonuma’s interview below.

“A huge, seamlessly unfolding world is something that can’t be achieved if the hardware isn’t advanced enough. Ever since we made the very first generation of Legend of Zelda games though, we’ve had as large a world as can be realised with the hardware, so you could say it was inevitable that we’ve now done the same with the new Wii U title.

“When I first showed off the new Zelda game on the Wii U, it seemed everyone was very excited and started proclaiming that a Zelda game had at last become open world! Zelda games have always allowed you to roam and explore a huge world.

“What’s changed now is that the hardware has progressed to the point that you can now explore this vast world seamlessly; the underpinning of the game hasn’t changed.”

“Recently, I’ve taken to relying on the map on my smart phone when I’m out walking in a place I’m not familiar with. A map isn’t something you keep tucked away in your bag, it’s by holding it in your hand and being able to constantly check it as you move forward step by step that gives you that sense of adventure.”

137 thoughts on “Aonuma Says Zelda Wii U Will Push Hardware With “As Large A World As Can Be Realised””

    1. Not quite, The character models in XCX are not great because of how big the world is, LOZ looks like it will be still huge but XCX would probably dwarf it :P

      1. Graphics still look great in XCX, the Monster Models look great as well.
        It’s really just the mediocre models that aren’t great.

      2. XCX has characters that look more anime like, that’s just the art style the devs chose, it has nothing to do with being limited. They made it how they wanted, they never wanted the characters to be realistic or such.

  1. This is all well and good but the problem is it’s taken almost 3 years since the WiiU’s launch for Nintendo to actually push the hardware to its fullest. Every first party game since launch should have done that but instead we get games that would’ve run on the original Wii.

    1. jtz from Judah the Lion Tribe

      360 and PS3 seem to play the same tittles on the PS4 and Xbox One I see. Better graphics on Xbox One and Ps4, so was wii U version of AC4.

    2. Actually, Pikmin 3, ZombiU, Bayonetta 1 & 2, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Toad Treasure Tracker, Hyrule Warriors, Wind Waker HD, Splatoon, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and many more are not viable on the Wii U as they wouldn’t be able to run at all.

      Just saying, do some research.

    3. And on PS4 and Xbox One, they have games that is also released on PS3 and Xbox 360, so, what’s your point???

    4. Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and Super Mario 3D World could not be ran on the original Wii. Speaking of Bayonetta 2, that game alone has already shown the true potential of what the Wii U is capable of. The new Zelda will go beyond that of Bayonetta 2 by showing the max power of the Wii U. I’m sorry that Nintendo isn’t like Sony, Microsoft and a vast majority of 3rd party gaming companies that like to send out broken, unstable and unfinished games to impatient gamers such as yourself

    5. And what has the other consoles done besides conning millions of falsely hyped disappointments, rehashes called “remasters” and constant multiports from last gen lied to be as “next gen” games *cough* DESTINY!

      B( Third parties haven’t shit either when it comes to both innovation and keeping their promises. Oh I’m sorry. For some dumbass reason, ya snap when Nintendo doesn’t keep theirs but don’t when third parties do it for EVERY FUCKING GAME!

    6. I disagree. The Wii was a piece of shit. It had dome great games. But the hardware was a joke. And the joke follows Nintendo with the WiiU since they didn’t bury the “Wii” name whrn they had the chance.
      Now the WiiU doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

  2. “the team has always pushed each game in the series to its peak with “as large a world as can be realised” on the hardware.”

    I don’t think that was the case for Skyward Sword at all.

      1. Skyward Sword graphics were disappointing. In certain parts the cel-shading looked fine, but draw distance, other textures, etc were just….awful. It was trying to mix both the exaggerated cartoon graphics from Wind Waker with the more realistic graphics from Twilight Princess, and in doing so it failed to stand out on it’s own. The reason those two other Zelda games still hold up is because their graphics are unified in their presentation. In Skyward Sword, they’re a weird hybrid that led to mediocre visuals or worse.
        The most aggregious example I can give is whenever you had to crawl through a tunnel and it went into first person mode, it literally looked like the original Doom game, it’s that bad.

        1. yes I agree it was trying to look painterly but i think it did not look painterly enough to warrant the lack of detail. Maybe on a more powerful system such as wii u and soon..a game trying to look like that would have better effects and look more consistent in that ragard.

  3. Anouma’s definition of an open world is quite… something then.
    I doubt this will be an open world a lá Skyrim or Dark Souls.

  4. Good. Push until the wii u is about to blow up. As long as the story is good, hard puzzles ( like the one in twilight princess before the master sword), and just shit to do and explore. If he good do all that than just take my money right now. I don’t won’t another wind waker. That was the only console Zelda I didn’t want to reply again. Once you completed it, it got so freaking dull.

