MariChan: Hi everyone! I'm MariChan, and it's my pleasure to be able to interview the developers of some of your favourite games right here on Miiverse. This is our sixth Miiting, and today we'll be talking about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. In the past we've had Miitings about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, so this marks our third Miiting about The Legend of Zelda. Wow! I'm also happy to announce that for this Miiting I finally managed to get an audience with the elusive producer of the series!

Aonuma: Hello there! I'm the "elusive" Eiji Aonuma, and I'm so glad to finally star in my own Miiting. I've always wanted to, but someone only ever invited me along for supporting roles! Isn't that so, MariChan?

MariChan: Hm, I really just can't remember, so I'm going to have to plead "not guilty"... In any case, welcome to the Miiting! It's already been almost ten years since the original version of Twilight Princess was released. Time really flies, doesn't it? Mr Aonuma, wasn't that your last project as a director?

Aonuma: That's right. It's one of the reasons I have so many memories and deep feelings attached to the game.

MariChan: At that point Toon Link and the cute graphics of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker were still fresh in my mind, so I remember being surprised by the more serious, grown-up graphics in Twilight Princess when the game was announced. Did you go for a more serious look because the story itself is much darker? Or was there another reason?

Aonuma: It's pretty normal to come up with a story and then design the graphics to suit it. However, because we made Link so young and energetic in The Wind Waker and designed such a bright world in the Great Sea, we decided to portray our next version of Link as older and darker. I have a feeling that's why the story turned out to have such a serious atmosphere.

MariChan: You have a feeling...?

Aonuma: Well, after all, we're talking about something that happened ten years ago. Games change so much while you're making them that I really don't remember... One thing that I do remember very clearly, though, is that we knew it would come out around the same time as the Wii and were all torn about whether it should be released on GameCube or Wii. It was a huge headache.

MariChan: In the end you decided to release it for both GameCube and Wii, right? The controllers are so different that I definitely didn't think it would be available on both consoles. Though I suppose that, because the game worlds of the GameCube version and the Wii version were mirror images of each other, even up to the hand in which Link holds his sword, it must sometimes have felt like you were making two completely different games.

Aonuma: That's exactly right! It wasn't just a simple question of porting the game, so it was a very difficult process. But we'd made a good game and we wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it in their own way, making the most of the specific strengths of each console, whether they decided to play it on GameCube or on the new console that we were releasing.

MariChan: So even you think it's a good game! It's nice to hear you say that. I actually knew a lot of people who ended up playing both versions just because the different controls and flipped worlds made for such different experiences. The Wii U introduces a whole new way to play the game, and the controller is different once again. What would you say is the best aspect of playing the game with a Wii U GamePad?

Aonuma: I find it quite comfortable.

MariChan: ...Is that it?

Aonuma: Don't ask something like that! Don't you think it's great that people can use the controls in a way that's really comfortable?

MariChan: The Wii U version is no longer compatible with the Wii Remote, right?

Aonuma: We always want to make the best game we can for our players. On top of that, the map plays a very important role in this game. For these reasons, rather than phrase what we did in a negative way by saying that we removed the Wii Remote controls, I'd prefer to say that we focused on creating a great gameplay experience by making the most of everything that the Wii U GamePad has to offer.

MariChan: Playing with the GamePad also means that you can use amiibo in Twilight Princess HD, right? By the way, why did you decide to go with a Wolf Link amiibo?

Aonuma: Well, we had already released Link, Zelda and Ganon amiibo figures in the Super Smash Bros. series, and when we thought about what character best represented The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it was a pretty easy decision! To tell you the truth, I personally liked the idea of making a Telma amiibo, but that was just me...