What had to change in Breath of the Wild when it came to the Switch

It’s hard to believe but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just over a month away. The game has been in development for so long and now it’s coming to another system as well the Wii U.

While we wrap our heads around what version to buy, think about the developers at Nintendo who wanted to get the game so right they kept delaying – until this little thing called the Switch came along. Eventually they decided something would have to be done and bring it to the Switch, a decision only made last year. So what had to change to bring it to both systems?? Eiji Aonuma sat down with Eurogamer to explain the changes;

…And then obviously because up until that point the development team had been developing it as a Wii U title and making it as comfortable and enjoyable an experience as possible on Wii U, when we decided we’d also develop for Nintendo Switch, we knew in a way we would be placing a large extra burden on the development team. And I knew some would complain about it, as they’d been developing it for Wii U and they’d have to make some changes, but I really led that process myself – I really thought myself about how we could make that title work on Nintendo Switch, and had to sell the idea to the development team, in a way.

Obviously a major difference between developing for Wii U and a major thing we had to change for Nintendo Switch was the controls. Wii U has the Wii U GamePad, and we originally envisaged making major use of that for the controls. Of course on Wii U you have two screens – the main screen, and one on the GamePad – but the Nintendo Switch has one screen. That was a major change, but we achieved it a lot more easily and quickly than we expected. In the end we’re happier with how the controls came out, having made those changes. I feel that the control system we landed on was better than what we originally had.

Eurogamer’s interview with Aonuma is a great look into the thought being put into Breath of the Wild, it’s one of Nintendo’s biggest and most ambitious games for a lot of different regions – not just because it’s coming on two different consoles. Be sure to read the full interview on Eurogamer.