Did you know that Miyamoto has nightmares about Zelda? That Tarin was supposed to pop out of a treasure chest? That Totakeke has secrets he won’t tell us? That Bucket Mouse was a mistranslation? The official Japanese Link’s Awakening guide contains a developer questionnaire in which the team members discuss their role in creating the game, their dreams, and their thoughts on the Game Boy title. Scans kindly provided by Lavacopter.
Click image to enlarge!
Translator’s Note: The contextless “Bucketmouth” was incorrectly romanized as “Bucket Mouse” in the English translation of Link’s Awakening. The line “Yeees! It’s Bucket Mouse!” should be “Yeees! You’ve reached Bucketmouth!” The actual shop in the Neyagawa district of Osaka, Japan allegedly closed its doors in October, 2010.
Translator’s Note: Ulrira’s Japanese name is Ururira. Kazumi Totaka is the man behind Totakeke’s song, a music theme hidden in this game and many others. Could that be the secret he’s hinting at?
More Great Zelda Content!
Ocarina of Time Developer Interviews
The Zelda Game You Never Got to See
The Official Prologue to A Link to the Past (With Nintendo Voice Actors!)
Kozue Ishikawa is a woman! I had absolutely no idea! She’s composed some of my favourite music for Nintendo games over the years; I wish I knew what she was up to now. From what I gather, she’s the one who composed the overworld tune in Link’s Awakening; and I love what she did for the Wario Land games.
There seem to be quite a few women involved with composing game music, I also have a number of favorite female composers. =) I’m quite a fan of the LA overworld theme, did it state elsewhere what tracks she composed?
Frustratingly, I haven’t been able to find any record of any other tracks she did for the game. It’s been really difficult finding any information on Ishikawa at all; your scan is genuinely the first image I’ve ever even seen of her–thank you so much for putting it up! I know that she did both soundtracks for Wario Land 2 and 3, but her music is styled so distinctively for both titles that it’s hard to say what she did on Link’s Awakening, which seems to enjoy a very different feel.
Your scan lists Totaka as responsible for the sound program, and Hamano as responsible for BGM work. I think it’s interesting that Ishikawa is credited for BGM composition more specifically; I wonder if this perhaps indicates that she did most of the music in the game.
Kuzuhara’s the guy with the glasses running the crane game, isn’t he? Tokaka looks EXACTLY like the kind of guy that would write Totaka’s Song and stick it in everything, and do the voice of Yoshi. WE KNOW YOUR SECRETS NOW, TOTAKEKE.
I like Miyamoto’s: “(big grin) lol I didn’t do anything on this one, just keeping up appearances, gj”
Also Kyoko Kimura was cute SHUT UP I AM NOT CRUSHING ON A VIDEO GAME ART PROGRAMMER WHO WAS MY AGE 13 YEARS AGO
Anyway, this site is awesome, and it’s great to see some behind-the-scenes factoids about one of my favorite-ever video games — it seems like you’re putting a lot of work into these translations. Glitter berry is from Daria, amirite?
Wow, Christina, you’re far more knowledgeable about video games than I expected! =)
Yeah, I think you’re right about him being the guy running the crane game. I wonder if that was a deliberate self-insert, or whether someone decided that he looked like the character after the fact. That definitely happened in OoT, at least.
http://www.glitterberri.com/ocarina-of-time/1101-interviews/characters
I’m sure Kyoko’s still cute! The Japanese age well. ^^
I’m glad you enjoy the site, and I didn’t start using the name intending to reference Daria. That’s not a show I ever liked, actually. Anyway, thanks for reading!
Shigeru Miyamoto says he dreamt of a huge bug in Zelda that prevented your progress through the game?
coughskywardswordcough
who who who is tarin and marin in ocarina of time???? tell me tell tell me tell me plzzzzzzz i am so curious come on say say say say. OMG RUMOURS ARE SO CURIOUS that i am itching with curiousity i think this developer intended to write such teasing rumours but i know they are true but i want to know who they areeee
They’re Malon and Talon. 🙂
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Malon
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Talon
who who who is tarin and marin in ocarina of time???? tell me tell tell me tell me plzzzzzzz i am so curious come on say say say say. OMG RUMOURS ARE SO CURIOUS that i am itching with curiousity i think this developer intended to write such teasing rumours but i know they are true but i want to know who they areeee
They’re Malon and Talon. 🙂
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Malon
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Talon