Zelda designers told off their bosses because there were too many sky islands in Tears of the Kingdom

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It sounds like they won this round

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom powers abilities
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's leads got told off by their designers for adding too many sky islands.

Earlier today on May 10, Nintendo's third interview with Tears of the Kingdom's lead development team went live. In the interview, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi reveals that after adding islands dotted around the sky in Tears of the Kingdom, they were told off by the game's designers.

"The new actions and sky area were such novelties to us that we added one sky island after another to test out the different gameplay elements," Fujibayashi said. "Then one day, the designers scolded us. They said we'd made the skies messy by adding too many islands."

This is probably a case of Tears of the Kingdom's inner dev circle going buck wild with their latest toy, and the sequel's designers pulling them back down to Earth and reigning in the feature. Those darn old people just kept on adding too many sky islands!

It's all in good fun, and from the sounds of Fujibayashi's comments, the designers won the argument, and the sky islands were somewhat reduced in volume. Don't worry if that sounds like bad news though - there'll surely still be dozens of the islands to explore above Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally launches later this week on May 12, after many long years of waiting. Elsewhere in the new interview series, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma revealed you don't need to have played Breath of the Wild before starting Tears of the Kingdom, as the latter can still be enjoyed without intimate knowledge of its predecessor. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.