BotW’s Development Team Talks Performance, Graphics and Player Choice
In celebration of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo released a series of interviews featuring key members of the development team.
During one such video put out yesterday, Art Director Satoru Takizawa talked about the changes in the game’s graphics between the first showing at E3 and its release. According to Takizawa, a downgrade was required to ensure the game ran as smoothly as possible. As he put it:
As the team responsible for the design and art, of course we wanted to deliver beautiful and realistic visuals, but what we fixated on most was designing the visuals so that they matched the features of the game and facilitated comfortable play for the user. So, when it came down to deciding whether to make the game prettier or improve response during play, we always chose to prioritize the features of the game and improved response. I hope that players will experience the world for themselves rather than simply watching videos of the game.
Nintendo games have always placed gameplay over visual fidelity, and Takizawa’s remarks only reinforce this philosophy. Takuhiro Dohta spoke about player agency, saying that “there is no ‘correct’ way to play this game.” Hidemaro Fujibayashi talked about surprises and the planning staff’s goal of ensuring that “there is always some surprise when you reach your destination.” These ideas have been baked into Nintendo’s design philosophy for decades. Now, it feels like they’ve come together in a single title, a game that perfectly represents how Nintendo tries to make games. You can check out our review of Breath of the Wild here.
SOURCE: Wccftech