As rumors swirl that Nintendo is preparing to release a remake of the classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2, Monolith Soft, which collaborated closely with Nintendo’s internal teams on both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, has confirmed that it’s still working actively on the Zelda series.
The Xenoblade Chronicles studio, which has been wholly owned by Nintendo since 2007, has shared a series of Zelda-themed interviews on its website. Prefacing the interviews, the developer said (via machine translation), “Moving forward, as a member of the team creating the world of ‘The Legend of Zelda’ with Nintendo, we will continue to develop games that pursue even more ‘new surprises and emotions.'” Monolith Soft is currently hiring across several disciplines in both its Tokyo and Kyoto offices.
It’s hardly surprising that new Zelda games are in development, or that Monolith is helping out with them. The developer was instrumental in the production of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom; both games were conceived on a much larger scale than anything Nintendo’s famed but relatively small internal teams had attempted before. As the interviews detail, Monolith — which had also done some work on earlier Zelda games Skyward Sword and A Link Between Worlds — came on board Breath of the Wild after its design and visual direction had been set in stone. But as development continued on the game and into Tears of the Kingdom, Monolith and Nintendo collaborated more closely, with Monolith designers and programmers joining the effort.
According to producers from both Monolith and Nintendo, Monolith is taking an even more active role in wherever Zelda is going next. “With each title, [Monolith Soft’s] involvement in the creative aspects of development has increased, which I find very encouraging,” said Nintendo producer Daiki Iwamoto. “The [Monolith Soft Zelda] team is still in its developmental stages, and we feel like we’re all building the game together, and also building the team together,” said Yasuhiro Fujita, a Monolith Soft producer. “I want to be able to take on even more diverse responsibilities.”
“We want Monolith Soft to take on more and more core roles as a strong partner in creating Zelda from the ground up,” agreed Iwamoto. “Based on the know-how we’ve cultivated while working together so far, let’s further enhance the overall team strength at Monolith Soft and
continue to create unique series titles together in the future.”
The full chat between Iwamoto and Fujita is well worth reading; they’re frank about the differences between Monolith’s tightly organized, high-volume development style and Nintendo’s more free form, trial-and-error approach, and how both were needed to get Breath of the Wild out of the door. “Breath of the Wild involved an unprecedented amount of work for both of us, but thanks to the synergistic effect of collaboration between two companies that excel in different styles, we were able to overcome the challenge without compromising on either quality or quantity until the very end,” Nintendo’s Iwamoto said.
You can’t argue with the result, or the brilliant elaboration on it in Tears of the Kingdom. Whether the next major Zelda title will be an Ocarina of Time remake or something else, the continuing, ever-closer collaboration between Nintendo and Monolith Soft is reassuring; they’re on one hell of a hot streak.
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