As we’ve previously mentioned, the latest issue of Famitsu magazine includes an interview between Hyrule Warriors producers Hisashi Koinuma and Yosuke Hayasahi (of Tecmo Koei), as well as Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, who is supervising the game’s development.
Siliconera have translated some more of this interview, revealing the origin story behind how this spin-off title came to be.
Koinuma wanted to collaborate with Nintendo, and Zelda seemed a good fit. “Warriors has teamed up with series such as Gundam, Fist of the North Star and One Piece, and I thought about doing something with Nintendo.While thinking about what would make for a good collaboration, it was Hayashi that proposed [the idea] by saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda?’”
He explained that they then spoke with Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto, convincing them of the idea. Aonuma seemed impressed with their presentation.
“This presentation was actually from several years ago, when they showed us One Piece: Pirate Warriors,” Aonuma explains. “At first, when they said that One Piece would become a Warriors [game], I wondered, ‘How will that turn out?’ but once I actually played it, I felt that they did a good job of implementing the Warriors system.
“So, it sparked my interest when I thought: ‘I wonder what a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda would be like.’ Shortly afterwards, Miyamoto told me, ‘The folks at Tecmo Koei are talking about a Zelda Musou. Are you interested?’ and I responded with ‘definitely!’”
Famitsu then asked Tecmo Koei: why Zelda? “With Koinuma and myself included, we have many fans of The Legend of Zelda in our company, and that would be the ultimate reason,” replies Hayashi. “The basic fights in The Legend of Zelda series involve one-on-one fights, so ‘having over 100 enemies like the Musou games would surely make things interesting,’ was something we discussed among the staff.”
