#iwataquote

[hyruleinterviews]

In honor of David Lynch (1946-2025)

In honor of David Lynch (1946-2025), some quotes about how his work on Twin Peaks influenced the Zelda series.

Quote 1:

PEOPLE:

Kensuke Tanabe, age 35. Link’s Awakening Writer.

Takashi Tezuka, age 38. Link’s Awakening Game Director.

Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 30. Link’s Awakening Writer.

QUOTE: "Tanabe: When I started [on Link’s Awakening] I was given a list of requirements by the director, Mr. Tezuka, such as no Triforce, no Princess Zelda, no Hyrule, and a closed field. …

Mr. Tezuka requested a world full of strange characters like in Twin Peaks, which was a popular show back then. I then wrote a script that fit my vision of an egg hatching on a mountaintop ending the world with Koizumi’s ‘Your dream? Or someone else’s dream?’ Koizumi worked on the main thread of the story and I did the odd characters. "

Quote #2:

PEOPLE:

Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Director of Link’s Awakening.

Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Director or Producer of various Zelda games.

Satoru Iwata, age 49. 4th President of NIntendo.

QUOTE: "Tezuka: Oh, right, about Twin Peaks…

Aonuma: Whoa, here we go. [laughs] Iwata-san, do you know about Twin Peaks?

Iwata: No. Bring me up to speed. [laughs]

Tezuka: We were talking about this before you arrived. I was talking about fashioning The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening with a feel that's somewhat like Twin Peaks. At the time, Twin Peaks was rather popular. The drama was all about a small number of characters in a small town.

Iwata: Okay…

Tezuka: So when it came to Link's Awakening, I wanted to make something that, while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep and distinctive characteristics."

Quote #3:

PEOPLE:

Mark Frost, age 70. Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Twin Peaks.

QUOTE: "Q: [Interviewer asks about his meeting with Nintendo developers, who were reportedly inspired by Twin Peaks for Link’s Awakening]

Frost: They were talking to me about a Twin Peaks game, and they mentioned Zelda at the time. They said, ‘One of the things we love about your show [Twin Peaks] is how there’s all sorts of sideways associations that can drive the story forward.’ They asked me about that as they were thinking about expanding the Zelda universe.

… I’d played lots of Dungeons & Dragons when I was young, so I was familiar with the kind of story they were thinking about. I think I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to use dreamlike, Jungian symbolism. Things can connect thematically without having to connect concretely.’ It was things like that that I was urging them [to consider]."

Quote #4:

PEOPLE:

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time.

QUOTE: "Miyamoto: I didn't want to tell a story [in Ocarina of Time] so much as I wanted to have a lot of people appear around the main character and portray their relationships. Some years back, a television show called Twin Peaks was popular. When I saw that, the most interesting thing wasn't the ins and outs of the story, but what kinds of characters appeared.

… I think those suspicious and odd characters alone are interesting. I'm more interested in their presence than who is whose cousin and whose parents were sworn enemies way back when. … What's important is what role that person plays and how they contribute to portraying the main character."

[hyruleinterviews]

Kensuke Tanabe Retirement

Kensuke Tanabe announced that he is retiring in an interview today! He was a script writer who worked on A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, so let's talk a little bit about him and his career. LTTP team (via GlitterBerri):

Tanabe's first role at Nintendo was as a course designer for Yume Kōjō: Dokidoki Panic (1987), the game that was released on the NES as Super Mario Bros. 2.

He was the director for the US version -- an early sign of where his career would go!

He also did some Level Design for Super Mario Bros 3

His NEXT role was as a Script Writer for A Link to the Past.

After that was Link's Awakening. The Windfish's egg and his concept, and though he left the script of the main quest to Yoshiaki Koizumi, he himself wrote most of the odd side characters' dialog.

It SOUNDS like he may have been burnt out and struggling around that time, as he relates here, so his career took a new turn (after some more Kirby and Mario work)

And that… is how he ended up as an uncredited localization producer for Donkey Kong Country

Then came Ocarina of Time. He was credited as a Script Writer, though I have no real clues about what he actually contributed to that particular game.

That was the last, final time he ever touched a Zelda* game

*A main series one, at least…

After that his career as a Producer of external games really kicked in, and he was involved with MANY.

Metroid, Eternal Darkness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Geist, Chibi-Robo, Mario sports games, Mother 3, Red Steel, Dillon's Rolling Western, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Battalion Wars, more

He also worked on some internal games in various roles. WarioWare titles, Luigi's Mansion, the Paper Mario series, probably more I'm missing. Almost all of these roles were "Producer", but he occasionally dipped into "Special Advisor" and backup writer.

Here's where we get back to Zelda-- He often produced the games made by Vanpool. They made the Dillon games, but ALSO... the Tingle games! Yes, he produced Freshly-Picked Tingle' Rosy Rupeeland!

