For those who do not know the Musô series, these are games featuring one or more characters facing entire armies. Known as Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors in our regions, this license has never been a war machine on the technical level, but has always stood out for the extraordinary profusion of fighters on the screen. So when the developers of Koei Tecmo found themselves making Hyrule Warriors: Age of Scourge on Nintendo Switch, they had to think about how to display hundreds of opponents simultaneously.
But where the information is unusual, is that we learn that the biggest challenge of all development was the creation of … weed. According to art director Yuu Oohashi interviewed by Nintendo Dream, it was such a puzzle that his team called for help:
It took years to design the weed. It took us about half of the development time to touch up the grass in-game. We really had a hard time recreating the feel of the Hyrule Plain.
Game producer Masaki Furusawa confirms:
We asked Nintendo’s Zelda team to tell us how they designed the weed in Breath of the Wild. And although they shared their methods in great detail, many questions remained as to whether we were able to reproduce them in turn. Since the game has a lot of grass, we therefore looked to see if there were any other methods available to us.
The problem was such that it spread to all the departments of Koei Tecmo, sowing a certain discord. To resolve this concern, discussions were very lively between the development team, technical support and the departments in charge of cutscenes and sets. The adage is true: sometimes a blade of grass is enough …
