‘The Legend of Zelda’ producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed 2D and 3D games in the series will coexist alongside one another.
The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed 2D and 3D games in the series will coexist alongside one another
In more recent iterations of the beloved action-adventure franchise, most titles have had a three-dimensional design - such as ‘Breath of the Wild’ and ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ - while Nintendo has gone back to the series’ roots with games like the upcoming ‘Echoes of Wisdom’ by including the classic top-down perspective.
Now, the franchise’s producer has reassured fans the studio will continue to develop ‘The Legend of Zelda’ for both formats.
During the thirteenth volume of Nintendo’s ‘Ask the Developer’, Aonuma said: “I've always wanted to establish a 2D top-down ‘Legend of Zelda’ series that's separate from the 3D entries like ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’.
“The game style and how it feels are completely different when the world is viewed in 3D from behind the character to when the world is viewed from a top-down perspective. We wanted to cherish that kind of diversity in the ‘Legend of Zelda’ series.”
The producer added developer Grezzo wanted to revive the classic 2D perspective through ‘Echoes of Wisdom’ - which is due to release on the Nintendo Switch later this week (26.09.24) - while bringing fans “something completely new that had never been done before”.
He said: “Grezzo had established an excellent way of reviving the top-down Legend of Zelda experience for a modern era, so I thought we could develop something completely new that had never been done before.”