Zelda could have suffered from the release of this derivative opus according to Nintendo. Fortunately, history proved them wrong

Game news Zelda could have suffered from the release of this derivative opus according to Nintendo. Fortunately, history proved them wrong

Golden egg casserole

If spin-offs have a prominent place in the video game industry today, there was a time when their creators were much more cautious on the issue. Almost every license, as long as it is widely appreciated, has had its derivative episodes, with gameplay more or less distant from the original material The Legend of Zelda is no exception to the rule, whether it is Freshly -Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland and its sequel, centered on the secondary character of Tingle, Link’s Crossbow Training dedicated to first-person shooting, or Cadence of Hyrule, a tactical and musical puzzle game. But if there is one spin-off that has been truly successful, it is the Hylian hack’n’slash beat’em up experience that is Hyrule Warriors.

But it’s in the podcast of two former Nintendo employees, Kit & Krysta Podcastthat the latter teach us that Big N was far from completely betting on the Warriors formula applied to Zelda. In fact, while Krysta mentions various so-called “niche” which ended up experiencing incredible sales, like Dragon Quest and other JRPG series, Kit then released the first episode ofHyrule Warriors on the table. In his own words, “within Nintendo of America, there was a lot of concern about the quality of the game or whether it should abandon Zelda’s status. American teams seriously considered not distributing it outside of Japan”.

See The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom on Amazon

Question of trust

According to Kit, himself a big fan of the Dynasty Warrior license, the genre has an extremely developed fan base in the West, so much so that confining the title to the Japanese market would have been a “missed opportunity”. Both presenters also note how funny this reflection seems in hindsight, given the very good sales of the first opus on Wii U, to the point of obtaining a port of the game on Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch. The title even received a sequel, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Scourge, a prequel to the juggernaut Breath of the Wild, symbolizing renewed confidence in the spin-off series.

A confidence and success that opened many other doors for Omega Force for various other projects, whether it’s Dragon Quest Heroes, Persona 5 Strikers as well as two Fire Emblem Warriors titles. A fallout undoubtedly due to Nintendo’s confidence and the bet to entrust their precious license into the hands of other developers, which had not happened since the episodes Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, created by Flagship, and The Minish Cap by Capcom in their time.