Zelda boss Eiji Aonuma previously admitted that he was extremely impressed with Resident Evil 4 during the development of Twilight Princess.
In a 2005 issue of Edge, Aonuma was asked about his then-recent move from director to series producer, taking over from Shigeru Miyamoto, with Aonuma recalling telling the series creator he was ready to move on from The Legend of Zelda after directing a few entries, however, Miyamoto's solution was to give him the producer role.
"The fact of the matter is, I could not think about any concrete idea other than Zelda". Aonuma admitted, adding, "As I said, my first, the very first game I hit upon myself shared some essence with Zelda. So, yeah, somewhere in my mind I really want to take some distance away from it, but the fact of the matter is I am more and more involved in The Legend Of Zelda, and sometimes I think it is a kind of... fate for me, so I should give up escaping from that!"
As for what caught his eye while he was transitioning to that new role, Aonuma said, "Quite recently I am playing Resident Evil 4. That's a... stunning, a very, very nice game. Sometimes I have to feel that, yeah, they did it. I should have done it myself." Although, despite not moving on from the series, he does say with pride about Resident Evil "sometimes I have to say that, well, maybe they are making this section in part by thinking about Zelda." He adds, "all in all I think they have chosen a very right direction in terms of making the game. I think I can learn quite a lot from RE4."
Granted, I don't know if you could be in development in 2005 and not being somewhat inspired by Resident Evil 4, it was one of those games that redefined the industry upon release – much like a number of Zelda games, namely Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. And while Resident Evil 4's influence isn't blatant in the Zelda series, it may be worth looking back at Twilight Princess to see it through a different lens.
