Miyamoto on Zelda: Phantom Hourglass’ notepad feature

Being the general producer for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS, Shigeru Miyamoto‘s definitely got a lot in his hands. “A lot” here, meaning the stylus. The Wind Waker-based game is going to make use of full stylus + touchscreen support anyways, and that is definitely going to bring in a whole slew of new gameplay experiences for the Zelda fans.

Gameplay mechanics and touchscreen interaction was a big focus in a recent Miyamoto interview with Jap site Touch-DS. And since we’d be better off trying to translate Hylian than Japanese, we’re turning over to the good Ninty fans at TheHylia for a translation of the interview.

Right off the bat, Miyamoto discusses how it worried them that incorporating touchscreen mechanics would make Phantom Hourglass less of a Zelda game and ruin it altogether. However, he stresses that what they were able to produce still maintained the essence of a Zelda game. *Whew* The end result is actually quite an intuitive control scheme, as Miyamoto says.

One of the more gasp-inducing portions of the interview though was the concept of using the stylus for writing:

There were also several ideas revolving around the concept of “writing” with the stylus. For example, when you throw the boomerang, you write the path you want it to follow. […] Then there’s the function of writing notes. We wanted to use all of its potential. Usually you need a notepad to take notes when playing a Zelda game, but this time you can write whatever you want directly on the DS.

Writing notes in-game? Kind of like the Hotel Dusk notepad, ey? We’re sure QJ’s Max F. will be pleased to hear this… Safe to say though, Miyamoto’s assuring us that everyone will find something fun about Phantom Hourglass.

You can click the Read link below for TheHylia’s full translation of the interview.

Being the general producer for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS, Shigeru Miyamoto‘s definitely got a lot in his hands. “A lot” here, meaning the stylus. The Wind Waker-based game is going to make use of full stylus + touchscreen support anyways, and that is definitely going to bring in a whole slew of new gameplay experiences for the Zelda fans.

Gameplay mechanics and touchscreen interaction was a big focus in a recent Miyamoto interview with Jap site Touch-DS. And since we’d be better off trying to translate Hylian than Japanese, we’re turning over to the good Ninty fans at TheHylia for a translation of the interview.

Right off the bat, Miyamoto discusses how it worried them that incorporating touchscreen mechanics would make Phantom Hourglass less of a Zelda game and ruin it altogether. However, he stresses that what they were able to produce still maintained the essence of a Zelda game. *Whew* The end result is actually quite an intuitive control scheme, as Miyamoto says.

One of the more gasp-inducing portions of the interview though was the concept of using the stylus for writing:

There were also several ideas revolving around the concept of “writing” with the stylus. For example, when you throw the boomerang, you write the path you want it to follow. […] Then there’s the function of writing notes. We wanted to use all of its potential. Usually you need a notepad to take notes when playing a Zelda game, but this time you can write whatever you want directly on the DS.

Writing notes in-game? Kind of like the Hotel Dusk notepad, ey? We’re sure QJ’s Max F. will be pleased to hear this… Safe to say though, Miyamoto’s assuring us that everyone will find something fun about Phantom Hourglass.

You can click the Read link below for TheHylia’s full translation of the interview.