Nintendo Offers a Few More Details on Zelda: Wind Waker 2

We almost had a chance to see life in Wind Waker’s post-aqua apocalypse.

By Jose Otero

Nintendo shed some light on The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 2, a sequel to the then-divisive cel-animated Zelda adventure, would have taken on a “more land-based setting.”

The new information came from an interview with artist Satoru Takizawa, design manager and enemy designer of Wind Waker, in the Japanese edition of The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts (called The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Graphics in Japan). It was translated by Nintendo Everything.

When asked about the shift towards realistic art direction for Twilight Princess, Takizawa admitted that the team had begun the initial steps towards creating Wind Waker 2, but the demand for a more Ocarina-like game couldn’t be ignored.

“However, Wind Waker 2 would have taken place in a more land-based setting,” Takizawa explained, “rather than on the sea, so that we could have Link gallop across the land on a horse.

“But Link’s proportions in Wind Waker weren’t very well suited for riding on horseback, he was too short, and an adult version of Toon Link did not seem appropriate either. So, while we were stuck on those problems, we became aware of the greater demand for a more realistic, taller Link.

“High-budget live-action fantasy movies were also huge at the time,” he said, ”so with all things considered, we decided to have at it.” With that, the game shifted to what would become Twilight Princess.

This slide was shown during The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda presentation at GDC 2004.

Series producer Eiji Aonuma (the director of Wind Waker) announced a sequel to Wind Waker in a presentation called The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda, during the Game Developer’s Conference in March 2004. At the time, Aonuma said he would be directing the then-new Zelda game for the GameCube and that Nintendo would have more to say at E3 in May of that year.

At E3 2004, Nintendo announced its next Legend of Zelda game, which would go on to become Twilight Princess.

Jose Otero is an Editor at IGN and host of Nintendo Voice Chat. You can follow him on Twitter.

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