Nintendo has released another of its "Ask the Developer" discussions, the first segment of this week's edition is obviously part of a marketing drive to drum up even more interest in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (scheduled to launch this Friday). Included in the roundtable conversation is Eiji Aonuma, project manager of the The Legend of Zelda series, who has RPG development experience dating back to the SNES and N64 days at Nintendo. The veteran developer confirms that the follow-up to 2017's Breath of the Wild functions as a direct sequel - the fanbase has long suspected that this was always the case - in his introduction he gets down to the facts sharply: "Once again, it takes place in the vast land of Hyrule after the conclusion of the previous game."

Aonuma reiterates the chosen setting: "Yes, this title is set in Hyrule shortly after the end of the previous game. There are many reasons why we chose this setting. After finishing development on the previous title, we wondered if we could make it possible for players to continue exploring the world after they've reached the game's ending." Given the previous entry's massive success in terms of sales - Breath of the Wild is approaching 30 million units sold - and critical reception, it would be natural for Nintendo to build on that foundation. A section of the fanbase has been critical of Nintendo's decision to not produce an unconnected sequel - Aonuma addresses this matter when he is asked whether an entirely new setting/visual style was in the cards: "No, not really. Although The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has its own conclusion, we started to come up with new ideas that we wanted to bring to life in this already realized version of Hyrule, so our direction in making a sequel did not change."His colleague, Hidemaro Fujibayashi (game director), agrees and then interjects: "Just like somewhere you know inside and out, we understand where everything is in Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and because of that, we believed it was possible to create new gameplay. For this reason, in the initial proposal, we clearly stated "the setting will not change" as an important concept. Even when I shared this with the team members here, there were no objections, and we were all aligned on that idea from that point onward."


Takuhiro Dohta (technical director) believes that new gameplay elements and innovations will distinguish the latest entry from its direct predecessor: "In contrast, we made some fairly big changes to the gameplay. In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011), if players wanted to travel from the the sky to the ground, they had to select it from the map, but in this game, you can dive from the sky directly to the ground without any interruption. On top of that, players can also ride on flying vehicles and so on, offering even more freedom within the same setting as the previous game. If a location were completely unfamiliar to you, you'd probably be hesitant to dive down from the sky, but because it's a world that you've already explored in the previous game, these transportation methods make sense."Doug Bowser, CEO at Nintendo of America, was asked (two months ago) about Tears of the Kingdom's price hike - he defended the company's decision to boost MSRP (by $10) and reasoned that the latest Zelda title will have more than enough content to justify a higher asking price: "We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game."

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available to pre-order for $69.99.