With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild out on March 3 for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U, Producer Eiji Aonuma let slip what influenced the development of this long-awaited Zelda title and what to expect.
What's interesting is that Aonuma played a lot of western titles, which could explain the open-world trappings of Breath of the Wild.
“In the past, I didn't play many video games. Then I realised this isn't right. I have to. So nowadays, I actually play a lot of overseas titles. I played Skyrim. Grand Theft Auto? I'm not really into violence that much, so I don't play it. I also played Witcher and Far Cry,” he said in conversation with Game Informer (via Go Nintendo).
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch Release Date Announced
Don't expect to see elements from these games make themselves obvious in Breath of the Wild though.
“While playing those games, I do find some ideas, but it's not that it connects directly to Zelda to where I would take something and use it in Zelda. It's more of something I keep in the back of my head while developing the game,” he added.
In addition to this, he also confirmed that the game takes place after The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time in the series' chronology and alluded to how Nintendo approach the narrative for this game.
“Because we wanted to redefine the whole process, I didn't want to be chained up by the idea that we had to think about the past titles. But then again, I know there are a lot of fans who are interested, and who are knowledgeable in the Zelda franchise and the history,” he said. “So by adding little elements here and there, we wanted to give the fans the opportunity to say, ‘Oh, I saw this. Maybe this is how it expands the story,' or give little hints here and there.”
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.