Including, sadly, an even WEIRDER-sounding Tingle game we never got.

That's all I got right now! His brief contributions to Zelda were nevertheless hugely impactful, and his almost 40-year career at Nintendo even moreso. I hope he really gets to enjoy whatever he does next!

[hyruleinterviews]

Miyamoto on Iwata’s flash of inspiration for Pokemon Snap, 2019.

Source: Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/9f39f7f356ad4f6e94b66e136ef6233a

PEOPLE:

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 66. Creator of Zelda, & Mario. Pokémon Snap Producer.

Satoru Iwata, age 59. President of HAL, then Nintendo. Pokémon Snap Producer.

QUOTE: Miyamoto: It was rare for Iwata and me to commit ourselves to the same game, but a notable exception was Pokémon Snap, for the Nintendo 64, where we were both deeply involved.

I was working to make the photo-taking aspect more robust, but Iwata stressed that while a game where you take photos was a decent start, what really mattered was what you could photograph. Then at one point he told me “Miyamoto, I think it’s Pokémon. That’s what the people really want to photograph.”

[hyruleinterviews]

Fujibayashi on holing up to outline Skyward Sword's story, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/dc4631410a4343159f4f2c05bd782211

PEOPLE:

Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 39. Director of Skyward Sword.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: Fujibayashi: [With about two years left on Skyward Sword], we had to think about a number of things all at once … and the cinematic scene staff were beginning to join the team, so we were under pressure to make the hakogaki soon.

Iwata: The hakogaki is a rough synopsis of the essential points of the script.

Fujibayashi: Yes. Time was running out, so I told everyone that I didn't feel well and holed up at home one whole day to write it! [laughs]

Iwata: I can't condone such behavior, but you wanted to concentrate alone.

Fujibayashi: Yes. I locked myself in and from morning to evening did nothing but write the synopsis.

Iwata: Even though you didn't feel well? [laughs]

[hyruleinterviews]

Moriya on needing to watch for tiny inconsistencies in the Ocarina remake, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/3ds/zelda-ocarina-of-time/3/0

PEOPLE:

Shun Moriya. Ocarina of Time 3D Programmer.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: Moriya: Take the scene in which you set a spiderweb on fire [in Ocarina of Time’s Deku Tree]. Lots of people, including me, have Link roll forward or swing his torch to light it, but some people use how the tip of the torch lowers when he is holding the shield. So when I heard that the fire wouldn't light [in the 3DS remake], I thought, “Uh-oh…this isn't gonna be easy.” [laughs]

Iwata: The ways to solve that are stuck in the players' memories, so you have to recreate those, too.

Moriya: When I looked into why the tip of the torch wouldn't light the fire, I realized that Link's arms and legs were longer and his waist higher, since we had designed him a little more to today's styles.

[hyruleinterviews]

Miyamoto on the time he was so close, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e27453848a4adb8e227757bedcc

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time.

QUOTE: Iwata: Still, to think it's been thirteen years already [since the release of Ocarina of Time]…

Miyamoto: I know. My kid was in the upper grades of elementary school… Oh, that's right; one thing I remember very well from that time was when my wife saw our child playing Ocarina of Time. She said, "When I'm just looking at it, I think it's pretty, but I'd never want to try it." I thought, "Something has to be done about this!" [laughs].

I mean, she'd never really cared about games at all before, and here she was, finally showing an interest, and yet… It felt as though a customer had come right up to the entrance, but then she'd turned around and gone back home. …

I thought, "No! I was so close!"

[hyruleinterviews]

Tezuka & Nakago on the happy accident that led to the 2nd Quest in Zelda 1, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/ds/zelda/1/5/

PEOPLE:

Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Co-Director of The Legend of Zelda (1986).

Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Programmer for The Legend of Zelda (1986).

Satoru Iwata, age 49. 4th President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: Tezuka: Basically, we were going to make lots of dungeons using one square per room, and lay them out like a jigsaw puzzle.

Nakago: Right. Tezuka-san said, “I did it!” and brought this to me. I created the data exactly in line with it, but then Tezuka-san made a mistake and only used half of the data. I said, “Tezuka-san, there’s only half here. Where did the other half go?” and he was like, “What?! Oops, I messed up…” But Miyamoto-san said it was fine just like that. So, using the half of the memory that was left over, we decided to create the Second Quest.

Iwata: Huh? Just wait a second. If Tezuka-san hadn’t messed up, there’d have been no Second Quest?

Nakago: Yes, that’s right.

[hyruleinterviews]

Linktober #17: Dragon Takizawa, Iwata, and Morita on a Volvagia animation shortcut, 2011. Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/94f214a3332f4b778f44b4e26a32ac8f