Eiji Aonuma, the producer of The Legend of Zelda series, recently dropped some hints about what players can expect from the next game in the series in an interview with Japanese news site 4Gamer. He noted that the collaboration with Koei Tecmo on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment may influence the next mainline Legend of Zelda title.
While the Wii got Twilight Princess and the Switch got Breath of the Wild as launch titles, there has yet to be any announcement about an upcoming mainline Zelda game for the Switch 2. However, owners of Nintendo’s latest console do have Hyrule Warriors: The Age of Imprisonment to play. Age of Imprisonment is the latest entry in a spin-off series that combines Dynasty Warriors-style 1 vs. 1000 musou gameplay with the characters, lore, and locales of The Legend of Zelda. It allows players to experience the Imprisoning War that sealed away the Demon King Ganondorf. Like previous Hyrule Warriors games, Age of Imprisonment was a collaboration between Koei Tecmo and Nintendo, with Koei Tecmo and its new AAA Games Studio handling the development.
Zelda series producer Aonuma said that his team wanted to be the first to release a new Zelda title on the Switch 2, however Koei Tecmo beat them to it. “The Legend of Zelda: Age of Imprisonment is the first Zelda title released for the Nintendo Switch 2. To be honest, we wanted to bring out the ‘first’ (Zelda game on the new console),” he laughed.
Commenting on the collaboration with Koei Tecmo on Age of Imprisonment, Hidemaro Fujibayashi (director of Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild) said: “it was incredibly fun. They always had ideas we never would have come up with on our own, it was truly stimulating.”
In turn, Age of Imprisonment’s director Koki Aoyanagi talked about how motivating it was to receive such positive reactions from the Nintendo team, saying: “since they (the Nintendo team) were playtesting the game, we wanted to give them big surprises and moments of awe to experience.” Age of Imprisonment producer Ryota Matsushita described the Zelda team and Koei Tecmo’s team as being “on the same wavelength” when it came to collaborating on the game, noting that Fujibayashi’s knowledge of real-life castles enabled them to instantly understand each other regarding how Hyrule Castle should be depicted in Age of Imprisonment.
“We aimed to combine these two approaches; the Zelda-like, strategic back-and-forth of using Zonai gear and varied techniques against powerful foes with the exhilaration of musou (i.e. feeling mighty powerful as you cut down waves of weaker foes),” noted AAA Games Studio head Yusuke Hayashi. Even when Nintendo’s Zelda team gave feedback on points of concern, Fujibayashi said that Koei Tecmo would come back with “proposals that elevated it into something even better.”
Aonuma even suggests that this fruitful collaboration might influence the next mainline Zelda title. “The inspiration we received from this collaboration with Koei Tecmo may be reflected in the (next) Zelda we create. Please picture this while playing Age of Imprisonment, and look forward to our Zelda.”
Aonuma’s comment is mysterious, but this means that we might get elements from Age of Imprisonment’s gameplay in the next mainline Zelda adventure.
In September 2023, Nintendo said it had no plans to release DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and was instead moving on to a brand new game in the series. However, Aonuma failed to rule out a return to the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, potentially setting up a third game.
“In the first place, the reason I decided to make this a sequel to the previous work was because I thought there was value in experiencing a new game in that Hyrule place,” Aonuma said. “If that’s the case, if a new reason arises, we might return to the same world again. Whether it’s a sequel or a new work, I think it’s going to be a completely new game, so I hope you’re looking forward to it.”
Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi also chimed in with his own comment: “We are very grateful that so many customers have been playing Tears of the Kingdom for so long and deeply, so we will do our best to make the next game even more enjoyable.”
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
