In Nintendo’s Ask the Developer Vol. 13 series of interviews, it was revealed that Tomomi Sano will be the first female director of a The Legend of Zelda game.
As the game’s director on behalf of Nintendo, Sano will be overseeing the work done by Grezzo, the developer, to ensure that it meets Nintendo’s and fans’ expectations.
Here’s some of what she had to say in the first part of the interview:
“Hi, I’m Tomomi Sano. I was the director for this title from Nintendo’s side. My role was to manage and coordinate the production for this project, suggest adjustments, and then check the outcome to ensure the gameplay created by Grezzo is aligned with the Legend of Zelda series.”
“Prior to this project, my main role was to support the director. As for the remakes that Grezzo worked on, I was involved in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. I was also involved in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, as well as some of the titles in the Mario & Luigi series released prior to Mario & Luigi: Brothership, which will be released in November this year.”
In the second part of the interview, Sano also went into detail about the game’s “echoes” mechanic and how it evolved throughout development.
“Princess Zelda doesn’t have a way of attacking directly initially, so there was a tendency for the gameplay using the echoes to just end up being a situation where you watched the things you copied do the work. It felt like they were doing everything for you and you were being made to wait… So we asked Grezzo to adjust it so that players would feel an immediate sense of accomplishment like, ‘I did it!’ For example, if you made an echo of a monster, that echo would immediately attack an enemy, just like you swinging a sword. Or if you wanted to light a fire, you could use an echo with that ability, and it would light the fire straight away. We made adjustments like these all the way through the game’s development so that these kinds of intuitive responses would feel exciting for players.”
With Sano bringing both her expertise and perspective to the franchise, It looks like the newest Zelda game, releasing on September 26 for Nintendo Switch, will be breaking barriers and treading new ground in more ways than one.
Be on the lookout for our review of it to see if Princess Zelda’s first mainline adventure proves itself to be fit for the history books and worthy of legend.
Epic win for women. God I love women.
Kissing @$$ to women on a random article isn’t going to get you laid so cut the crap.
Why censor yourself if you’re so concerned with cutting down people on the internet? Just say ass, dude.
What a horrible little person you are.
Well, you sound like someone who’d prefer to be speaking to a “little person”, if anything.
Satoshi Terada isn’t a woman though? We can see the credits now so what is the purpose of this lie?
Thank you for your comment.
The game is being jointly directed by both Sano, on behalf of Nintendo, and Terada, on behalf of Grezzo. However, considering that she was appointed by Aonuma himself, that her role is to oversee Grezzo/Terada’s work, and that the Zelda IP belongs to Nintendo, it can be said that Sano is Terada’s superior in this matter.
This is what the official interview from Nintendo states, “Sano-san is the first female director of The Legend of Zelda series.” Other outlets have also reported on this and verified it as well.
I’m most likely still skipping this game because it is more puzzle oriented than action oriented. As an aside, telling people that it’s female directed tells your audience that your leaning in to left leaning political narratives which the vast majority of people who buy video games do not like. I for one and there are many people like me play games because they’re good, they’re fun, they’re entertaining, not because a male or female directed it.
Vast majority of “people who buy video games” are right wing conservatives? So with your logic, leaning into right wing territory would be fine then? This is noteworthy news regarding a business historically dominated by men. “Fun facts” if you will. If you feel like women in the gaming industry simply existing is “left propaganda” then that’s obviously your problem.
lol someone is politically ignorant, it’s like he thinks only the left and right exists… smh So heres some knowledge that you are missing for some unexplained reason…there are countless people who are independents…shocker huh?
Now that we have established that you can be neither left nor right if you so choose, now comes the next bit of knowledge for your @$$. The right wing and a huge chunk of independents absolutely hate women and gay made entertainment because of the focus of said products are not as entertaining as straight male made products in the same category, not because they are female/gay, but because we have seen gay/female entertainment and they tend to be very unentertaining and always pushing an agenda…no thanks.
So no, I am not right wing at all (lol imagine an atheist as a republican lol) and yes, I will be skipping all female/gay made games/movies/TV Shows/any entertainment for my entire life.
Funnily enough, I am an independent but I will never watch independent films lol Those are pure garbage, I’ve given a few dozen independent films a shot and every single one was garbage. I don’t fall for that $#!+ anymore, if a movie trailer has that logo for independent films, then I turn off the trailer and move on. Not falling for the $#!+ anymore at all, no matter how good the trailer makes the movie look, it always disappoints.
