Hearts were aflutter when Eiji Aonuma mentioned that he had been playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, though none were as surprised by the reaction to such news than the Zelda producer himself.
For while he’d picked up Bethesda’s critically acclaimed hit, it had been more out of curiosity rather than for any creative ideas.
“I just wanted to say, I’ve been a bit surprised by the focus on my comments about Skyrim,” Aonuma confessed to USgamer. “I started playing Skyrim because the name was so close to ‘Skyward Sword’ and I wanted to see what that was about. [laughs]
“I didn’t pick it up because it was popular or because it was getting good reviews or anything like that. I just wanted to take a look at it. ‘Oh, okay, this is what this game’s about. There are some things in here that are sort of Zelda-esque and maybe some things that aren’t.'”
He continued, “But there was no inspiration taken from Skyrim. It didn’t impact what I was thinking about for future Zelda titles. I’m always thinking about, ‘Okay, next time, what are we going to do with the next one?’ As a producer, whenever I can find more time to play games, I’m taking that free time to go out and play other games just to play them and see what’s out there.
“As far as whether or not those are inspiring me or influencing my decisions, I guess it’s probably the same way as when I talk to young developers or new people on our staff, or when I read interviews with other people saying, ‘Yeah, this game was influenced by my experience playing Zelda as a kid.’ Or, ‘Zelda really impacted my design decisions going forward.’ I think the problem with that is that everything you play influences what you’re thinking, but I’m not looking at other games to try and find inspiration. If it happens, it’s a natural process.”
Aonuma: Skyrim has not inspired Zelda Wii U direction
