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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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hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on games where players never get lost, 2018.

Source: Zelda Encyclopedia

#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/e6aaedfa0594...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 55. Producer of the Zelda series. QUOTE: Aonuma: [In past Zelda games] we would place numerous landmarks so that players could follow them, and so on. We did things like that to ensure players wouldn’t get lost. But thinking critically, making a game in which players never get lost is like the development team saying that it’s actually just linear. When making a Zelda with that structure, and then examining it from a distance, it starts to feel like “Is this really interesting?”
February 1, 2026 at 10:33 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on the inspiration for the train in Spirit Tracks, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#SpiritTracksQuote
#AonumaQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d6e65557dce3...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Aonuma: We had to think about what to use as a mode of transportation, in place of a boat, and at that point, I remembered a certain picture book. Iwata: A picture book? Aonuma: ...Which I brought with me today... Iwata: This book? 'The Tracks Go On'? Aonuma: My son loved this book. When he was four or five, this was the book he'd bring me every night before bed. ‘Read it, Daddy, read it.’ ... It's a very simple [story], but the pioneering spirit, the kids building the railroad... Something about it seemed as though it would fit with The Legend of Zelda. But I didn't tell the staff about this book.
February 1, 2026 at 4:37 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on the difference between his leadership on console vs handheld Zelda, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#PhantomHourglassQuote, #TwilightPrincessQuote, #SkywardSwordQuote, #SpiritTracksQuote
#IwataQuote, #AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d6e65557dce3...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015. - Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Director of Twilight Princess, Producer of Phantom Hourglass. QUOTE: Iwata: Aonuma-san, you're involved with both [Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass]. Are there any differences in how you work on the two? Aonuma: When I work on the Wii edition, I'm right on-site, and I often do my job from a director's perspective. On the Nintendo DS version, I do proper producer's work. ...That said, when I worked on the previous game, Phantom Hourglass, I was simultaneously making Twilight Princess, so I couldn't keep a very close eye on things right from the beginning. Then, when Twilight Princess was finished and I went to the Nintendo DS version's office, the development was already pretty far along.
January 31, 2026 at 2:33 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
DeSharone on the “lyrical” vision for the CD-i titles, 2006.

Source: Hardcore Gaming 101

#Zelda
#ZeldaTheWandofGamelonQuote, #LinkTheFacesofEvilQuote
#DeSharoneQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/c370aba2caf0...
PEOPLE: - Dale DeSharone, age 49. Producer of Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon for the Phillips CD-i. QUOTE: Q: Was the development team [of the CD-i Zelda titles] big fans of the prior two Zelda games? DeSharone: People really liked the games. But, I think we had more of a lyrical storytelling desire or inclination. I think we were probably more focused on story, and that may have also had something to do with the CD-i platform itself.
January 30, 2026 at 3:56 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Iwata on being called in to save EarthBound.

Source: Ask Iwata

#EarthBoundQuote
#IwataQuote, #ItoiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/0f7756f19ab8...
PEOPLE: Satoru Iwata. Program Director for EarthBound. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015 Shigesato Itoi. Producer, Director, and Writer for EarthBound, editor of the A Link to the Past (1992) manga QUOTE: Iwata: When development for EarthBound was in shambles, I was called in to save the sinking ship. At the time, I was both the president of HAL Laboratory and one of it’s programmers. … I said to them “I’ll play around with what we have,” and I went back with the project in its current state. About a month later, I showed Shigesato Itoi and his team a revised version, with the scrolling map and everything. Were they surprised! In fact, they were all freaking out so much I was honestly confused. I was like “Guys, I barely did anything.” That’s how bogged down the project was.
January 29, 2026 at 12:01 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Wada on his thinking when illustrating the Breath of the Wild key art, 2017.

