Posted on: February 12th, 2010 [Bx4VG]: Zelda creators chat about the early days
For the week of February 07-13: Zelda creators chat about the early days
The latest Iwata Asks over at Nintendodsi.com has the president of Nintendo Japan sitting down and chatting with a few original members of the team that created Zelda. They reminisce about developing Link’s Awakening as some ‘after school’ fun project and pour over some original sketches and mock ups drawn when planning The Legend of Zelda.
Nakago: And this is the first land map for Zelda. Back then we had some long paper, and Tezuka-san and Miyamoto-san would sit side by side and draw together.
Tezuka: We did?
Nakago: Yes, you did! (laughs) You drew the stuff on the left, Tezuka-san, and the right side is Miyamoto-san’s. If you look closely, you can tell how marker was used to make small dots. These are rocks, and these are trees. And you can see Miyamoto-san’s personality. At first he’s making individual dots, but as he gets tired of it, toward the top, he just fills in a bunch of space!
Aonuma: Yeah, the left and right sides do look different.
Tezuka: They really are different somehow.
Iwata: And they drew this all in one sitting.
Nakago: Yeah
Aonuma: And it’s marker, so it can’t be erased. Amazing.
Tezuka: No, we had correction fluid, so it was alright if we made a mistake.
Aonuma: You should have stayed silent and just let me praise you! (laughs)
A lot of interesting facts about the series are revealed, such as Zelda’s tentative title ‘Adventure’, how Ganon’s character design and name came to be*, and how the Second Quest was the result of someone’s oversight.
*Nakago: On the third page, labelled “Enemies,” it says “Hakkai.” I think that became Ganon.
(Editor’s note: The Hakkai reference must be from “Chohakkai” (which is the Japanese name, and called “Zhu Balie” in Chinese), a pig-like character that appeared in the 16th century Chinese novel “Xi Yóu Jî” (”Saiyuki” in Japanese). He is typically portrayed with having a pig’s head. This story is popular in Japanese culture.)
I highly recommend you check out the rest of the interview. Very cool to listen in on such an influential group of people while they talk so open and candidly about their mistakes and funny stories with the series. This Iwata Asks series is always a treat and I hope they continue for many more installments.
Until next week.
Dale can also be found over at www.8bitcyclops.com, looking at design, photography and old video game magazines.