Miyamoto Vetoed Plans to Make Hyrule Warriors More Zelda-like

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's talismanic game development director, overturned proposals to design Hyrule Warriors as more of a Zelda-like game.

Hyrule Warriors was developed by Omega Force, a studio famous for creating a distinct style of hack-and-slash action with its Dynasty Warriors series. But when producer Yosuke Hayashi discussed with Nintendo his plans for Hyrule Warriors, he wanted to move away from the Dynasty Warriors template.

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma explained to Nintendo Life: “At first, when Hayashi-san approached me, he wanted to make this title closer to a Zelda game than a Dynasty Warriors game – that extended to having boss battles in the dungeons and [having] certain characters in the game.”

It was only when Miyamoto, the creator of Zelda, stepped in that plans were reversed.

Aonuma elaborates: “However, Miyamoto came along and up-ended the tea table, saying, 'no, that should not be the case. What we’re doing here is grafting Zelda onto the Dynasty Warriors experience’."

“It was a reversal of the original proposal from Hayashi-san, which was adding elements of Dynasty Warriors onto the Zelda franchise. It ended up being the other way around based on Miyamoto’s direction.”

Hayashi spoke of trying to "strike that balance of making a game that Zelda fans will enjoy that is different from a typical Zelda game, that has enough elements that people will enjoy but also not losing Zelda fans".

He added: "We ourselves are Zelda fans as well, so we had to ask ourselves the question of what is it that makes a Zelda game, and how many of those elements do we need to include. Up until the very end, we kept adding different elements to the game until we struck a balance that we were happy with."

Hyrule Warriors is a Wii U exclusive that will release across Europe on September 19, and in North America on September 26.