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We've hidden volumes one to eight of the "Diary from the Drablands" in various places outside the Drablands proper. Reading them should give you some idea of what the scenic spots in each level are! You'll need to be wearing specific outfits to read some of the diary volumes, though.

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On top of that, you might find it helpful to look around with the +Control Pad. Actually, I'll show you one thing. It's a bit of a spoiler, though! In The Dunes, you can find a mural of Link straight from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

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I did check what scenic spots would be included, but I never actually saw where they would be placed, so there are a few I still haven't found for myself.

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There's one in each level, so if you're the sort of player who's already finished the game and thinks there's nothing left to do, this should make for a fun bonus! Consider it a challenge from me as a designer.

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I feel like it's quite typical that MariChan never asks about "the most fun part" or anything like that. Let's see, the hardest thing... Deciding what to name them was difficult.

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Huh, really?

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Well, I mean, there were various things that gave me trouble for each boss, and things I'd like people to notice, but it feels a bit pushy to point them out! Besides, I can tell from looking at Miiverse that the players have already spotted lots of stuff... Anyway, it was tough but it wasn't painful or anything. If we thought that making the game was a pain, we'd never create anything truly good.

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Well said.

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Having said that, the closest I came to "painful" was when I announced the names I'd come up with. Though I suppose it wasn't painful so much as it was painfully embarrassing...

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Oh, like the Flightless Vulture? (In Japanese, this is a terrible pun on the name of the enemy called "Vulture" in English, and the Kansai dialect word for "can't fly". I couldn't quite make it work in English, but trust me when I say it's atrocious. - MariChan)

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That's the one, the mid-boss of The Dunes. He's like the king of the Vultures, but he's so big that he can't really fly, so I tried to make a pun that combined "can't fly" and "vulture". When I brought up the name in a meeting for a first time, the reactions around the table were pretty much just "What?" - I don't think I'll forget that moment as long as I live.

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If someone ever asks me to repeat myself in that sort of context, I'll probably be so embarrassed that I'll quit my job on the spot.

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Anyway, we created the boss of The Ruins next, and I initially went completely literal and just nicknamed him the "Y guy". But then again, that really doesn't sound like a proper name, does it? Next I thought about borrowing the name of the one-eyed Greek monster, Cyclops, but it seemed too long and I was worried that people would call it "Cyplos" or something instead...

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It seemed like the Japanese development staff weren't really familiar with the name. Everyone tried their best to use it, but then they would get confused and say stuff like "Clops". Eventually some people just gave up and started saying "Cy-dude".

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To tell you the truth, the original "Dum-Dum" was actually this. It's the mid-boss of the Sky Realm, which is called "Gigaleon" in the retail version. We originally called it "Dum-Dum" because of the sounds it makes when it shoots projectiles, but then we realised that the "Cyclops" also makes a booming noise when it moves, and we thought that the name "Dum-Dum" would probably fit it better. So in the end "Dum-Dum" became "Gigaleon", and "Cyclops" became "Dum-Dum".

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I think it's for the best. If the production staff can't wrap their heads around a name, then the users probably won't be able to, either. What usually happens is that the staff will continue to call things by their tentative, in-development nicknames and not know the official names, but everyone knew "Dum-Dum".

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Please stop reminding me.

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Yes, let's stop reminding him.

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More than you thought you would? That's a bit of a low blow. We did put some special features in to make Online Play as pleasant as possible, like tweaking the matchmaking to make sure that players of vastly different levels wouldn't get put together and so on. But we didn't want to make it hard for anyone to find partners to play with, so when there's nobody available that's at a similar level, you might get matched with someone who has more or less experience than you do.

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"Cooperation" was this project's biggest keyword. The game has many fun elements, but since you can't see the faces of the people you are playing with, and since it's sometimes hard to make yourself understood while playing, some elements could be called negative... That's why, while playtesting the game amongst ourselves, we tried really hard to address things that people said they didn't enjoy as much.

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I'm so happy you feel that way! We did think that the most stressful part of playing online was the waiting, so we made sure to do something about it. But we didn't want to put in just any minigame; we wanted one that a) you could play cooperatively with two players, b) didn't come with any explicit rewards but would still make you want to play, and c) wouldn't be too frustrating to abandon partway through. It took us a long time to come up with something good, so we were very close to giving up on the idea!

