Koei Tecmo talks about development of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Japanese Nintendo magazine Nintendo Dream have published a wide-ranging interview with Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi regarding the action-packed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild musou prequel, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Mr. Hayashi talks about a number of things including making the four playable Champions playable, along with working with the Zelda: Breath of the Wild development team. Thanks to PushDustin for the info:

• Hayashi wanted players to enjoy playing through the story, as AoC is the first Musou game with an emphasis on story 
• For creating the concepts of the 4 Champions, the team listed concepts for the Zelda team 
• None of these concepts were shot down. 
• The fighting style of the Champions was inspired by some of their battle scenes in Breath of the Wild 
• Revali’s playstyle was inspired by the weapons they left Link 
• The diaries/memories in BoTW also helped guide the team in creating the concepts 
• The Zelda team was helpful in adjusting Koei Tecmo’s concepts and getting the feeling of the Champions right 
• Daruk was originally slower, as it’s common to have a heavy character in Musou games
• This didn’t feel right for the character though, so they decided to add the Magma attacks mid-development 
• The Paraglider for Daruk was difficult to get right 
• Each character originally used the same paraglider, but they changed this to make things better suited to each person 
• With Mipha, the team started off with her weapon as a base, and then added her special abilities to it 
• The team wanted the 4 Champions to be easy to pick up and play 
• For the Trident, Mipha was made before Link’s Trident move set 
• It was important to make every character true to the source materia 
• The concept for Revali was flight, and it took the team several times to get this right 
• The Sheikah items can be used in mid-air as well, and is different than using it on the ground 
• Urbosa’s special action is being able to charge lightning, and the team jokes it like charging a smartphone 
• Impa’s feeling was “Tricky”, Zelda was “Magician”, and both Link and Urbosa were “Orthodox” 
• Urbosa’s playstyle is probably the most straight forward of the 4 Champions 
• Urbosa is very popular in North Americ 
• Hestu was one of the first characters decided and the whole team was for his inclusion
• The theme was for Hestu to use Koroks and to dance 
• The team had issues with Hestu’s size, which is why they decided to make his head semitransparent to aid the player 
• Maz Koshia was decided at the very start of development to represent the 120 Monks in BoTW 
• Since Maz Koshia was the final boss of the DLC, the team felt he would be the most memorable 
• The team felt that Hestu and Maz Koshia would appear naturally during the events 100 years prior to BoTW 
• For Maz Koshia’s moveset, the team used the idea of having the gimmicks inside the shrines as his basis 
• Getting the voice for Maz Koshia was tough, and they worked closely with the Zelda team to ensure he was still mysterious

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