Hyrule Interviews
@hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
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A database of interviews with the Zelda team. Our goal is to preserve that legacy, share it here, and build a safe community for our followers!
By @maxnichols.bsky.social
www.hyruleinterviews.com
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![PEOPLE:
- S. Nagano. One half of “Akira Himekawa”, the Zelda manga writer/artist duo..
- Eiji Aonuma, age 41. Dungeon Director of Ocarina of Time, director of Majora’s Mask, The Wind Waker, & Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: I’ll be looking for anything [in the A Link to the Past manga] that might serve as a hint for me in the Zelda game I’m developing right now [Twilight Princess]!
Nagano: I’m happy to hear that our manga can be helpful in providing ideas to the people at Nintendo. We have a strong desire to participate in the creation of The Legend of Zelda material.
Aonuma: You truly are helping us. When our staff members get tired of working, they read your manga! [laugh] The manga serve as a great reference when pulling the story together.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibnlicetuvsesygt3xmeuswclru4oiwwizw66x4lgmmx64mytambm@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 33. The Wind Waker Art Manager, Twilight Princess Art Director.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Director of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: I remember the summer when we were deep into Wind Waker development: our [Takizawa & Aonuma] wives went off on their vacations to visit their parents, and we had to stay at work and focus on finishing the game. Suddenly, Aonuma- san’s wife sent a photo of his cute kid to his cellular phone, and he howled about wanting to be with his family.
Sigh—no doubt we’ll have another summer like that ahead of us as we head into final development on Twilight Princess!"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiasmrwzshqb36mwnulwwrvewb6yquo5opna6cwxm5mi7kky7cdfda@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Daiki Iwamoto, age 40. Director of Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: “Let's make it so that you can lay the tracks yourself.” I brought it up, and we started [Spirit Tracks] from that experiment. ...
Iwamoto: We thought it would be a lot of fun to lay the tracks any way you liked, to be able to travel anywhere at will. ... But the problem is that, even if people can lay the tracks anywhere they like, they won't know where to lay them. Then, to make the story work, there are places where you absolutely mustn't go, and other places where you really can't be at certain points in time. …
We spent half of those two years [of development] on the railroad. And then, one day, Aonuma-san said, “Why don't we just drop the idea of laying the tracks?”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreichoajku7ntg45ihw3opdrnyaefnrs5enotigj6pgqskmgus636nq@jpeg)
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 50. Producer of The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: [When making Ocarina of Time] we thought of how we should translate the fun of the first Zelda game into a 3D environment, so that it made you feel free in this world you’re exploring.
Sometimes you remember a place nostalgically after some years. [laughs] When you grow up and go back to a place you thought was huge as a kid, like a street, you realize there is barely any space for a car to fit in. So, after remembering the time when you were growing up, you realize there was a time when you saw things like that. Thinking it was a good idea to have that inside the game, we had some very narrow places and we included the game mechanic of going back to those spots [as adult Link].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreieujyg7zhoql7rwltqiovid6e4wb3jzfl36padc5v7yipn2sgskeq@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 39. Producer of A Link to the Past.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: One idea [cut from A Link to the Past] was with the lantern: if you used it on a grassy area, it would cause a huge brushfire. If you cut a little circle of grass around you, you could safely stand there in the middle of it!
… In swamp areas, you could use a shovel to dig a ditch, and then if you bombed the swamp breakwater it would cause the water to rush into the hole you’d dug. That idea was actually half-complete… if we’d had another six months, we might have been able to make it a reality.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreieapm2qwfqt4qqfr22tsf4dwvwgq5cgktwce2kaa4bglcsqpi4evu@jpeg)
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
![PEOPLE:
- Koji Kondo, age 49. Ocarina of Time Composer.
- Mahito Yokota, age 37. Ocarina of Time 3D Orchestration Director.
