Rarely do games stay the same throughout development. One example of this pertains to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, specifically involving two locations.

In an interview published on Nintendo’s website this week, developer Manabu Takehara revealed that Kakariko Village and Korok Forest ended up swapping locations. He felt that “the two locations were out of place” as the game started to come together, so having them switch made the most sense.

Takehara said:

“Actually, from the early days of the game’s development to around the middle stages Kakariko Village and the Korok Forest’s locations were swapped. As development progressed and the story’s details became more precise, and as the game itself began to come together, I began to feel that the two locations were out of place. That being said, I consulted with the landscape lead about switching the two around and was met with a quick ‘certainly!’ Immediately after we went to the director. At the time I had resigned myself to my proposal being rejected, but surprisingly enough he said, ‘It seems like it’ll be a good move for a number of different aspects; if the landscape designer has given the OK let’s go with it.’ I guess at the root of it was a sort of zeal to make something interesting – it wasn’t really about who said or came up with what. At the time I felt there was a culture of openness around the workspace, where others readily accepted opinions like what I had come forward with.”

Art director Satoru Takizawa also chimed in:

“That certainly seemed to be the case, yeah. I remember switching the towns was a considerable amount of work, from the perspective of a landscape designer. Takehara-san – who said that people at Nintendo have a drive to make interesting things – was becoming exactly what he was talking about! (laughs)”

Thanks to Nico Thaxton for contributing to this post.

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