Us Zelda fans eh? Never happy. When Wind Waker was originally announced for the GameCube back at Space World in 2001, fans were in uproar over the cel shaded graphics, which took the series down a drastically different route from Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and the Zelda tech demo show cased at the Space World the year before. So Nintendo 'rectified' this in 2006 with Twilight Princess, a more realistic approach to the series. Still some weren't happy, actually preferring the timeless appeal of the cel shaded graphics. (If you don't believe us, fire a copy up next time you get a chance, it still holds up superbly some ten years later.)

It's understandable then that Eiji Aonuma, long time custodian over the Zelda franchise originally conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto, is, if not frustrated with fans, then a little bit wary of how to proceed with the series knowing his every move will be scrutinised and, in some cases, disliked by the fans.

"The gaming community is — I don’t want to sound rude, or anything — very fickle. You've got one group that really likes the possibilities that using two screens affords, and then there’s the other half of the group that just likes the simplicity of one screen, they don’t want to bother with two screens. I’m the same way, I’m very fickle. I totally understand where they’re coming from. As a developer, I need to listen to these things and I need to, maybe, make it possible to do either one, do whatever your preference is. I certainly have my preference, but I shouldn't limit everyone to my preferences. I need to provide an experience that is flexible, allows for maybe both of those options."

Fickle? Us? He may have point, and further into the interview with Wired.com, he goes on to say;

"You said that Nintendo releases Zelda games regularly. We do release them regularly, but we don’t release them that often. Mario games, if you push to get it done, you can finish it in a year. Zelda games take at least three years to complete. At the same time, I’m getting pushed to release them quicker but the users are expecting bigger experiences. And those things don’t match up. So I struggle with that all the time. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do to meet both of those demands."

Zelda certainly has an extremely loyal and fierce fan base, so there must be some sympathy for Aonuma and his team who, as he says, have to try and cater to every gamers needs and tastes, whilst still remaining true to the series.

Poor old Eiji. At least, however, the remake of the Wind Waker seems to be giving them a leg up in developing the next installment of the series on Wii U, providing a testing ground from which they can build.

"Wind Waker is kind of a test pattern for the team. In converting Wind Waker, there’s a lot to be learned. We can’t change too much, because in changing one thing you can break something else, which is not something we want to do. But it’s a shared team working on both of those projects, Wind Waker HD and the new Zelda for Wii U. Every day, they’re learning something new. As we develop the controls for Wind Waker, they’re learning how to apply those controls in the Wii U version. There’s a feedback process where when something’s discovered in development for Wind Waker, all that information is fed to the Wii U team. So we’re working on those things, polishing as we go, and all of those things — it’s a learning process, it’s a test case almost, and we’ll apply all of those learnings that we’ve acquired in developing the Wii U game."

It has seemed recently that perhaps Nintendo have struggled with moving on to a HD console, so could this game have been an ample opportunity to appease fans waiting for the next game in the series, whilst also allowing themselves to fully get to grips with the Wii U console itself? Let us know in the comments below and on the forums.