Have fun pretending women make entertaining products and listing the “amazing” entertainment produced by women to try to prove me wrong. lol ya simps
I swear, women simply existing is considered “political” to people like you.
It’s not like they’re shoving it in your face or using it as the game’s selling point, it’s just a nice detail that the first proper Zelda game with a female protagonist is also being helmed by the series first female director.
Why are you offended by something so completely inoffensive?
Making a big deal about it being (partially) directed by a woman (and exaggerating her role by pretending she was the sole director) is what they’re calling “political”. Who cares who made it? All that matters is if it’s good or not. Most Zelda fans aren’t that excited about this game as the gameplay shown seems very dumbed down and childish. Ironically, pretending it was solely directed by a woman will make some people go “Yeah, that makes sense why it sucks” and the author is achieving the opposite goal of what they intended.
It’s a shame that the first game where you play as Zelda looks like it’ll be a dud, it’ll mean Nintendo will be hesitant to make another game with Zelda as the main character. I don’t blame the her for it, it’s just evidence that Grezzo as a studio doesn’t have what it takes to develop an original game and should stick to remasters of existing games.
Literally no one is making a “big deal” out of it (except, ironically, people like you).
It’s simply a noteworthy first for the series, same as Zelda being the protagonist for the first time (excluding the god-awful CDI games, anyway).
“Most Zelda fans aren’t that excited about this game”???
Sounds like you’re living in your own little bubble, because the response the trailers have garnered so far have been almost universally positive.
You’re allowed to personally dislike the direction the game is taking, of course, but deluding yourself into thinking that the whole Zelda fanbase has the exact same opinion as you is just childish (as is getting upset about people mentioning that the game’s director is a woman, incidentally).
“Pretending it was solely directed by a woman will make some people go ‘Yeah, that makes sense why it sucks'”
It really sounds like you’re projecting there, ngl. No normal, socially functioning human being is going to jump to a conclusion like that.
It’s funny to me how you’re speaking as if the game is already a failure when it hasn’t even released yet, especially when the game is already the Switch’s number one best seller on sites like Amazon.
Your predictions of doom and gloom are honestly baseless.
I personally wouldn’t make such predictions until the full game has released and we see the offical sales figures and review scores, but you do you I guess.
“Literally no one is making a “big deal” out of it (except, ironically, people like you).”
You are literally commenting this under an article who’s only purpose and point is to make an issue of the woman’s gender, and you don’t have the integrity to acknowledge it.
You make the culture war bigger every time you lie about it.
86 on Metacritic. Seems you’re wrong.
lol nobody is offended, they are disappointed cause women’s games tend to be crappy and nobody wants a crappy Zelda game.
Did that offend your little feelings?
Funny, you say that yet you’re the one that sounds the most offended here, losing your mind at the mere possibility of a woman directing a Zelda game. Not very good at controlling your emotions, huh?
And yikes, do you wanna try any harder to out yourself as an incel? Based on your other comments here, I’d be surprised if you’ve ever been within 10 inches of a woman.
Just a bit of advice; maybe if you fix your awful personality and take a shower more than once a month, they’ll actually be willing to talk to you. Hope this helps :)
Seems this game isn’t crappy after all. Wow, women CAN make great games.
“I swear, women simply existing is considered “political” to people like you.”
I don’t want to suggest I’m endorsing the entirety of his comment, but come on. Making special declarations about the genitals of the Director of the game is clearly a political move. They want a pat on the back for putting a woman in the position.
I’m not offended by it. I don’t care. But its just dishonest to pretend that the pandering isn’t pandering. This is the lion’s share of the reason why we have to deal with this culture war on every new product these days. The creators themselves deliberately make a grand public declaration about how wonderful it is that, say, the new Doctor Who is black, and then when someone points out hey, its weird that you’re making skin color so important to a show that had nothing to do with race, they gaslight and pretend that they didn’t just spend the last three months patting themselves on the back for being so progressive.
That example, Doctor Who, is another one where I genuinely do not care in the slightest the identity of the actor who plays the character…… but I do care when the showrunner lies to me, and then lies to me about lying to me because he thinks I’m too stupid to notice. It can’t both be an incredibly important and necessary step that’s good for society AND have no political messaging behind it.
If you make a big deal about the identity of your creators, you don’t get to be upset when people take you up on the offer and treat it like a big deal.
Life has taught me to never watch movies or TV shows made by women, the same rule applies to video games. I also have the same rule about Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P,) everything he touches turns to $#!+.
This comment section is pure gold!
Vulvic games, the great news of 2024. The real question is , how her tits will affect gameplay.