In the video game space, no one wants to hear that the title they’ve been looking forward to has been delayed. Just in the last few years alone, several AAA titles have had delays in one form or another. Sometimes it’s merely a month, and other times it’s into another quarter of the year. For The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom, the title was delayed numerous times, including a big delay in 2022 that pushed it into the new year. That disheartened many gamers because they had been waiting years for the game. However, there was a reason for this.
In an interview with The Washington Post, and as revealed on Twitter, series Producer Eiji Aonuma felt that the game was “complete” last year, but he knew that there needed to be work done on it, so he announced a delay. That work was to ensure the game was polished and that the new game mechanics worked as they showed.
Eiji Aonuma said when he announced in March 2022 a delay for Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the game was pretty much complete.
The last year was spent on polish, making sure the wild physics of the game just work. https://t.co/jb2qlonWsO
— Gene Park (@GenePark) May 21, 2023
At first, you might not think that it would take a year to polish. But given how much is in Tears of the Kingdom and the numerous new mechanics that are a part of Link’s abilities, that’s a lot that needs testing. Aonuma said before the game’s release that he beat the game 20 times to test out the various mechanics himself, including going off the beaten path to see what happened when he did certain things.
Given the reception to the title and how people are already praising it as a “Game of the Year Contender,” the extra time was worth it. Many have already said that numerous other developers need to take Aonuma’s method to heart, as multiple AAA titles recently have had a “lack of polish” to them, and no one wants to keep having that.
Plus, if you think about it, Breath of the Wild took its time to get released, so why not its sequel?
