#moritaquote

[hyruleinterviews]

Link's Awakening turns 33 today! ---------------------- Morita on the experiments that led to Link’s Awakening, 2006.

Source: Nintendo Power

https://www.hyruleinterviews.com/Nintendo-Power-200-Living-the-Code-of-Honor-1f232f3eecc945989b1711dc28d23777?source=copy_link

PEOPLE:

Kazuaki Morita, age 40. A Link to the Past Object Programmer, Link’s Awakening Main System Programmer.

QUOTE: Morita: The first Zelda game that featured fishing was Link's Awakening on the Game Boy.

That happened during a short period of downtime after the massive Link to the Past project ended in the early ‘90s. I wanted to learn how to program for the Game Boy, and did a lot of experiments. Once I started, I discovered that Game Boy programming was quite sophisticated, yet very accessible.

Far beyond our original expectations, we did so many wonderful things with our experiments that we decided to re-conceive it all as part of a Zelda game for the Game Boy.

[hyruleinterviews]

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

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

[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]

Linktober #18: Shopkeeper Morita on the inspiration for the Pond Owner in Ocarina, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

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

PEOPLE:

Kazuaki Morita, age 45. AI Engineer for Ocarina of Time.

Eiji Aonuma, age 48. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director.

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

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."

[hyruleinterviews]

Linktober 24: Science/Tech Morita on programming microphone gameplay for the first Zelda, 2006.

Source: Nintendo Power

https://www.notion.so/1f232f3eecc945989b1711dc28d23777

PEOPLE:

Kazuaki Morita, age 40. Programmer on The Legend of Zelda & Super Mario Bros.

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 53. Producer & Co-Director of The Legend of Zelda & Super Mario Bros.

QUOTE: Morita: Right after I finished work on Super Mario Bros. for the NES, I dove right into development of the very first Legend of Zelda game.

Some of Mr. Miyamoto's early direction explored some features of the game using a microphone to do things like beating enemies by making sounds into the mic. Though we ultimately didn't employ mic control in the game, working with the possibility opened my mind.