As we’ve covered quite a bit on the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, The Big N is sometimes very hesitant to go back to dormant franchises that are primed for a reboot/revival, and they’re equally hesitant to do spinoffs of series they aren’t sure will sell well. In other words, if it’s not Mario or Pokemon, they will drag their feet. That brings us to Hyrule Warriors, a Musou title set in the land of Hyrule that featured Link, Zelda, Sheik, Fi, Midna, and many others coming together to fight off an original threat.
The game first appeared on Wii U and 3DS and then got a super popular sequel via Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity. However, on the Kit and Krysta Podcast, Kit (who was a former public relations manager for Nintendo of America) revealed that the company had serious reservations about bringing the game out of Japan:
“Within NoA there was a lot of worry of like ‘this game’s not gonna be good’ or ‘this is going to drop the status of Zelda. Maybe we should just tell Japan we’re not gonna put it out, and just keep it in Japan’ to keep the pristine image.”
So, yeah, they were worried, and it makes sense when you think about it, as the Legend of Zelda hasn’t had this kind of “branching off” before. But they tried it, and it sold over a million units, and then Age of Calamity, a game that took place 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, cashed in on the Breath of the Wild love and sold well over 3 million units! So, while it was nerve-racking…it paid off.
