Zelda: Breath of the Wild Director On How Minecraft And Terraria Inspired Him

With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild having released just over a week ago, the game’s vast open world setting has already been explored by countless players. That vastness could be attributed to producer Eiji Aonuma’s inspiration from games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, another title featuring an expansive open world. Now, Breath of the Wild’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi has spoken to gaming magazine EDGE about the various inspirations he drew from while creating the latest Zelda game. [Thanks, NintendoEverything.]

First, Fujibayashi told EDGE that both Minecraft and Terraria had influenced the creation of Breath of the Wild:

“I was rather inspired by playing Minecraft and Terraria. I was able to learn from the gameplay and the possibilities found in. I could learn from the sense of adventure, exploration and how it inspired curiosity.”

Fujibayashi also drew on real-life inspiration, noting his involvement with an adventure club in which participates in outdoor activities:

“[We do] things like cave diving where you actually go down into the water to get into the cave, as well as rafting tours and so on. I know this may not be such a big deal in the west, but in Japan it’s quite an adventure!”

Additionally, Fujibayashi talked about how the development team’s thinking changed when they began developing the game for the Switch in addition to the Wii U.

“Of course, we didn’t have a huge amount of leeway in terms of time. But as director I wasn’t particularly fazed by this. I have a very strong impression that work proceeded without panic under the specific instructions of our producer, Mr. Aonuma. Personally, when I started thinking about what kind of features the Nintendo Switch hardware had, I ended up thinking about whether we could add in any new ideas, which looking back on it now was probably not the best thing to be thinking of at the time!”

To read more on the interview with Breath of the Wild’s director, you can go here.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available for the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch.