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Hyrule Interviews
@hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
3K followers 58 following 980 posts
A database of interviews with the Zelda team. Our goal is to preserve that legacy, share it here, and build a safe community for our followers!

By @maxnichols.bsky.social

www.hyruleinterviews.com
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hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Ricciardi's EGM review of Ocarina of Time, 1998.

Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#RicciardiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/2d441fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - John Ricciardi. EGM Reviews Editor. 27 years later: English Voice Recording Supervisor for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. QUOTE: Ricciardi: [They’ve] managed to take everything that was great about the 2D Zelda games—the exploration, the puzzles, the dungeons, the loads of hidden secrets, etc.—and translate it all into 3D flawlessly. [Ocarina's] beautifully detailed world is so vast and immersive that you'll find yourself constantly losing track of the real world. The controls are excellent, too. The auto-jump feature helps add to the immersiveness, … and Z-Targeting makes combat a snap. … It'll take an average gamer about 40 hours to beat, and trust me—there'll always be something to do, even after you've finished the game. … Oh, one last thing: this game has the coolest final battle/ending sequence of any game ever.
December 25, 2025 at 7:03 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Takizawa on choosing an art style to allow suspension of disbelief, 2017.

Source: Creating a Champion

#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#TakizawaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/13c41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Art Director of Breath of the Wild. QUOTE: Takizawa: We wanted to create a world [for Breath of the Wild] that could accommodate the fantastical elements of Hyrule without sacrificing a more realistic art style, and we went about that by crafting a hybrid of the two that would allow the players to suspend their disbelief when certain things happen. That allowed us to include a broad range of ideas from the designers and enabled us to have some crazy stuff happen. For example, the player is able to toss a bunch of ingredients into a pot and have a dessert pop out. We found that injecting humor into the visual shorthand helps players forgive the break from reality.
December 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on Mario 64 losing to Tamagotchi, 1999.

Source: Game Developers Conference (GDC)

#TamagotchiQuote, #SuperMario64Quote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/361de4272595...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 46. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer & Director of Super Mario 64. QUOTE: Miyamoto: When we were stuck on talk of the spectacular 3D graphics of Mario 64 and racing games, we a saw huge hit in the form of Tamagotchi—a tiny key chain boasting pictures made up of no more than 10 or 20 dots. At that time, I thought that Mario 64 had lost to Tamagotchi. I'm serious!
December 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on the first-person perspective, 2008.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/b5e9f8738b76...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 55. Creator of Zelda & Mario, General Manager of Nintendo EAD. - Satoru Iwata, age 48. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: I’ve always been into first person shooter-style games, 3D games in which you can walk around freely and see things from your own point of view.  Iwata: And why do you like those games? Miyamoto: I think it is more comfortable, more natural. We are creatures of habit. We don’t look at our feet when we’re walking around, and we’re always trying desperately to take in the scenery while we’re living our lives. So, even in these games I want people to be able to get really into the 3D geography, so it feels like you’re really there, since I think it’s a really natural thing to be able to look around while you’re walking.
December 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Hayashida on an early pitch for some courses in Super Mario World 3D, 2014.