Source: Creating a Champion

#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#WadaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/13c41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Takumi Wada, age 34. Illustrator for Breath of the Wild. QUOTE: Wada: When I drew the official box art and E3 illustration, I wanted to give the sense that Link was confronting the world. My first sketch portrayed Link looking out over Hyrule with his back to the viewer. I then experimented with several other compositions that more prominently featured Link, but eventually settled on the direction of my initial idea. I felt that the world itself, not just the characters, had a leading role in [Breath of the Wild]. I also wanted to convey that this was the beginning of a new Zelda, so I drew the sky at daybreak.
January 28, 2026 at 2:30 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on why Mario is a plump shape, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote, #SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/39d6164a4154...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. QUOTE: Miyamoto: The reason Mario is a plump shape is because gaming devices at that time could only read collisions between square boxes, not because I wanted to make him cute. His design turned out like that because I adjusted for the capabilities of the gaming device of the day. For example, resolution was low, so I made his face big.
January 27, 2026 at 3:08 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on flight simulators, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e274538...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: The essence of flight-simulation games is to enjoy the controls of airplanes. … PC flight simulators have been around for a long time, and some arcade games were also offering that type of simulations. The difficulty level is high with these simulators when we see them as video games but that difficulty is one of the greatest charms for them. Iwata: It's simulating the actual control of the machine. In the same way that flying a plane in real life is difficult, the controls for these games were difficult too. Miyamoto: That's right. It's the polar opposite of the "controls" for the action games I usually make.
January 25, 2026 at 5:06 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Including, sadly, an even WEIRDER-sounding Tingle game we never got

#Tingle
#TanabeQuote
#TingleHorrorGameQuote
PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 55. Writer for A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening. Producer of Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. QUOTE: Tanabe: Looking back eight years ago, we were developing a horror game with Vanpool that starred Tingle as the main character, but that project was canceled due to a variety of reasons.
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Here's where we get back to Zelda--

He often produced the games made by Vanpool. They made the Dillon games, but ALSO... the Tingle games!

Yes, he produced Freshly-Picked Tingle' Rosy Rupeeland
The boxart for Freshly-Picked Tingle' Rosy Rupeeland
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
And that... is how he ended up as an uncredited localization producer for Donkey Kong Country

#TanabeQuote
#IwataQuote
#DonkeyKongCountryQuote,#DonkeyKongCountryReturnsQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Iwata-Asks-D...
PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 47. Writer for A Link to the Past & Link’s Awakening. Japanese Localization for Donkey Kong Country.. - Satoru Iwata, age 50. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Tanabe: When I was working on the localization of the Super NES version, I went to Rare in England. Rare, which made Donkey Kong Country, was in... Iwata: Twycross. Tanabe: Yes. … It was a long ride and I found the scenery peaceful, with rolling hills and lots of sheep and wooden fences along the road. And that went on for hours. Iwata: You spent the whole time watching sheep. [laughs] Tanabe: Yeah. [laughs] Rare is headquartered in a refurbished horse stable in a country town with an old church. When I got there, they handed me a huge key like you might see in a fantasy game and gave me a room, where I worked. In my mind, the music [of Donkey Kong Country] overlaps with scenes like that. Tanabe: One new ability for Donkey Kong [in Donkey Kong Country Returns] is the ability to blow out his breath. For example, if he blows on dandelion puffs, an item can appear. Iwata: Whose idea was that? Tanabe: Miyamoto-san's. He told us early on in development that he definitely wanted us to put that in. He also said he didn't want us to change the music. And you said that, too. Iwata: Right. [laughs] I remember telling you during the first meeting to treat the music with care. The music for Donkey Kong Country is in my iPod and I often listen to it even today. I don't often do that, but Donkey Kong Country had so many memorable tracks that I bought the soundtrack CD.
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
It SOUNDS like he may have been burnt out and struggling around that time, as he relates here, so his career took a new turn (after some more Kirby and Mario work)

#TanabeQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/How-a-Slacke...
PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 48. Script writer for A Link to the Past & Link’s Awakening, Producer of the Metroid Prime series & many other Nintendo-published titles. QUOTE: Tanabe: To be honest, I wasn't going to work very often. It had kind of worn me out. And I was drinking too much. For someone who wasn't going to work all the time, when I did have to deal with people outside the company, I seemed to shape up, so they kept sending me out to do these jobs [oversee the work of external and overseas studios like Retro Studios and Next Level Games].
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
After that was Link's Awakening. The Windfish's egg and his concept, and though he left the script of the main quest to Yoshiaki Koizumi, he himself wrote most of the odd side characters' dialog.

