Monolith Soft, a Japanese developer, has previously been used by Nintendo to assist the Legend of Zelda’s development team with graphics design and other artistic elements during the development of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and now it seems like the studio is also helping developing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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According to Eiji Aonuma, the game’s producer, Monolith Soft’s role in developing the game is minor, but still fairly important: making the topographic arrangements of Hyrule. As the most open-world version of Hyrule yet, it’s vital that the game make the land not all look the same, so there will be mountains, hills, and gullies all over the place, all the work of Monolift.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is something that’s a notable departure from the rest of the Zelda series in a variety of ways. In addition to being a huge open world filled with a variety of dungeons and other areas for Link to explore, the game will also have voice acting beyond small vocalizations that are normally used in Zelda games, as seen in the trailer that was shown to the public on the reveal of the Nintendo Switch.
Monolith Soft is known for a number of other games before they helped with the Legend of Zelda games, including games like Xenosaga, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. These games have likely helped with their pedigree in RPG-making in large, expansive worlds, which are likely the reason that Monolith Soft was used to help with the environments of Breath of the Wild.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be coming on March 3 of this year as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch. Monolith’s own game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be coming sometime this year as well.
