News Famitsu: TotK interview w/ Aonuma & Fujibayashi; dev insights, no plan to release additional content, high expectations for next Zelda aren't a hurdle

[MondoMega]

I've summarised the key points of the article I imagine would be of interest to people, seperated into sections somewhat following how the article itself is segmented. There are a ton of interesting development details included, and I wanted to highlight these as well (as the few comments on the future are getting the most attention). If anyone feels i've misunderstood any particular point feel free to comment and i'll make an adjustment:

EDIT: Adjusted the phrasing of certain points and added a few extra notes I skipped over previously; plus some minor grammer fixes.

About The Depths:

• Development began after The Champion’s Ballad was completed. As referenced in the Ask the Developer interview, initial experimentation with Ultrahand started with creating vehicles out of existing objects in BotW’s engine. At the time Fujibayashi’s proposal for the new ability had “Pen-Pineapple” (a reference to the viral music video) written to get the concept across in an easy to understand manner.
• Caves and the Depths were born from from wanting new environments to make this new play experience (creating things with Ultrahand) more interesting. The Depths in particular had an initial prototype prepared notably quickly by inverting the terrain height of the existing Hyrule map. The map was manually adjusted and fine-tuned during production from there, but the base didn't take much time to create.
• The intention with the Depths was to shake up the gameplay loop by creating an area players would feel the need to prepare for before exploring due to the limited options for recovering hearts. Prepare, explore, return to the surface; the cycle repeats. Items exclusive to the Depths are seen as an incentive to explore it.
• Fujibayashi believes the darkness adds to the exploration and discovery, making it easier to see how much you have already explored. Aonuma comments that while lighting the darkness with a torch is the traditional game mechanic, dynamically creating light sources yourself while exploring such a large area is something only possible with today's hardware capabilities.
• Hiding the Depths in marketing was Fujibayashi’s decision; he felt learning about the existence of a whole underground world while playing is something emblematic of the “discovery" and "exploration” the Zelda series is known for. Aonuma’s concerns were different; he didn’t feel marketing would be able to properly convey how the world is seamlessly connected, and also thought an out-of-context preview of the Depths may be misinterpreted as “Oh, there's a Dark World”.
• "Vertical Play" is one of the game's key elements. The paired relationship between “front and back” worlds like “past and future” are a Zelda tradition; this time "sky and ground" and "ground and underground" both exist back-to-back, going up and down. An interesting landmark on the Surface may lead to something in the Depths; if you encounter Zonai ruins on the Surface, you may see a Sky Island when you look up; etc.
• The ability to seamlessly dive from the Sky to the Depths is a result of this "Vertical Play" concept. Until near the end of production this transition wasn’t seamless; it took a lot of adjustments and optimisation work to avoid the game regularly freezing during transitions.
• Fujibayashi notes that from the initial planning stages this was envisioned as a game that would be played for a long time. Aonuma adds that Zelda is often refered to as a "multiplication game" because the fun is increased by multiplying elements with other elements, so adding new elements subsequently increases the playtime. He sees this length and the continued communition surrounding the game as a positive compared to how in the past games were completed quickly and "that was the end of it".

About the new abilities:

• It was decided without hesitation that the Sheikah Slate abilities from the previous game would be removed. Fujibayashi felt that if they remained, the base play experience would remain unchanged, and thus not feel like a new Zelda title. The skill accumulated from the previous work instead made it easier to problem solve possible scenarios for Link's new capabilities; creating a "building code" to be followed in this Hyrule.
• Ultrahand is at the core of the game, and it required the most time and effort in development. Fujibayashi pushed the team to fine-tune and simplify the controls as much as possible through the question of “how many steps does it take to make a raft?”. It started at 5 and kept decreasing. Initially the angle of objects could be adjusted by one degree increments, this was one element simplified for user convenience.
• Autobuild came about naturally during playtesting, as it was found to feel troublesome to recreate something you had already built before. Schema Stones also served as a way to make Ultrahand suggestions to the player without verbally saying "you can make something like this", and could be used as a treasure to find.
• They had many candidates for Zonai Devices, but narrowed down the final selection to those deemed the most simple and versatile. Not having a clear vision for the exact use of a part was viewed as a positive attribute to avoid narrowing the scope of creativity.
• They experimented with alternate methods for activating Zonai Devices, or having a delay in startup to avoid potential misfires, but decided hitting them “primitively” was the simplest option. This also allowed for various other ways to activate devices, such as from a distance with arrows. Relates back to the “how many steps?” discussion.
• The developers exchanged videos of their creations while working on the game, much like what fans have done since the game launched. To paraphrase: “if staff start having fun with the game we’re developing, we’re making something interesting”.