#LinksAwakeningQuote
#TanabeQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Link-s-Awake...
PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 35. Link’s Awakening Writer. - Takashi Tezuka, age 38. Link’s Awakening Game Director. - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 30. Link’s Awakening Writer. QUOTE: Tanabe: When I started [on Link’s Awakening] I was given a list of requirements by the director, Mr. Tezuka, such as no Triforce, no Princess Zelda, no Hyrule, and a closed field. ... Mr. Tezuka requested a world full of strange characters like in Twin Peaks, which was a popular show back then. I then wrote a script that fit my vision of an egg hatching on a mountaintop ending the world with Koizumi’s “Your dream? Or someone else’s dream?” Koizumi worked on the main thread of the story and I did the odd characters.
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
His NEXT role was as a Script Writer for A Link to the Past.

#TanabeQuote
#ALinkToThePastQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Luigi-s-Mans...
PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 57. A Link to the Past Script Writer. QUOTE: Tanabe: There are many instances in game development where at first, things don’t turn out the way you speculate. When that happens, I try not to cling to that initial idea too much. For example, this is when I was working on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. At first, we were thinking about structuring the game with numerous parallel worlds. However, in order to establish the gameplay in the end, we decided that it would be better to narrow it down to two worlds: Light and Dark. I think game development involves much work where you never know unless you actually test it out.
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Tanabe's first role at Nintendo was as a course designer for Yume Kōjō: Dokidoki Panic (1987), the game that was released on the NES as Super Mario Bros. 2.

He was the director for the US version -- an early sign of where his career would go!

He also did some Level Design for Super Mario Bros 3
A screenshot of Doki Doki Panic A very similar screenshot of Super Mario Bros 2 (NES).
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Kensuke Tanabe announced that he is retiring in an interview today!

He was a script writer who worked on A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, so let's talk a little bit about him and his career.

#Zelda
#TanabeQuote

LTTP team (via @glitterberri.bsky.social's site!):
A black and white photo of the core dev tream for A Link to the Past, with Kensuke Tanabe circled in read. The photo is from the Shogakukan guide to Trifoce of the Gods. This scan is courtesy of GlitterBerri, who runs a game translation website.
January 22, 2026 at 4:41 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Images were mostly retrieved from:
- @historyofhyrule.com's art galleries
- @zeldawiki.bsky.social's character pages
- Iwata Asks interviews
- Digipen.edu

Thanks for being excellent resources, friends!
A photo of Satomi Asakawa in 2019. She's wearing a lightweight grey scary and has shoulder-length, somewhat curly hair. She's standing in front of some out-of-focus flowers.
January 20, 2026 at 4:51 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Trying something new today!

Zelda Dev Highlight:
Satomi Asakawa, Character Designer

In (mostly) her own words, Asakawa's game dev career from start to end!

#Zelda
#TwilightPrincessQuote, #OcarinaOfTimeQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#AsakawaQuote