      1. I never said anything about graphics. Wind waker is decent but not like twilight princess, and the others. Something about wind waker made it just so fucking boring.

    1. He better keep his word about this world size getting to the limits, cuz he promised Skyward Sword would have a new non linear formula and its one of the most linear Zelda games I played.

      1. Yeah I know. Especially hand holding. Getting lost sometimes is what make the game harder instead of it being so damn easy. I like founding my own way through things.

        1. Yeah, same here. And as somebody else has stated here, he says he made every Zelda game reach the size limits, and then came Xenoblade. I cant really judge since I didnt play Xeno on Wii, but Skyward Swords world did seem pretty small. Even the space where you fly with the Loftwing wasnt nearly as big as Windwaker’s sea.

          1. As skyward sword being the origin of Zelda. The open world should have been far and wide. I think the story is what held them back. There was nothing on the land below and all the hylians were in the sky. So basically you would have nothing down there to do but stare at a bunch of fatass bobokins.

            1. LOL, i like that description. So true. Either way, Twiligjt Princess is one of my favourite games, and the gameplay with the sunset brought be some memories of Hyrule Field in TP.

              1. Twilight princess was the very first Zelda game I’ve ever played. I kinda remember playing ocarina of time when I was a kid but can’t really remember it. Twilight princess is what got me attached to Zelda
                and to Nintendo in general. Give me a horse, a instrument, harder puzzles,
                maybe a castle that’s as grand as the on in twilight princess to explore, and just stuff to do. I’d probably play this game 24 hrs straight

                1. I think Im in a similar situation as you. Oot was like the first Zelda game I played back when I was around 9, didnt play too much then I thought i had to beat MM in the time given lol. A few years later, i got Twilight Princess and i loved it. Shortly after i got WW, and then i played MM again and so on.

            2. Ridley, the Angel of Death

              It’s also possible Skyward Sword’s land was small because they want to save it’s true size for a direct sequel to Skyward Sword. In fact, I’m hoping that Zelda U will be a direct sequel to Skyward that shows the true size of the land that will become Hyrule. After all, the land in Zelda U looked pretty uninhabited as far as humanoids are concerned from what we could see. Just have to wait & see.

        2. Lol, Twilight Princess is the closest Zelda game we have had to this open world Zelda U. It has a lretty massive field, and not to mention all the bugs and poe soul you gotta collect accross the field, and other really large areas like lake Hylia, or the desert, places that we pretty much non existent in Skyward Sword. But I think Nintendo is taking ispiration from Twilight Princess in terms of open world and collectibles (apples growing in some random place) so thats great.

    2. That puzzle in Twilight Princess drove me a bit crazy but not too much. In fact I don’t think it was that bad. When I played the game by myself (since the first time i watched my brother play it) i got through it on my first try without having to restart or without getting crushed and without using a guide. I was really surprised myself lol. that was a pretty cool edition to the game though i wish they had more in it

    3. O yea btw, the puzzle before the Master Sword creeped me out more than anything I’ve seen in Majora’s Mask. That creature, how you have to find it, with its little trumpet playing, the atmosphere…

  5. I love The Legend of Zelda but Nintendo is a huge joke and full of people who don’t know how to run a propper Game Company. This pushing the Wii U’s hardware to its fullest is extremely sad. Game consoles from 2006 can do way more then this piece of junk. Nintendo’s software is becoming extremely sad too.

    1. 1. I hope you know that the Wii U is more powerful than the 360 and PS3. 2. If you hate Nintendo, why are you on a Nintendo-based news site? 3. Since when did trying your hardest to make an amazing game qualify as “sad”?

      1. Oh I’m sorry, I must have not seen all the 3rd party Game companies rushing to make games on the piece of garbage. And btw, multiple game developers have said that the Wii U can’t do what the 360 and PS3 can do and Nintendo limits what that piece of trash can do. I’ve been a huge Nintendo fan my whole life but I will not and am not stupid enough to support trash and Nintendo aren’t working hard on their games either, they release cheap games and spread out the release dates to help sells. Nintendo’s died to me around 2010. I’ve played all of Nintendo’s main 3DS and Weak U games ans most of them are rushed pieces of simplified trash compared to what Nintndo used to make. You all don’t even know what good games are, you will buy any Nintendo game that comes out.

        1. Your stuck in the past from 2 years ago, what a poor soul. Those “Devs” were lying dipshit. Much like how EA said Wii U couldn’t run the Frostbite Engine, then a game came along using it. They just made excuses for not wanting to simply say they don’t want to learn a new system. It’s why they stick with PS and Xbox since they are so similar they can copy and paste their game on those consoles with little effort and make money from morons. They don’t want to learn the Wii U and take advantage of it.

