Okay, so, if you happen to’ve performed via all (or most of) Tears of the Kingdom and have the Grasp Sword, then you realize the place it’s — it is embedded within the head of the Mild Dragon. And who’s that Mild Dragon? Nicely, it is none apart from Zelda herself.
And Aonuma says that he and the group knew “very early on” that they needed Zelda to show right into a dragon. The thought for the Grasp Sword being in her head got here “in all probability instantly after that”:
“So if you happen to have been to think about the entire growth course of, from one to 10, I would say the dragon resolution was in all probability someplace between one and two. And the choice to have the Grasp Sword on the dragon’s head was three to 4, though we did know that the Grasp Sword ought to in all probability be on the dragon someplace.”
Fujibayashi continues by speaking in regards to the “nice time paradox” as one of many central themes — early on within the sport, Zelda is flung again to the distant previous, in fact — and the primary thought from the group was “‘Okay, effectively how can we use the Grasp Sword with that theme because the background and get the Grasp Sword into Hyperlink’s palms as soon as he not has it?’”. So the group landed on the “grand” dragon.
Some gamers, nevertheless, won’t have gathered all the Dragon’s Tears and even know that Zelda is the Mild Dragon. And that is as a result of you will get the Grasp Sword each time (so long as your stamina is excessive sufficient, anyway). And Fujibayashi admits that the group “spent a very long time discussing” the open construction of the sport and the way this would possibly have an effect on the Grasp Sword’s acquisition.
The way in which the group obtained round this was by concealing the dragon “a bit bit” and making it “a bit bit mysterious”. The participant would want to take many steps to perform every little thing and perceive why the sword is there, however Fujibayashi tells IGN the next:
“However that is all tied to this concept that there is this sure sense of accomplishment and pleasure if you’re working arduous in direction of one thing and also you unravel this deep thriller. We wish the participant to have the ability to take pleasure in that and for us to have the ability to take pleasure in that as effectively. So in that sense, I’d say it is actually numerous work. It is actually numerous arduous work, however it wasn’t nerve-racking…”
Aonuma agrees with Fujibayashi, and goes so far as to say that that is a side of recent open-world video games — “the video games of immediately are ones through which that may settle for a participant’s personal selections and provides them the liberty to flexibly proceed via the sport”. The collection’ producer additionally says that this sort of design philosophy can carry “further growth prices”, probably due to how open then sport must be to permit that flexibility.
The interview offers us loads of insights into Tears of the Kingdom, which received Greatest Motion / Journey Recreation at The Recreation Awards 2023 final week. This interview happened earlier than TGA, however its win is a testomony to the open nature and construction of the sport.