The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time news, direct from the production area! The Zelda team chosen by Shigeru Miyamoto created Zelda 64 with surprising stubbornness! One part of that stubbornness was to do a stubborn interview. We’ll pass on a small part of that interview from the top of Hobonichi’s nearby tree.
(1-17) The Burning Thoughts of the Staff (Part 1)
Tooru Osawa (Script Director): The development team for this Zelda is, so far, the largest of all the games we’ve developed. We have more than 100 people doing debug work for us, then when you include all the people that have helped us out, the number grows by about 200. Each one has their own vision for Zelda. You have 200 people and each of those 200 are thinking “I want to make Zelda like this”. You have to ask yourself just how much of that can be absorbed into the game.
As it were, you can call it neglectful, but we have to be prepared for the time when we have to absorb everyone’s thoughts as much as possible. With all the absurdities that sometimes arise, how much will we be able to put in?
I have my own image of Link, too. Of course I want to MY Link. My Link is a cool Link. Right off the bat, I wanted to make him cool. But in this Zelda, in order to make Link cool, it was necessary to bend the story, and at the same time I was thinking about how I wanted to stay consistent.
Makoto Miyanaga (Field Design): Each of the staff members put their own ideas into the game. We’re not just making the game to match the theme given to us at the beginning, everyone is making things from their own standpoint, and they hold intensely to their ideas. They were disconnected. Really, really disconnected.
When we had to cut something no matter what, we often heard “Please, whatever you do, don’t take that out!” We kept as much as we could, though. The game came about regardless of those sacrifices.
Toshio Iwawaki (Program Director): This Zelda is, first and foremost, really cool. Playing Mario 64 left a deep impression on me. “What an awesome game. So this is what 3D can do.” That’s what I was thinking. I wanted to make something that would surpass the incredible Mario 64. Of course, the excitement for Mario was something I could only experience at the time I was playing it, so I’m not sure if we really were able to surpass that or not.
It has intensity. Looking at it from the viewpoint of us programmers, it’s the same for every game, but you don’t get any entertainment out of just looking at the graphics. A program goes beyond images. “How did they make this, I wonder?” That’s all we end up thinking about, though it’s a little different from the way the players think. But even from a programmer’s point of view, I genuinely think we did well. I haven’t played through all of it, though, so I don’t know what I’ll think about the whole thing yet.
“(1-17) The Burning Thoughts of the Staff (Part 1)” has ended. The interview continues from here, so please check back for updates!
1998-12-22-TUE