        1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

          If you mention those again I will kill you right now,you hear?…

          Do not mention those, they are a no mention zone…

          1. It’s OK. Everyone has a weakness. It’s a shame that getting hit in the titties is yours. What a tragic robo design.

            1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

              Oh my god, I can’t believe!

              You mentioned them again I can’t even believe…

              Oh God I want to kill you right now!

              If you weren’t valuable for the empire you would be so dead right now, it would be unbelievable…

              1. You must really miss your tits. To bad they’re somewhere floating outer space. Your just a floating head who can’t function properly without your jumbo tits. I doubt you’d be able to kill me without them. You poor piece of scrap metal.

                    1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

                      If you type again…

                      If you type again!

                      I’m going to kill you, you understand?!

                      Oh my god, he’s getting ready again…oh my god! don’t type anything…

                          1. I'm a Boss Ass Bitch

                            T.Y.P.E!

                            Good luck trying to find me out of a billion other Americans. If you ever do I will be waiting. Oh yes I WILL be fucking waiting. Happy haunting🙌😎

                            1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

                              *Cybernetic sigh*

                              You did all 3 again!

                              You reached for the keyboard, you typed and sent the comment…

                              *wink*

                              1. I'm a Boss Ass Bitch

                                I didn’t reach, I thumb the letters, I didn’t type, I swiped and I didn’t send the comment. The bloggers did. Your so fucking wrong sir.

                                    1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

                                      The meaning of the word is irrelevant, only my superiority over your existence matters…

                                      1. I'm a Boss Ass Bitch

                                        No it does have meaning just like ma’am does. So if called you ma’am, you wouldn’t get offended?

                                        1. Nintendo Elite Commander Quadraxis

                                          Why would I be offended over a pointless human cattle word that means “superior” in your language?…

                                          1. I'm a Boss Ass Bitch

                                            I don’t know maybe because in actuality you’re probably male. I’d be so damn shocked if you were really that scrap of metal quadraixs.

                                                          1. I'm a Boss Ass Bitch

                                                            Non organic lifeforms can loser’s as well. Look at Megatron, I big fucking loser he is.

                                                              1. Haha, maybe his computer always fries up in the end due to how much power it requires to argue with you.

                                              1. I can’t wait for this! This was the 4th reason why I bought my Wii U a year ago next to Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario 3D World, lol.

                                              2. It’s LoZ, so I know Nintendo won’t mess it up, but this installment needs all the good points of the old games and more. The crafting system from Skyward Sword, the challenging puzzles of TP/MM, the dark feeling from MM (doubt we’ll get that though), lots of side “quests” also like MM, memorable characters like OoT, and a great sound track. I really just want a lot of things to do outside of the main quest. You could explore all the islands in WW, collect all the skulltulas in OoT, find all the goddess cubes in SS, or collect all of those weird octopus babies in ALBW, and Nintendo needs to add a similar element to this game as well. Just give us something so that even when we finish the game we’re not completely done.

                                                1. I completely agree. I also wish we could have half land exploration, and half sailing to islands like Wind Waker. Probably sounds weird, but I loved sailing for a long time and finding islands. It would be interesting to combine them.

                                                  1. doesn’t sound weird at all. I wish they’d done that with wind waker. I was kinda disappointed when I played Wind Waker back on my cube and realized it’s really all about sailing from one little Island to another. In general that’s what I dislike about Zelda’s gamedesign the most. Things are too consistent and thus too predictable. In WW, everything follows that huge grid so you know, nothing would ever exceed that size. Sure that might’ve been a hardware issue, but I don’t know. They could’ve somehow faked some huge mainland-kind of island where you would have been able to ride on a horse or something. There were so many things I would’ve loved to see but one of the biggest issues I always had was just as I said, it’s consistence. After playing 2 or 3 Zelda games, you can pretty much predict everything. Maybe not the exact order, but Nintendo should try to surprise us more, making it a bit less linear. Consistency is a good thing, but not if it makes things so transparent.

                                                    1. Yeah, every Zelda game is enclosed. Zelda U seems to be departing from that unsurprising traditional formula, since they say it’s open world and they say it is’t linear. I sure hope Aonuma keeps his words, cuz he said that SKyward Sword wouldn’t be linear, and like I told somebody else, it’s one of the most linear Zelda games I’ve played. He also said they would change up the traditional formula for Skyward Sword…well? I didn’t play ALBW, but I do know they kind of changed the formula, allowing you to go to any dungeon, and get any item in any order. That’s good, but I also hear it’s quite not there yet. At least they actually did something to change it, and I hope they truly break that barrier with Zelda U.

