E3 2014: NINTENDO PRODUCER ON LINK'S IDENTITY AND ZELDA AS A HERO
Zelda's Aonuma gives us a bit more context, but not a lot of answers.
We asked Nintendo Producer Eiji Aonuma to provide some additional context regarding The Legend of Zelda's new trailer and his comment on the identity of the main protagonist.
"One thing I have to say is, I never said that wasn't Link," Aonuma explained. "I said 'No one ever said that was Link.' Every game needs to have a protagonist. You have to have a main character, so we create one that is ultimately supposed to become the player. With each iteration of Zelda, we make this main character and it's not as though this protagonist is not the same character all the time. It's just a role within the game that the player occupies."
"That's something that I tell my designers when they create the character," Aonuma continued. "Certainly, as part of a series, maybe people will think it’s the same main character but, ultimately, it's the player character. It's the person with the controller in their hands, if that makes sense. This kind of information can just exponentially grow, so I just wanted to make that clear."
With so many questions about the identity of the protagonist in the new Zelda trailer, we shifted the conversation and asked Aonuma about the potential of a bigger role for Zelda in a future game. Is he open to the possibility of the princess being the hero?
"I'm interested in seeing something like that, but I think one of the charm points of this particular franchise is that fact that it's called 'Legend of Zelda' but Zelda is not the main character," Aonuma said. "She's not the protagonist. But if you ask me what that is, I don’t know. I can't really explain it. Maybe if she's the main character, then maybe the title needs to change."
We reminded Aonuma that maybe the title doesn't have to change. In the end, he's one of the people that makes that choice.
