#imamuraquote

[hyruleinterviews]

Imamura on his sadness over the 3DS and Wii U shop closures, 2023.

Source: Social Media

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/Takaya-Imamura-on-his-sadness-over-the-3DS-and-Wii-U-shop-closures-1de83f6e96ae44069c6da82ecc9afd00

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 56. Majora’s Mask Art Director, Director or Supervisor for 3DS and Wii U downloadable games like Star Fox Guard, Steel Diver: Sub Wars, and Tank Troopers.

QUOTE: Nintendo Tweet: Nintendo 3DS and Wii U “Nintendo eShop” product sales will end at 9:00 am on March 28, 2023 next week.

Imamura Reply: Some of the games I worked on might never be available again… That's a sad thought…

[hyruleinterviews]

Quotes on the real-life counterparts of some quirky characters

Via GlitterBerri's Game Translations (1998), Iwata Asks (2011), and Nintendo Life (2025)

Quote 1:

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask. Designer of tingle, the titular Majora’s Mask, and the Moon.

QUOTE: "Q: So I know you’re very famous for creating Tingle - was there anything specific that really inspired you to make him?

Imamura: The background and the lore of the character was decided beforehand and I was only responsible for the visuals. Basically, I found a guy on the team and drew a caricature and there was Tingle!"

Quote 2:

PEOPLE:

Kazuaki Morita, age 45. Programmer on Ocarina of Time.

Yoshiki Haruhana, age 41. Ocarina of Time Character Artist.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Morita: I also worked on the fishing minigame [for Ocarina].

Aonuma: You didn't just do the programming, but you also wrote the script for the Pond Owner. …

Haruhana: … Morita-san made lots of requests regarding that character's face and movements. He requested specific movements … and even drew a rough sketch of how his face should look.

Iwata: Did you make so many requests because that character was modeled after someone real?

Morita: Yes, that's right! [laughs] I like fishing and I'm from an area near Neyagawa in Osaka, and there's a fishing store I used to go to in that neighborhood. My model was the shopkeeper there."

Quote 3:

PEOPLE:

Yoshiki Haruhana, age 28. Ocarina of Time Character Designer.

Mitsuhiro Takano, age 31. Ocarina of Time Project Coordinator.

QUOTE: "Haruhana: There are more than 60 characters in Ocarina of Time! One character takes about 2-3 days to make, so our schedule is always uncertain. We just have to go from one to the next.

Fellow staff-member Takano once told me, ‘All the people you make turn out to be freaks.’ I never intend to do that! My response is always ‘Oh, is that so?’ [laughs] For example, Dampe the gravekeeper is a hunchback, right?

In Kakariko Village, there’s a guy sitting by himself on top of a house. It was also never my intention to make a character similar to myself, but afterwards 5 people said to me ‘Hey, that’s you!’"

[hyruleinterviews]

Imamura recalling “the game of his life” in retirement interview, 2021.

Source: IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-man-who-invented-majoras-mask-reflects-on-30-years-at-nintendo

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 55. Art Director of Star Fox 64 and, later, Majora’s Mask.

Kazuaki Morita, age 55. Programmer on A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time, & Star Fox 64.

QUOTE: Imamura: Star Fox 64 is the game of my life. It was a bit like a reboot, but by using a lot of ideas we couldn’t implement in the original, we managed to enrich the game’s scale. From planning to writing the plot, coming up with the gameplay mechanics and graphics, I really worked hard on this game. I also instructed composers on what kind of music I wanted for it.

It started out as an experiment with Kazuaki Morita. … As we continued to work on the prototype, more and more people joined and it started to become serious. From modelling the characters, mechs and enemies to working on effects and backgrounds, I really worked on a lot of things.

[hyruleinterviews]

Imamura on Captain Falcon's surprising origins, 2017.

Source: Nintendo Website

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/SNES-Classic-Edition-Dev-Interview-F-Zero-012a2c6ccb354aa09487837ae2865f91?source=copy_link

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 51. Art Director of Majora’s Mask, artist for A Link to the Past and F-Zero.

Takao Shimizu, age 52. Director of BS The Legend of Zelda and F-Zero.

QUOTE: Q You didn't think about [F-Zero] characters at all during development?

Imamura: No. Captain Falcon was originally the mascot character for Super NES.

Q: What?!

Shimizu: That statement is a bit shocking, isn't it? [laughs]

Imamura: Even most people at Nintendo don't know that. When development of F-ZERO was almost complete, I was doing a bunch of illustrations and someone expressed a desire to make a mascot character for Super NES, with a name like Captain Something. … So I started thinking about a character who would match the colors of the Super Famicom controller, with some red and blue and yellow.

Q: How did [he] become Captain Falcon of F-Zero?

Imamura: I don't really remember.

[hyruleinterviews]

Imamura on why he left Nintendo, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/19b41fe961fd80eaa5bac420aeb4ddcc

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 58. Object artist for A Link to the Past, Art Director of Majora’s Mask.

QUOTE: Q: Do you remember what it was that made you want to leave Nintendo? You’d been there for many years, but it’s a dream for many to work there.

Imamura: It’s actually pretty simple. I quit when I was 55. This is the same for anybody, but life is short. We’ve only got a number of years on this earth and there’s a limit to the amount of things you can do with that time.

I was kind of mulling over that and at the same time I got an invitation from the university to come and teach and I thought, “Whoa, this is an opportunity to change things.”

[hyruleinterviews]

Linktober 28: Mask Imamura on his task as Majora's Mask art director, 2021.

Source: IGN

https://www.notion.so/52576cb68c30453285f2592a92ea8d94

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 55. Majora’s Mask Art Director. Designer of Majora’s Mask, the Moon, and Tingle.

QUOTE: Imamura: We had to develop Majora’s Mask in just one year, so it was a very short development window.

When I saw a prototype of the game, I thought it looked too similar to Ocarina of Time, so it became my task to change the look of the game over a short period.

[hyruleinterviews]

Imamura on keeping up with his old colleagues, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

https://www.notion.so/19b41fe961fd80eaa5bac420aeb4ddcc

PEOPLE:

Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask, Artist in A Link to the Past. Designed the casts of Star Fox and F-Zero.

Aya Kyogoku, age 43. Writer for Twilight Princess and Four Sword Adventures. Director or Producer of most Animal Crossing titles.

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Producer or General Producer of all the games mentioned here.

QUOTE: "Imamura: For the first six months or so after leaving Nintendo, I kept dreaming I was still going to work. I’d start developing a game and then I’d wake up and go, ‘Oh, oh. Okay that’s weird.’

I actually met with Shigeru Miyamoto once after I left and I said, ‘Hey, long time no see!’ But I actually didn’t feel like that was true since I was seeing him in my dreams all the time. He got a good laugh out of that.

Q: You were at Nintendo for such a long time, so were you pretty close with a lot of your colleagues?

Yeah, I still keep in contact with all of them. For example, the director of Animal Crossing, Aya Kyogoku, is coming out to see me teach in the classroom in October."