QUOTE:
Kondo: As I was playing the Nintendo 3DS version [of Ocarina of Time], there were several [tracks] that struck me as well-done. Although, it's a little embarrassing to say so myself! [laughs] One plays when you go to Zelda's castle and hide in the garden so the guards can't find you. I forgot the title, though.
Yokota: That's ’The Courtyard Game at Hyrule Castle.’
Kondo: It sounds like a game of hide-and-seek. It represents that feeling of final relief you get when you're able to hide from the guards by carefully making stealthy steps. I thought, ‘I did a pretty good job!’ [laughs]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihz6tg4litec2uzxpnygb4yoliuzcbotzl67lap7jwnbjrgwd4wue@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: When we talked about Ocarina of Time … we talked about hospitality. But Majora's Mask isn't like that. It's all a challenge to our players. It's like we're saying to them ‘can you clear this?’
It was something like until then you were welcomed with open arms being invited to come in, and now you're being told at the door to go home if you don't have what it takes! [laughs]
… We didn't put in any kind of elements where we show people how to play this game. The game was made for those who have played Ocarina of Time, so I felt like there wasn't a need for step-by-step instructions.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibfhcygpqiky4pwxslxx24fdjcjyohgdrfqnsc7j6ak2kolemofje@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Makoto Yonezu. Senior Lead Landscape Artist for Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Yonezu: I wanted to design a building that would stand out so that the stables [in Breath of the Wild] would be visible from far away, even while running across the plains.
I personally felt that they served a similar purpose to the Postman character who has appeared throughout the series, so I decided to make them completely over the top, placing a giant replica of a horse's head on top of the building. When the staff involved said that they liked it and told me that it was easy to understand, I went ahead with the design.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihxjpxrnxq4czbjbqwklrwz4wz72nibvddzhlmq7jh2x5pabpu3m4@jpeg)
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 59. Creator of Zelda & Mario, General Manager of Nintendo EAD.
QUOTE:
Miyamoto: In terms of [Retro Studios] working on a Zelda, it's not out of the question, certainly, for them to work on an entire Zelda game amongst themselves.
Traditionally I think that the Zelda team has always had a close contact with anyone who's working on a Zelda game. If you were going to have that happen in the US at Retro, that would be kind of difficult for them to be able to coordinate. Certainly they're too busy for that sort of thing right now. It would probably require me to be involved to a great extent as well, so I would have to get over quite a bit too. I'd probably have to live in Texas... [laughs]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiee6gpj5pxry354auz6ikftw4lwo5v7ej4zb4fna3hmcudygfnbju@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Sammy Hall. Concept Artist at Retro Studios.
QUOTE:
Hall: Stuff from a long lost cancelled Zelda action/jrpg that never went beyond pre-production [at Retro Studios]. Really want to return to these some day to finish a few. Zelda games have wacky weird stuff, and this game was setting out to be ten times weirder.
Fun pre-pre-pre-production origin story of the Master Sword. Within the bad ending of Ocarina of Time exploring the last male Sheik’s (after a genocidal ethnic-cleansing) journey transforming into the Master Sword. All while the Dark Gerudo are giving their 100 year birth to Ganon.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiafotqeuqtmoruuljbd7mecufleuyvcv64nmbtegrhexbbpdvw5fq@jpeg)
![PEOPLE:
- Atsushi Miyagi. Twilight Princess Field Design Lead.
QUOTE:
Miyagi: I had always felt that it wouldn't have been possible to finish everything [in Twilight Princess] by the original deadline, so I felt that the one year delay was only natural.
Since the game wasn't nearly ready in terms of both quality or volume, and we were lacking a clear roadmap for how to proceed, when the decision to postpone release was made I felt that I had to reassess things. Before that, in the period when I felt that it would be impossible to complete everything with the way things were going, I was personally burned out.
Readjusting myself … was really quite a struggle. Before the decision to delay … I was working on what had to be done every day with the deadline right in front of me.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiheswvcanldqmsyqzyhkjxu5jr5zhthdmouxuzgsgy4bpw5oc6f34@jpeg)