Full image:
drive.google.com/file/d/1ywWD...
A very tall image. it's got 7-8 different quotes on it, an image of Satomi Asakawa, and screenshots of various games that influenced her early in her life and career. A very tall image. it's got 5-6 different quotes on it, screenshots of animation and film that influenced Asakawa, some images of her senior project from DigiPen, and some images of the first characters she designed for Ocarina of Time. A very tall image. It's got 4 different quotes on it, an image of Satomi Asakawa, and screenshots of characters she designed for Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, and Pikmin 2 A very tall image. It's got 2 different quotes on it, and a big collage of art of characters that Asakawa's team designed for Twilight Princess. It also has some photos of her, including some from Twilight Princess development and one from a few years after she retired from Nintendo.
January 20, 2026 at 4:51 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Iwata on the time he gave programming advice to Nakago, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#BalloonFightQuote
#IwataQuote, #NakagoQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/01d01475fc47...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 49. Programmer on Balloon Fight, President of Nintendo. - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Programmer on Balloon Fight, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director & Producer of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Iwata: HAL Laboratory worked on the [Famicom] version of Balloon Fight while… Nakago: We worked on the arcade version. … We wondered why the player's movements were smoother on the home version and asked Iwata-san for advice. Iwata: That's when I told Nakago-san everything I knew. One thing I recommended was that instead of calculating the character's position using integers, they should also calculate it using decimal points, thereby doubling the precision. In this way, calculating gravity, buoyancy, acceleration and deceleration all become more precise and the movements look smoother. … Nakago: … I remember Miyamoto-san complaining: “Why do you have to go to another company to find this stuff out?” [laughs]
January 18, 2026 at 3:55 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on having crowds around them at the arcade, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Creator of Mario & Zelda. General Manger of Nintendo EAD. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of HAL from 1993-2000, President of Nintendo from 2003-2015. QUOTE: Miyamoto: We decided to research what made hit titles [in 1980] so popular. Well, when I say “research”, I just mean playing the games! [laughs] Iwata: Playing in the name of research! [laughs] Miyamoto: As you can imagine, I was a big fan of games. What's more, while now there are lots of people at Nintendo who are highly skilled video game players, at the time I was one of the best. Iwata: People would gather round to watch when you were playing in the arcade, wouldn't they? Miyamoto: Before I knew it, there'd be a crowd of people around me! Iwata: There was even a time when I had people gathered around me, you know!
January 17, 2026 at 5:10 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on Twilight Princess' timeline placement, 2005.

Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)

#Zelda
#TwilightPrincessQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/19841fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Producer (and later Director) of Twilight Princess. QUOTE: Q: Where does [the recently revealed Twilight Princess] fall in the overall timeline? Aonuma: I can’t really go into that, partially because І want to keep it a secret, but also because we haven’t decided yet. There are some kinds of... unstable, uncertain ideas we're working on. Depending on what course we choose in terms of development, the final ending may change.
January 16, 2026 at 4:29 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Iwata on the direction for WarioWare (Hobonichi, 2019)

Source: Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO

#WarioWareQuote
#IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/cb278bf9f772...
PEOPLE: Satoru Iwata. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015.Shigeru Miyamoto. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. QUOTE: Iwata: When we were creating WarioWare, I remember saying all the time, “We need to do whatever Nintendo hasn’t been able to do.” Interestingly enough, it was Shigeru Miyamoto who masterminded the release of the first WarioWare title, putting tons of energy into the plan. Essentially, the idea of “doing what Nintendo can’t do” meant “anything [but what] Miyamoto would probably do”. What Miyamoto wanted more than anybody was the sort of games that he would never make.
January 15, 2026 at 3:21 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
If you click on the link it'll take you to our database page for that interview, and NORMALLY this "Source" property is a link to a website:
A screenshot of a database page from Hyrule Interviews, with the "Source" property circled in red.
January 14, 2026 at 5:18 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Fujibayashi on the the root ideas of Breath of the Wild, 2024.

Source: Retro Gamer Magazine

#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#FujibayashiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/2e741fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 51. Director of Breath of the Wild. QUOTE: Fujibayashi: [Breath of the Wild] didn't come to me right away as a fully formed idea. For a long time, I went from idea to idea before I finally reached what I think are the very roots of Breath of the Wild's gameplay: the idea of cliff climbing and paragliding back down, the keyword “survival", and the idea of “creativity of combination” whereby players make use of things that happen when their actions interact with objects placed on the map—for example, lighting wood with fire to create a bonfire.
January 14, 2026 at 3:25 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
She wore her tastes on her sleeve, quite literally!:
A Japanese woman in her 30s. She's standing up with her hands on her hips, looking upwards and to the side at the camera. She's got a sort of layered side-swoop style to her black hair. She's wearing a t-shirt that looks like a quilted collage of art in the style of children's drawings or surreal children's books.
January 13, 2026 at 1:05 AM