As the director of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Hiromasa Shikata understands the pressure of making a new game in Nintendo's precious Zelda series. And the pressure to get it right doesn't only come from hardcore fans. Back when Shikata and some developers at Nintendo pitched the original Link-to-mural-on-the-wall concept for Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, it was rejected by series creator Shigeru Miyamoto . The project had some ups and downs, but it turned out well in the end.

On the Origins of Tri Force Heroes

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How Players Will Connect and Play Online

The Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes E3 Reveal Screens 41 IMAGES

We caught up with Shikata at E3 2015 to discuss his multiplayer-focused concept for Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Read on for a detailed breakdown of what to expect when the game launches later this year.It kind of comes back to working with Eiji Aonuma, who of course is the producer of the Zelda series. Mr. Aonuma wanted to incorporate more multiplayer that advanced the gameplay in Zelda. And, it really goes back to his work on Marvelous [Editor’s note: Marvelous: Another Treasure Island was a Japan only Super Famicom game released in 1996] and so, even from that time, that's been something that he wanted to take on.I became involved with The Legend of Zelda franchise with Spirit Tracks. And at that time, if you remember correctly, there was the Phantom Zelda, where you had to switch control back and forth in order to proceed. That was something that really interested me; that idea of multiplayer within the franchise as a Zelda game.We did have Zelda: Four Swords. But, if you remember, you had to have the game link cables, so getting four people together and linking everybody up to be able to play so that you could participate was a bit troublesome. With the 3DS and wireless communication systems, it eliminates that obstacle for people to play multiplayer. So, when we were working on Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, we thought "Hey, you know what? The time is right for us to go back and start looking at that multiplayer stuff that we want to work on. And that's really where they said ‘Okay, we've got the hardware, we have our interest now, let's do it.’Of course, Mr. Miyamoto is overseeing and checking in on this title. So, after we finished up Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, we actually shared our ideas on trying to do some multiplayer gameplay with Mr. Miyamoto. At that point, he was pretty easily swayed and went "Yeah, why don't you guys give that a shot? It sounds pretty interesting."And actually, we were able to play an early build with Mr. Miyamoto, and he actually got really into a three-player game. He was excited, calling out commands, and saying "Don't do that, come here, do this..." and would give a sort of "Aaah!" when things wouldn't work out quite right. He actually had a lot of fun with it, so we did get a green light from that early play experience.When you're getting ready to play online, the first thing you'll see is [an option to] play with friends or anyone. You will have people in your friends list. I don't know the exact wording; I apologize. If you choose anyone or within my region or whatever it might be...then you could be playing with other folks who have made the same selection on their systems. This is a three-player cooperative game, but if only two of you are playing, you could also have two friends match up with a third person that wasn't your friend.Even if you go online and you choose to play with friends, and unfortunately none of them are available or what not, from there you can play with folks who you don't know but are ready to play.Well, if someone drops out - due to a technical issue or accidentally leaving the game - basically, the game ends and you go to a game over screen or a game end screen. Your game data is saved to that point.That idea is really difficult from a player's standpoint, because you're coming into a situation like, "Okay, where are we at? What dungeon are we in? Do I have the right equipment, what's going on?" It just seems like it would be a very difficult thing for players to do. If someone does drop out again, you'll go, you'll save your data, but you can jump right back to the lobby and you'll just grab another person, you can go right back in.