The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom grew in part from what its creators saw players do with Breath of the Wild: experiment, improvise and share unexpected solutions. In a 2023 interview, producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi explain how that response encouraged a sequel built around invention—and how they tried to balance that freedom with an approachable path through the game.
Charles Pulliam-Moore’s interview with Aonuma and Fujibayashi was published by The Verge on May 12, 2023. It was conducted through interpreters and edited and condensed for clarity, and it contains story spoilers. The creative leads describe a game shaped by player experimentation, intuitive rather than literal physics, and a story that asks players to investigate alongside Link.
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How player creativity helped shape the sequel
Building was one of Fujibayashi’s early ideas for the sequel. He says videos of players doing unexpected things in Breath of the Wild strengthened his confidence in pursuing it. Aonuma adds that players took pride in their own playstyles and shared videos of what they had made or accomplished. That response encouraged the team to give them more tools for self-directed play.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe goal was not simply to add construction as a feature. Aonuma describes a loop in which players interact with objects, discover an unexpected possibility and immediately wonder what else they can try: “Oh, I was able to do this! But wait, what would happen if I tried this?” The developers hoped that inventiveness would continue beyond any one intended solution.
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- Enhanced performance and visuals exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2.
- Explore the skies, caves, and vast lands of Hyrule in a massive open-world adventure.
- Wield new and returning abilities to craft solutions, vehicles, and weapons.
- Discover the mystery behind the spreading gloom threatening the kingdom.
- Use the ZELDA NOTES app to share, compare, and earn daily bonuses.
Fujibayashi says the earlier game gave the team confidence to take risks: “With Breath of the Wild, our team was able to get the confidence that it’s okay to take these kinds of risks.” In their account, player-made experiments served as a signal that a sequel could push further into building and invention.
Why the physics are meant to feel right, not simulate everything
Fujibayashi calls the approach “fake physics.” The aim is for a system to behave in a way that feels intuitive to players, not to reproduce real-world physics in every detail. A larger object might seem more powerful or move more, even where that is not a literal simulation.
Because players already knew the feel of Breath of the Wild’s physics and chemistry, the sequel could build on that familiarity while offering new ways to use objects. The ambition was to make experimentation legible: players should be able to look at a situation, form an idea about what might happen and try it.
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- Ultrahand: Using the new Ultrahand ability, Link can pick up, move, and rotate almost any object, and can even attach objects together to create bridges, vehicles, and more!
- Fuse: Magically fuse almost any object to Link’s current weapon, shield, or arrow to increase durability, damage, or even add a new effect. Experiment with lots of different combinations to come up with surprising—and sometimes hilarious—results!
- Ascend: Add a new dimension to your exploration with Ascend, which gives Link the ability to pass through solid objects above him. Rise up through ceilings, hillsides, and even certain enemies to create seemingly impossible shortcuts.
- Recall: Use Recall to make objects in motion move backward through time, letting Link ride fallen boulders skyward, recover thrown weapons, or send projectiles back where they came from.
Keeping creative freedom from breaking the game
Playtesting exposed a tension between letting players invent powerful devices and keeping the game balanced. Fujibayashi recalls testers making looping Zonai contraptions with effectively endless power and asking whether they could really fly forever. The team did not want to erase those possibilities, since they were part of the game’s creative appeal, but unrestricted behavior could undermine balance.
Aonuma says he served as a check from the perspective of a player who prefers a lower difficulty. The team considered whether people across a broad range of skill and experimentation could make it through. This is the developers’ description of their design process, not evidence of a formal accessibility assessment.
How the sequel changes the player’s role in its mysteries
Fujibayashi describes Zelda’s growth as a major thread continuing from Breath of the Wild. The story explores her encounters in the past and her thinking about who she will become. He also points to the idea of “hands” as both a literal presence in the characters and their abilities, and a figurative image of connection with others. “The natural next step we thought people would wonder about is, ‘What’s Princess Zelda going to do next?’”
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Aonuma distinguishes the sequel’s mysteries from the way he describes those in the earlier game. In his account, Breath of the Wild presented mysteries as a story the player could observe somewhat separately; Tears of the Kingdom asks the player to take a more active part in working them out. That is a description of intended emphasis, not a claim that the earlier game had no investigation.
Why newspapers and reporting belong in Hyrule
The developers wanted Link to gather information naturally while searching for Zelda, rather than stop the story for a large block of exposition. Fujibayashi says newspapers offered a familiar way to share detailed information, and the idea grew to include reporters and Link doing research. Clues are meant to give players material to interpret rather than simply state every meaning outright.
The interview’s correction clarifies that Satoru Takizawa was responsible for Ganondorf’s design; it does not attribute the newspaper quests to him.
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What the interview does—and does not—establish
This is the creative leads’ account of their aims and process, not an independent evaluation of how well every system works for every player. The interview offers no sample sizes, formal measurements or quantitative results about player behavior or design outcomes. Its most concrete explanation is the design trade-off itself: give players enough freedom to invent surprising solutions without making the game’s challenges meaningless.
Read the interview with Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi at The Verge (May 12, 2023).
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