History Creator / EijiAonuma

Born in March 16th, 1963 as Eiji Onozuka in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan, Eiji Aonuma has been the overseer of Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s franchise ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' since 1999. Interestingly, his original occupation wasn't that of a video game programmer, as his expertise was carpentry instead, something he inherited from his family. He studied in the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he aimed to learn about making puppets; after graduating, he applied for a job at Nintendo. His experience with video games, even as a casual player, was very scarce back then -- he recalls having been unable to complete ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' and not getting used to the platforming gameplay of the NES ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games. However, with the help and support of fellow TNUFAM graduate Yōichi Kotabe (the artist who worked on the character designs for ''Super Mario Bros''), Aonuma was presented to Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, who coincidentally had also a background interest in puppetry and acting. He was tasked to work in the department of graphical design for games, starting with ''NES Open Tournament Golf'' (the precursor of the ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'' series), and it was then when his experience with the medium began to solidify.

Fittingly, in 2023, he would be knighted by the French Minister of Culture as a "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters".

During the rest of 2003, the idea of a direct sequel to ''The Wind Waker'' was entertained, but Aonuma was worried that this game would suffer the same fate as its predecessor in regards of sales, so he asked Miyamoto to switch the art style for a more realistic one in order to appeal to an older audience. Though initially skeptic, Miyamoto accepted under the condition that this new game would contribute new gameplay elements instead of simply focusing on graphics. One of the ideas that were planned for ''Ocarina of Time'', but discarded due to technical challenges, was to combine horsetrack with swordplay. In E3 2004, the reveal trailer of what would be known eventually as ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' was unveiled, showcasing the aforementioned concept, receiving overwhelming praise and excitement from critics and fans alike. During this time, Aonuma would only work as a producer of the game, since he was also supervising the development of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' (made by the same team at Creator/{{Capcom}} who made both ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' and directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi). Upon the release of that game, Aonuma spent full time on the making of ''Twilight Princess'', returning to directorial duties while Miyamoto became the new producer. ''Twilight Princess'' was originally planned for a late 2005 release, but it was delayed so more ideas could be implemented. The impending arrival of the Platform/{{Wii}} led Aonuma and his team to make it available on that system as well, and to facilitate the implementation of motion controls for the latter system's version, the game's overworld was mirrored (this was necessary, as all cutscenes and animations would have needed to be heavily reworked otherwise in each version). The game was finally released in November 2006, frequently advertised as "the true successor to ''Ocarina of Time''", and despite a few criticisms from fans (such as [[HijackedByGanon the story's climax]] and the overall similarities with ''Ocarina of Time''), it was met with critical and commercial success. As of late 2011, ''Twilight Princess'' had become the best-selling ''Zelda'' game of all time, and won several Game of the Year awards.

In June 2019, shortly before the reveal of the sequel to ''Breath of the Wild'', Aonuma was promoted to Deputy General Manager at Nintendo's Entertainment Planning and Development division. By 2013, Miyamoto [[https://www.gonintendo.com/stories/225506-miyamoto-aounma-koizumi-konno-and-eguchi-don-t-need-me-anymor had stated in an interview that neither Aonuma nor Koizumi]] (who had become the overseer of the ''Super Mario'' franchise since 2002) needed his approval or endorsement anymore, commending their crystalized experience.

His love with the ''Zelda'' series began after playing ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''. The way the game combined the classic action gameplay of its two NES predecessors with a more detailed story and elaborated cutscenes, ignited his interest in making games with strong storytelling. The first game he fully directed was ''Marvelous: Another Treasure Island'' for the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, which was only released in Japan in 1996 and was very inspired by the ''Zelda'' series. After that game's release, Aonuma was entrusted by Miyamoto to join the level design team for the next grand project of the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64: ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. He, with the help of longime Nintendo developer Kenta Usui, went on to provide unique dungeons that would take advantage of the system's capabilities (with a focus on vertical gameplay, thanks to the 3D gameplay), and devised puzzles and events meant to challenge the players every moment.\\

In 2000, one of the videos shown in that year's Spaceworld event to advertise the then-incoming UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube featured Link and Ganondorf fighting in a sword duel in a throne chamber. While this demo impressed fans and critics, Aonuma and Miyamoto felt that this demo wasn't properly indicative of how the next ''Zelda'' game should be, so they encouraged the rest of the team to look forward to a more whimsical graphical style, resulting in a presentation that harkened back to the old-school era of anime, courtesy of another longtime Nintendo artist (Yoshiki Haruhana). This game would be ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', for which Aonuma also aimed to implement a more prominent story that took place after ''Ocarina of Time'', but parallel to the chronology that situated ''Majora's Mask'' (in fact, this was the first time Aonuma looked forward to expand upon the series' chronology, as until then it followed a straightforward line). Due to time constraints, imposed by necessity due to the struggling sales of the [=GameCube=] and the need to make this game available for the end of 2002 in Japan, Aonuma and Miyamoto had to scrap two dungeons, and tried to compensate this removal with the controversial Triforce hunt. The game was released to critical acclaim, and sold better than ''Majora's Mask'' (4.6 million units) but still lower than ''Ocarina of Time'' due to the major controversy that the game's art direction caused since its showing, as it had alienated many players who got used to the realistic style of the previous 3D ''Zelda'' games and had embraced the pursue of realism during UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames (though, like ''Majora's Mask'' beforehand, the game would be VindicatedByHistory in the following years). Discouraged by this scenario, Aonuma considered stepping down from the ''Zelda'' team, but Miyamoto convinced him to stay. [[RunningGag Lo and behold, they began to plan the next project.]]\\

