The text on this page is taken from pages 28 and 29 of the Zelda Box guidebook, released in Japan in 2002. The sketches are taken from The Wind Waker section of Hyrule Historia, preserved in a gallery of official Wind Waker art maintained by History of Hyrule.
The Developers Discuss Medli & Makar
Takano: The dungeon mechanism existed before Medli’s character ever did. And by that I mean we already had the idea for Link to enter a dungeon carrying another character, and the two cooperating in order to solve its puzzles. One of the things Aonuma requested was for the character to be able to fly. At the same time, though, he didn’t want them to be able to fly too well. [Laughs] The dungeon would be too easy to clear if the character could just fly around unhindered, but, naturally, we figured that some players would be upset if they went to all the trouble of carrying around a character only to find out they couldn’t even fly. After a lot of worry, we finally decided that a half-human Rito character would probably be best. Makar was the same in that regard.
Aonuma: We also had a design for a Rito tribe that would be too fat to fly. I think we were right to go with Medli, though. [Laughs]
Haruhana: The reason Makar looks like a tree clump is that, at first, we had a number of ideas for him, including using him as a floating platform, allowing you to walk on water, and setting him up high somewhere to use as a hookshot target. [Laughs]
Aonuma: We felt way too bad for him, so he ended up scattering seeds and growing trees.
The Developers Discuss Fado & Laruto
An early design for Fado, found in the files of TWW.
Aonuma: We set it up so that the Rito tribe was the evolved form of the Zora tribe that appeared in Ocarina of Time, and the Kokiri tribe left the forest and became the Koroks. Their appearances are different, but they share the same bloodline.
Haruhana: We never intended to make their designs match. As for the Rito tribe and the Zora tribe having a similar feel, their designs were solidified early on, so the designers might have been more or less aware of our decision.
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Makar as a hookshot target. XD
And I definitely think that the final version for the Rito tribe was best.
An interesting look at the development of WW’s characters. What I love about the early Rito design, especially, is how their “robes” appear to be a part of their feathers. Not sure if it would have translated as well in the actual game, but it’s a neat concept, definitely.
I wish the Rito tribe and Koroks appeared in the DS games…