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You never know when inspiration is going to strike, and for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom team, inspiration was found during a nine-day boot camp where, according to director Tomomi Sano, they were "working from morning until night" to get the story right.
As part of Nintendo's Ask the Developer Vol. 13 series producer Eiji Aonuma recounts the difficulty of taking creative liberties within the deeper history of Hyrule. This ultimately led to the aforementioned "boot camp" between him and the rest of the team to really figure the new Zelda game out.
"It's very difficult to balance how much to add or change," says Aonuma. "At first, we were intentionally leaving any parts that might delve into Hyrule's history vague, but partway through, we just couldn't find a way forward that way... So, around last summer, we decided to hold a boot camp and work out the story there."
This lengthy excursion centered around the difficulties of touching the existing lore of the franchise and keeping things consistent. If you've seen the latest Legend of Zelda timeline, you should understand why that is a difficult task.
"Because the series has been running for a long time, players are interested in its history and lore," he continues. "So, when we've adopted a game plot that was not in line with the other games in the series because we prioritized the gameplay, we've been told by our fans that it didn't make sense."
The process was a slow start, with team members unsure of the direction Echoes of Wisdom's story would take over the course of this boot camp. Eventually the game's story came together when Aonuma wrote up a quick draft in his hotel room, which was then used as a starting point for what would become the finished script.
"Even there, Grezzo didn't offer any in-depth suggestions about the story at first," he admits. "So, I went back to the hotel, quickly wrote a script that would work, and brought it with me the next day. Then, we all contributed various elements that often occur in the Legend of Zelda series to the script. Using this method, we eventually completed the game's story."
A Legend of Zelda boot camp might sound like a fan's biggest dream, but for the team behind the game it sounds like it was more a lesson in keeping the lore consistent the best you can.
The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom releases September 26, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch.
If you're looking for more on the game, check out our review of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and why it's a "refreshing, magic-filled retool of the Link's Awakening engine."