During the rest of 2003, the idea of a direct sequel to ''The Wind Waker'' was entertained, but Aonuma was worried that this game would suffer the same fate as its predecessor in regards of sales, so he asked Miyamoto to switch the art style for a more realistic one in order to appeal to an older audience. Though initially skeptic, Miyamoto accepted under the condition that this new game would contribute new gameplay elements instead of simply focusing on graphics. One of the ideas that were planned for ''Ocarina of Time'', but discarded due to technical challenges, was to combine horsetrack with swordplay. In E3 2004, the reveal trailer of what would be known eventually as ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' was unveiled, showcasing the aforementioned concept, receiving overwhelming praise and excitement from critics and fans alike. During this time, Aonuma would only work as a producer of the game, since he was also supervising the development of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' (made by the same team at Creator/{{Capcom}} who made both ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' and directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi). Upon the release of that game, Aonuma spent full time on the making of ''Twilight Princess'', returning to directorial duties while Miyamoto became the new producer. ''Twilight Princess'' was originally planned for a late 2005 release, but it was delayed so more ideas could be implemented. The impending arrival of the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} led Aonuma and his team to make it available on that system as well, and to facilitate the implementation of motion controls for the latter system's version, the game's overworld was mirrored (this was necessary, as all cutscenes and animations would have needed to be heavily reworked otherwise in each version). The game was finally released in November 2006, frequently advertised as "the true successor to ''Ocarina of Time''", and despite a few criticisms from fans (such as [[HijackedByGanon the story's climax]] and the overall similarities with ''Ocarina of Time''), it was met with critical and commercial success. As of late 2011, ''Twilight Princess'' had become the best-selling ''Zelda'' game of all time, and won several Game of the Year awards.

Starting from 2007, Aonuma finally stepped down as the director of the series to work as a producer, passing the directorial torch to Daiki Iwamoto for the handheld games (later replaced by Hiromasa Shikata) and to Hidemaro Fujibayashi (who, by then, became a full-time Nintendo employee) for the home console games. By that point, Aonuma felt that the next big step for the franchise would be to overhaul the main conventions, a sentiment shared by Miyamoto (who felt ''Twilight Princess'' was "missing something", likely referring to the game still relying on the blueprint laid by ''Ocarina of Time''). This mindset first manifested with the incorporation of the unique control schemes of the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, based on a touch screen interface. During this period, and with the aforementioned vision in mind, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'' (2007) and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'' (2009) were released. ''Phantom Hourglas'' was originally planned to come out in late 2006, but was delayed until the following year for fine-tuning (and likely to avoid self-competition against ''Twilight Princess'').\\

The next home console installment was ''Skyward Sword'' for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}. Its planning phase took place since the end of 2006, though it wasn't until the second half of 2007 (after the release of ''Phantom Hourglass'' in Japan) when development proper began. However, there were some aspects on the game that Aonuma was initially doubtful about: Would the game benefit from the then-upcoming Wii Motion Plus to make swordplay more precise? Should it make use of orchestrated music? What art style should it aim for? Miyamoto managed to relieve his former two doubts by the end of 2009, with the critical acclaim and commercial success of, respectively, ''VideoGame/WiiSportsResort'' (which provided an efficient showcase of the WM+ accessory, even having it bundled) and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' (which managed to incorporate VariableMix into OrchestralBombing, as the impossibility of this in prior Nintendo video games was the reason why Creator/KojiKondo had preferred to use MIDI tunes until then); regarding the art style, the developers opted for a hybrid between the cel-shaded engine of ''The Wind Waker'' and the textures and proportions of ''Twilight Princess'', leading to a visual reminiscence of impressionistic art (in particular Paul Cézanne, as noted by Miyamoto) that would help developers accommodate the new control scheme by making enemies and their attacks easier to see. Its first public showcase was in E3 2010 but, due to an unfortunate incident caused by wireless interference, many of the actions Miyamoto intended to make in the demo floor were unresponsive; precautions were taken for the next year's E3 showcase, when the public could play the game without trouble. It was released on November 2011 worldwide, garnering critical acclaim, but several factors undermined its commercial success: Its late arrival to the Wii (the UsefulNotes/WiiU was released the following year), fans' skepticism over motion controls, accusations of linearity and haldholding, and strong competition against other anticipated video games around that time.\\

During UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames, and well-aware of the divided fan reaction towards the later installments in the series (especially the aforementioned ''Skyward Sword''), Aonuma stated that the following installment would signal a new era for the franchise, longing for a more open-ended experience inspired by games released during that era (such as ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''). The first hint at this was seen in 2013 with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', in which the majority of dungeons could be visited and completed in any order. Then, in 2014, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' was unveiled with a teaser (and still without an official subtitle) showing Link being chased by a technologically advanced machine (a Guardian). Aonuma and his team used the first ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' the NES as a blueprint for this new world (in fact, the would-be overworld was first devised as a 2D map based on the original game). The game was originally planned for 2015 for the UsefulNotes/WiiU, but Aonuma uploaded a video bringing the news that such a release date was pushed in favor of implementing new ideas and fixing certain technical issues (later confirmed by Miyamoto to be problem with the physics engine). In 2016, due to the commercial failure of the Wii U, the game was delayed once again so it would be released in 2017 there as well as on the impending UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Upon release, ''Breath of the Wild'' entered the Top 5 of most acclaimed video games of all time and achieved impressive sales (clocking at over 20 million units by the end of 2020, and almost 30 million as of 2023), and won several Game of the Year awards (Aonuma and Fujibayashi received one in person during the 2017 Game Awards ceremony, visibly excited).\\