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One day a member of the level production team created the Jellyrich, a bonus enemy that you could hit repeatedly to earn some extra Rupees and hearts, and we thought, why not use that? From there we brought in the sound team to help us add a musical element, and it developed smoothly into the form you see today!

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Oh, so you've had a connection error at some point? I apologise. We did all that we could on the server side to make gameplay as stable as possible, but since every player has their own network environment, we can't really help the fact that you'll get disconnected once in a while. On the other hand, it's not like your fellow players would do that on purpose, right? So as a way to say, "too bad, we're sorry, but thanks for playing", the game gives you a few sympathy Rupees whenever you get a connection error.

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We did actually fret almost to the very end about how many Rupees should be given out. We didn't want to be stingy by giving too little, but if we gave too much, some players might actually start hoping for an error...

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The communication icons went through a number of changes during development. At one point we had an icon seller in the game that would let you buy various extra icons with your hard-earned Rupees.

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Initially we were thinking of making dozens of them, in many different patterns.

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Right? I thought so too, at least to begin with. But then the longer we thought about it, the more we realised that having too many different icons would actually make it harder, not easier, to communicate. So we tried to find a nice, friendly size that would make them easy to use and hard to mix up. Then we looked to see how many we could fit on the touch screen, and finally we thought about which icons should be available.

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There was a lot of disagreement between team members. Everyone had their own ideas about which icons they wanted in the game and which ones they wanted removed.

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I think so, too. Some things are difficult to convey with just a single icon, but when you string them together, like "item" and "throw", or "sorry" and "over here!" and "throw", you can express surprisingly complex ideas!

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Even the staff members with the most complaints learned to combine them effectively in the end! This is actually something I think about a lot, and not just when it comes to the icons. It's really hard to predict the things that everyone will want or need in a game.

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That idea was also born after we limited the number of icons, which is when we started considering the quality and behaviour of each one. I really want to go back in time to when I used to think that "more is better" and somehow let myself know that I was wrong.

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Personally, I thought the icon with the pompoms was a stroke of genius. Especially when I was the middle rung of a totem, I would quite naturally start tapping it rhythmically to cheer on my fellow heroes.

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I've met someone like that, too! It really makes me happy. Although it can get pretty annoying if someone uses the icons way too much. I guess I'd just like to urge everyone to be considerate.

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Yes, please!

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I'd like to let everyone know that we are planning to update Tri Force Heroes on 3rd December. The update will include new outfits, new levels to challenge you, new stamps to use on Miiverse, and more! We've listened to your feedback on how to make the game even better and have put in some improvements. There will be more information on the official site, so feel free to take a look there as well. If you want to remember the date more easily, just think of it as 12th month, 3rd day - easy as 1-2-3! We did our best to make each and every one of our players crack a smile or two, and I hope you'll all give it a go!

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The cool thing about this game is that even after you complete a level, you can always try it again with different players, or using different items, and get a completely different experience. Also, since different people have different ways of dealing with enemies and puzzles, you can always learn something new! And that's before we even get to the special challenges that open up after you defeat each area's final boss - those are extra difficult, so the three of you need to cooperate even more, and the satisfaction you feel when you've completed them is second to none. As you can see, there's plenty of replay value to the levels, so I hope you'll keep playing!

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I did think it was strange that you didn't ask! But it's okay, we made it so that you could hear all the jokes at any time, so you can go looking for them to your heart's content after this Miiting is over.

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Exactly. The town's not so big, but there are lots of lines that change depending on your outfit, some that give you the inside scoop on something, and others that only show up with time. I'm really looking forward to players finding and enjoying them all!

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How grandiose - very fitting for a closing statement! Our game lets you play alone, with friends, or even with unknown heroes, so it makes me happy to think that everyone can take it easy and enjoy it in whichever way they feel most comfortable with.

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All of us - the planners, programmers, designers, sound artists and more - created the game first and foremost with the intention of making our players smile. We hope that playing The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes will make you laugh out loud, maybe get a little angry, then laugh some more!