You probably haven’t heard of Tomomi Sano before, but the Nintendo employee just broke a big barrier for The Legend of Zelda series. She is now the first female director for the franchise after helping to helm The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which comes out in mere days.
Nintendo revealed the milestone for Sano in a new Ask the Developer volume focusing on Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. She is part of the company’s Entertainment Planning and Development Department with Production Group 3 and previously collaborated with Grezzo on a handful of Zelda remakes: Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D, and Link’s Awakening. (Yes, Nintendo is finally confirming Grezzo’s involvement as the developer behind the new Switch exclusive.)
Additionally, Nintendo and Grezzo revealed the origins of how Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom came to be. In fact, the project almost sounds like it started as a Zelda Maker title–similar to the Super Mario Maker series–but this time focused on dungeons to create and share. Grezzo’s Satoshi Terada, who co-directed the game with Sano, discussed his team’s opportunity to create a new game in the Zelda series and their different ideas.