                                              3. Pingback: Aonuma: The Legend of Zelda U será tan grande como la consola lo permita – Arcadiavg

                                                1. I feel you. I wouldn’t say TP is really garbage, but for me it definitely was the worst game of all 3D Zelda games. Uninspired and just lots of stuff to satisfy some fans who always asked for the things they implemented there. But nothing original, or let’s say, the only more original aspect of that game, the wolf, sucked.
                                                  It looked quite pretty though, can’t argue with that. But everything felt so forced.

                                              4. Pingback: Zelda Wii U will push the Hardware with “As Large A World as Can be Realised” says Aonuma | PLAYERESSENCE

                                              5. I seriously doubt that the world will be “as big as the system allows”. Look at the Wii, he said they did it with every game, and yet compared to Xenoblade the Wii games were minuscule. But it doesn’t really matter all that much, for a Zelda game all that matters is what’s in the world itself, that’s what made MM so great. But imagine a Zelda with Xenoblade’s world :D

                                                1. Twilight princess had a very big world map. It wasn’t as big as Xenoblade, but in that respect neither was Skyrim. Twilight Princess had a huge map though. It would take you a long time to run a lap around the entire map if you include the Desert and the Snow peak. And that’s using Epona. Imagine trying to run a lap around the world map of TP without Epona! That would take a very very long time!

                                                2. They still have their own demands to fullfill. And considering that, he might be totally right. Look at the differences between Xenoblade and Zelda. Look at the amount of detail on every character, the environment and the enemies. Xenoblade is all about that epic huge adventure while Zelda isn’t just about the size of the world, but the way it’s initial segments are designed in terms of their whole level structure. You could also create a far, far bigger world than the one in Xenoblade with the Wii hardware, you would just have to cut things away until the world grows. It always just depends on what you think the game needs to be what it is. And Zelda just would lack a lot of it’s charm if it would follow the architecture of RPGs which usually are very large. So for the demands of a Zelda game, I believe Aonuma said the truth.

                                              6. the problem I see is that the game Disc will run constantly. Be nice if Nintendo would add and app on their menu to install a game on to a storage device.

                                              7. I think Zelda will actually be just as big if not bigger. look at the last video of that map and the scale at which it was zoomed out. now I think Zelda will have a map similar to a globe where you can walk around the world.

                                              8. I hooe he keeps his word this time. He promised thos while formula change with Skyward Sword, how it wouldnt be linear and all that…one of the most linear Zelda games I have ever played.

                                              9. One thing I’m fucking surprised these retards never put in a Zelda game is a fucking extra full dungeon!! I swear these people are stupid as fuck! Out of all the years they’ve been making Zelda they NEVER added a extra non-story dungeon at all. Fucking idiots. The dungeon could utilize all the items you got throughout the game and it would be the hardest out of all of them. I’m having trouble believing these fucking stupid shits never even thought of this once for how many years now? dumb fucks

                                              10. Pingback: Zelda News | Your Legend of Zelda News Source! | Zelda Sanctuary

                                              11. Pingback: Eiji Aonuma diz que o Zelda Wii U irá ter um mundo tão grande quanto a consola permitirá

                                              12. And here comes the fuckers that will say “Well, it’s because of its simpler art style and not realism that Wii U was able to run it just like Smash Bros. running at 1080p because it’s 2.5D viewing”

                                                Shut the fuck up with the excuses just because your own “powerful” black PC wannabes social media boxes aren’t as strong as those bastards advertised. Why you think Ubisoft is bullshitting through their teeth about their games not being able to run 1080p/60FPS (even on PS-fucking-4) as “falsely” promised? Because it can’t, not without clever sacrificial decisions that’s hidden right under people’s noses. Nintendo is doing their own thing while the rest of the jackass gaming world is solely worried about which DRM box displays the biggest realistic dick on screen.

                                              13. Pingback: Zelda Wii U spingerà al limite l’hardware della console Nintendo secondo Aonuma | VG247.it

                                              14. I wish Nintendo would push games like Mario Party to the limits of the Wii U hardware. I’m sick of every single Mario Party game looking basically the exact same graphically. The series needs a major overhaul. Even with what I’ve seen of Mario Party 10, it still looks the same.

                                                1. But it’s EICH-DEE! Well, how else can you make the grahics? Or than it being HD on Wii U, I think they have to purposely keep it simple textured and colourful.

                                                1. Ridley, the Angel of Death

                                                  Don’t you mean Twilight Princess? Wind Waker’s overworld actually had way more life than Twilight Princess.

                                                  1. No, I meant WW.
                                                    Whether or not TP’s overworld was bad is irrelevant here. It doesn’t change the fact that The Great Sea was filled with nothingness and 70% of the islands had nothing of interest other than rupees you’ll never use or the triforce charts.

                                              Leave a Reply to AnonymousCancel reply

                                              Discover more from My Nintendo News

                                              Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

                                              Continue reading