About puzzle solving:

• For the previous game they prepared three or more solutions for each Shrine or Dungeon puzzle. They kept this approach again, with even more potential "right solutions" due to the creativity the players are allowed through the new abilities. "Was this really the right answer?" is a feeling Fujibayashi wants people to have; and he believes that not allowing for this variety in solutions would make the game difficult to complete.
• Aonuma is aware of people making long bridges to brute-force solve multiple puzzles. He believes it's a great joy when you do something you thought you shouldn't be able to do, "maybe I shouldn't do this".
• They are aware of the Korok "torture" [this term isn't used in the article but it is what they reference] trend on social media; Fujibayashi didn’t intend for this to become viral, but he did have some idea of what people would do to them with Ultrahand and Zonai Devices. He didn’t want players to feel guilty and stop being creative, so he ordered that the character smile and be happy through anything. He claims the tone of these Koroks is exactly like the staff member in charge of them.
• Addison and the Hudson Construction signs were initially created out of function, not character. They designed the puzzle from the idea of creating a minigame using Ultrahand and physics calculation casually in the overworld. Fujibayashi believes the puzzle would not be interesting if it were presented inorganically, and such a context was created to make them fit into the world. He is aware of people using Hover Stones to easily solve these puzzles, but believes the player should be free to solve them however they want, as long as they’re having fun.

About the story [the article itself contains a spoiler warning here, so I will too]:

Spoiler

• Ganondorf wasn’t initially decided to be part of this story. The initial theme was simply to “depict the natural growth of humans”, taking advantage of the connections to the previous work and the established world. Zelda is at the centre of this theme: in the previous game she felt remorse for Hyrule’s reliance on Sheikah technology leading to the kingdom’s destruction, and now she wonders what is best for Hyrule moving forward, not simply advocating for restoring it to what it was.
• In deciding that the majority of Zelda’s story would be set in the era of Hyrule's founding, they introduced the characters King Rauru and Queen Sonia. It was then decided that an absolutely evil king would be introduced to contrast the respected Rauru, and Ganondorf was deemed to be the most suitable character for this role.
• Impressions from Breath of the Wild influenced this thematic direction, as players shared how their experiences culminated in saving Zelda and created their own personal story with the game. They felt reuniting with Zelda after a long adventure would show both her own growth and the player’s growth through their respective experiences.
• Aonuma asked the interviewer when they realised what Zelda’s fate in the past was; Fujibayashi noted they wanted the game to be played in any way, and designed multiple points where one might have their revelation (the final Dragon's Tear memory, getting the Master Sword, Mineru’s memory).
• A lot of smaller details and scenes most players won't see were questioned with “Is it really worth the time and effort?", but in the end it was decided these things would make the world livelier. Localisation groups were shocked by the amount of text in the game; this surprised Aonuma.
• The references to Zonai in Breath of the Wild weren’t included with the direct intention to develop on them in a sequel. Fujibayashi and Aonuma always intend to give it their all with each game on its own, and view it as a mistake to leave behind threads you aren’t sure you will revisit later.
• Returning enemies weren’t decided based on simply wanting to bring past elements back, they all filled an independently desired purpose. In the case of Gleeoks, they wanted a new strong enemy like Lynels who would also look good in the sky, and happened to decide on a past enemy that perfectly fit the description. The contrast to this case were the Horriblins; they wanted a monster who would attack from the ceilings of caves but could not find any fitting past enemy, thus creating a new one. ‎Marbled Gohma is another example where the play experience (using Yunobo’s ability to destroy legs and knock it over to get on top) was decided before theming it after an existing enemy.

About the timeline:

• The interviewer asks about how the game fits into the existing Zelda timeline, given Skyward Sword seemingly depicted the founding of Hyrule, while this game also does. Fujibayashi only reaffirms that the game is set following Breath of the Wild, and that the Zelda series is designed to have a story and world that doesn’t fall apart. With the latter assumption in mind he believes there is room for fans to wonder if there are various other posibilities. He suggests one “possibility” (and clarifies that he is only speaking on it as a possibility) that there may have been a history of destruction before TotK’s story of Hyrule’s foundation. He says he does not create things randomly, and wants fans to imagine the parts of the story that have not been told.