Yesterday we had the opportunity to sit down with Nintendo for a discussion about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. This discussion was more than an hour in length, and it took place between members of the media; Bill Trinnen, a member of Nintendo's localization team; Koji Kondo, the sound producer for the original Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.; Eiji Aonuma, producer of Twilight Princess; and Shiguru Miyamoto, creator of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and, of course, Super Mario Bros. What we're going to attempt to do in this report is describe the question-and-answer session that took place, which offered up a wealth of new information on the game.

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The first question went to Aonuma, who was introduced at Nintendo's press conference on Tuesday as both the producer and director of Twilight Princess, leaving open the question as to what precisely his role in the creation of the game was. He says that originally, Twilight Princess was developed under his supervision. But he later took a build of the game to Miyamoto, who made some "recommendations" about the game. Aonuma used the metaphor of bringing a tea table to Miyamoto, who then overturned the table, leaving Aonuma to right the table and put it back in order, meaning his job evolved at that point into one that involved much of the hands-on work that a game director would undertake. Miyamoto then expanded the answer by saying his job was to help Aonuma clean up the table. He went on to say he found the job very enjoyable. He further stated that he was also helping with some of the general production tasks Aonuma was too busy to handle.

Next up were some comments on Wind Waker and its relation to Twilight Princess. Aonuma's long answer about how the art style of Twilight Princess evolved from Wind Waker first touched on the mixed reaction that Wind Waker's art style received from fans. He said Nintendo felt that around half its fans enjoyed the style, while the other half were displeased by it. He also added that they (Nintendo) always intended to listen to that feedback. They said they made "adjustments to their thinking" but that they had already intended to make a more adult Link in the next Zelda title after Wind Waker, which is represented in the more realistic graphics in Twilight Princess.

Aonuma then spoke about the gameplay mechanics that were made possible by the animated style of Wind Waker. He was then asked about how the realistic graphics of Twilight Princess might affect the gameplay of that title. He said the graphics in Wind Waker represented both the gameplay and feeling they wanted to bring out of players. He added that the realistic gameplay of Twilight Princess would correspond to a more realistic feel in terms of the control mechanics. The Nintendo team is still trying to polish up some of the mechanics, so it wasn't prepared to reveal all the ways in which the art style is influencing gameplay, and vice versa.

The final question before talking about the E3 playable demo was directed toward Miyamoto, who was asked whether he thought the current version of Twilight Princess could stand to have more elements of realism in it, something Aonuma had referred to in his previous answer. Miyamoto responded by saying the realistic graphics were important in conveying the kind of story they were attempting to portray, but he drew a distinction between realistic graphics and a realistic sense of interaction with the world. He feels the graphical style is currently good, with some room for improvement in terms of realistm, but he felt a more important area for the team to focus on lies in how realistic Link's interactions with the world feel. In other words, he feels immersion in gameplay seems to be emphasized over immersion in realistic graphics. Miyamoto says he emphasizes a continual learning process while creating games, and he hopes to transmit that to the team so it can continually improve the game until it's ready for release.

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Next up was an explanation of what we'll be seeing on the E3 show floor, and the group's members talked about the playable demo that will be available to the public when the show opens on Wednesday. There are going to be four areas available to play on the floor, including a town area, a mounted horse battle, a dungeon, and a boss battle. They started off their walk-through by entering the town, where a herd of goats was shown, as well as Link and a villager. It's revealed that Link starts the game as a cowboy, of all things. Of course, Aonuma was asked about this unique design choice. (While Aonuma was answering this question in Japanese, Link was revealed to call his horse out of a nearby barn with a whistle. After he mounted, the player entered a mini-roundup game, where Link, on horseback, was responsible for herding the goats into the barn by running behind them and attempting to shepherd them into the barn.) As Aonuma's answer was translated, it was revealed that the team was motivated to bring the horse back from Ocarina of Time. Aonuma went on to say that players will be able to actually name the horse they obtain in Twilight Princess.

He then revealed that the Hyrule in this game is going to be fairly large in terms of its graphical representation. In fact, it will be large to the point where it would be impractical for Link to walk from area to area. The cowboy theme is also a way to emphasize the feeling of partnership between Link and his sturdy mount. It was also important to justify the fact that Link was a proficient horseman right out of the gate. Aonuma goes on to state that rather than a Clint Eastwood style of cowboy, it would be more accurate to call Link more of a cowhand. Further clarification revealed that Link probably wouldn't even be considered a "cowboy" in Western terms; he would be more accurately referred to as a shepherd. But since that word doesn't translate well into Japanese, the team decided to use the word cowboy as an easy reference point.