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Tomomi Sano is the first woman to direct a Legend of Zelda title

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom breaks some new ground for one of Nintendo's flagship series.

Ozzie Mejia

September 23, 2024 11:48 AM

Nintendo

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The Legend of Zelda has taken players through the magical land of Hyrule for nearly four decades. It has broken nearly every ground imaginable across video games. Even after all this time, Nintendo continues to find some new firsts for the series. On Monday, Nintendo took some time to speak with some of the minds behind The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which is set to release later this week. That includes Tomomi Sano, who has officially been acknowledged as the first woman to direct a Legend of Zelda title in the series' history.

Nintendo noted this factoid in Vol. 13 of its Ask the Developer series, taking a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Sano noted that she is the director for the project with one of her main roles being to oversee third-party studio Grezzo's work on the title and ensure that the gameplay fit in with the Zelda series. Series Senior Officer Eiji Aonuma noted that he had always asked Sano to work with Grezzo on that team's previous Zelda work in order to forge a working relationship.

As noted in the interview, Sano's previous credits include the Nintendo 3DS versions of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, as well as the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. All three of these titles were also developed by Grezzo. Sano had also worked as Assistant Producer on Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (as well as its 2018 Nintendo 3DS version) and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and as Assistant Director on 2017's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.

In the second part of Nintendo's Q&A feature, Sano discussed utilizing echoes and spoke to the open-ended gameplay possibilities that they created.

"Princess Zelda doesn't have a way of attacking directly initially, so there was a tendency for the gameplay using the echoes to just end up being a situation where you watched the things you copied do the work," Sano told Nintendo. "It felt like they were doing everything for you and you were being made to wait... So we asked Grezzo to adjust it so that players would feel an immediate sense of accomplishment like, 'I did it!' For example, if you made an echo of a monster, that echo would immediately attack an enemy, just like you swinging a sword. Or if you wanted to light a fire, you could use an echo with that ability, and it would light the fire straight away. We made adjustments like these all the way through the game's development so that these kinds of intuitive responses would feel exciting for players."

Those who want a further explanation of the gameplay possibilities at work can check out our recent Echoes of Wisdom preview from PAX West 2024. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will release exclusively on Nintendo Switch this Thursday, September 26.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?