Source: Nintendo Life

#CaptainToadTreasureTrackerQuote, #SuperMario3DWorldQuote
#HayashidaQuote, #HiratakeQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/2cb41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Koichi Hayashida, age 45. Director of Super Mario 3D World, Producer of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. - Shinya Hiratake. Level Designer for Super Mario 3D World, Director of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 62. Creator of Zelda. General Producer of Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. QUOTE: Q: [Captain Toad began life as a Zelda project?] Hayashida: It seems like the truth has gotten a little twisted here [laughs]. When we started work on Super Mario 3D World, we created a number of tests, one of which was a stage where you look in from the outside; a little diorama stage using Mario. The thing we noticed was that if Mario could jump, the stages become pretty big so we wondered whether it would be possible to make a game with a character who can’t jump. Hiratake submitted an idea to Mr. Miyamoto … to use Link as the character. Unfortunately, this idea was stopped right at the planning stage.
December 21, 2025 at 10:21 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on the Zelda development with the most freedom, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e274538...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: We had the most freedom with Ocarina of Time in that respect. Iwata: Because it was the first 3D Zelda game. Miyamoto: That's right. It was the most primitive, and the freest. That's all there is to it. It isn't that subsequent games lost that freedom, only that the games which were put out later simply had more things which needed to have attention paid to them. Of course, even Ocarina had traditional elements dating up to A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo, so it wasn't completely free. It's just that it was the first 3D Zelda game, and we were able to explore what would be most interesting about making it in 3D without worrying about much else.
December 19, 2025 at 10:40 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on Steel Battalion, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#SteelBattalionQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e274538...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: Do you remember that game called Steel Battalion? It came with a special controller, and it really felt as if you were controlling a giant robot. Iwata: Yup. Miyamoto: I felt so mortified when that was released. I wanted to make some kind of simulator where you would control something huge, but they beat me to it.
December 19, 2025 at 12:32 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on simulator interfaces, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#SteelDiverQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e274538...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. General Producer of Steel Diver. Creator of Zelda & Mario. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: If the control for the [Steel Diver] submarine was going to be for an action game, I could make it [on a controller]. But if it were to be controlled like a flight-simulation game, you'd have lots of dials to look at and adjust while trying to move it. … This might be a minute detail, but when you move something large, you need a "throttle" in the cockpit. You can't substitute that with just buttons. When you use the throttle and move it up or down to a certain position… Iwata: It stays in the spot to which you moved it. Miyamoto: Right. … Throttles have to be something that, if you forget to pull back, you'll go, "Argh! I forgot about the throttle!"
December 18, 2025 at 4:48 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on cinematic camera work in Ocarina of Time, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/d4112e274538...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time. QUOTE: Iwata: Ocarina of Time was the first video game in which looking down from a high place made me feel a bit weak in the knees. Miyamoto: … At the time, the phrase "cinematic game" was used mostly in regard to graphics, but to me, that wasn't what cinematic really meant. I thought what we should really be learning was how to use camera techniques to explain situations. … When you want to make it clear that a place is so high it makes your legs go weak, you change the camera angle slightly depending on how high the character has climbed, and when he reaches the top, you slide the camera up farther and make players look down. … I think it was in Ocarina of Time that we first saw clearly that we could use cinematic camera work as a production technique.
December 17, 2025 at 5:19 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Shikata & Mouri on a failed Zelda pitch, 2013.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#ALinkBetweenWorldsQuote
#ShikataQuote, #MouriQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/21da00adcfff...
PEOPLE: - Hiromasa Shikata. A Link Between Worlds Game Director. - Shiro Mouri. A Link Between Worlds Assistant Game Director. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 61. A Link Between Worlds General Producer, General Manager of Nintendo EAD. QUOTE: Shikata: No, A Link to the Past wasn't on our minds at all [for early A Link Between Worlds pitches]. We didn't even have the idea of Link entering walls. We were thinking about a Zelda game with the theme of communication. … Mouri: As soon as we started the presentation, I could clearly see Miyamoto-san's facial expression rapidly darkening. I thought, “This is bad...” And then at the end he said, “This sounds like an idea that's 20 years old.” That was the killing blow. We were down on the floor.
December 16, 2025 at 12:09 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Iwata, Itoi, & Miyamoto on why Miyamoto has always looked at the big picture, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#IwataQuote, #ItoiQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/8f65dbbe83ce...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. - Shigesato Itoi, age 62. Creator of Earthbound. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda & Mario. QUOTE: Iwata: Basically Miyamoto-san has always looked at things from an executive's perspective. Itoi: That's true. But why? What's up with that? Miyamoto: Uh... Itoi: Maybe you've always had this really intense sense of ownership; that idea that you were the one doing the work, so it was only natural to feel responsible for it. Miyamoto: Uh... well, I think it comes from the fact that I wanted to be a cartoonist, way back when. Itoi: A cartoonist? Miyamoto: Yes. For an aspiring cartoonist, it's all about how much response you get for the cartoons you've drawn, right? Itoi: Oh, so you mean that your work is directly related to how many people support it. Making video games is the same way.
December 14, 2025 at 10:11 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on the Super Mario Bros. underground theme being "a masterpeice", 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #KondoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Creator of Zelda. Producer and Director of Super Mario Bros.. - Koji Kondo, age 64. Composer for early Zelda titles and for Super Mario Bros.. QUOTE: Miyamoto: I think that the expression of the underground theme [in Super Mario Bros.] is a masterpiece! [Laughs] I was thinking, “So you're gonna bring in a bass slap here, huh?” I was surprised how it turned into a proper song even though it was made with sound effects. I was cognizant of how it would feel cold if you went underground, so I thought it would be better to use black for the background, and when I heard those sounds, the feeling of cold was amplified, and it was like, “Whoa! It works!” [Laughs] Kondo: … I wanted to give the underground BGM a quiet feeling, so I included slap-bass phrases that were popular at the time.
December 13, 2025 at 8:52 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Kondo on loving arcade games before he was hired by Nintendo, 2007.

Source: Wired

#KondoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/fb9d09af59d4...
PEOPLE: - Koji Kondo, age 45. Original composer for the Mario & Zelda series. QUOTE: Kondo: You're supposed to apply to many different companies, but I saw the Nintendo ad, and had a love of making synthesizers, and loved games, and thought—that's the place for me. I interviewed with one company, Nintendo, and that's where I've been ever since. Q: What games did you play in college? Kondo: I played arcade games—Space Invaders, Donkey Kong 3, the Donkey Kong series in general… there was a coffee shop I went to quite often that had the tabletop style arcade games, so I played on those a lot.
December 12, 2025 at 10:31 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on it being better to be able to see the ending, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#NewSuperMarioBrosWiiQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Creator of Zelda and Mario. General Producer of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Iwata: Could you explain what the Super Guide [in New Super Mario Bros. Wii] is? Miyamoto: To help you progress through the level, Luigi shows you the correct path. Iwata: … But there [will be] people who even when they watch the Super Guide will feel like crying, thinking: "But I can't do that!” Miyamoto: That's why [it] won't only show you the correct strategy, it will also allow you to provisionally clear the course. It will present you with the option to skip the course and move on to the next one. Iwata: So in other words, by using the Super Guide, you could get right through to the end. Miyamoto: Well, since you've purchased it, it's surely better to be able to see the ending.
December 11, 2025 at 11:58 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Ishii on inventing Final Fantasy's side-view battles, 1991.

Source: Shmuplations

#FinalFantasyQuote
#IshiiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/4e89e1cc9bf9...
PEOPLE: - Koichi Ishii, age 27. Artist on Final Fantasy. Later: Producer for Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D. QUOTE: Ishii: The battle scenes in Final Fantasy were my idea. The main thing I really wanted to do with that game was focus on creating satisfying visuals. I thought it was odd that, for whatever reason, all the turn-based RPGs up to that point, including Dragon Quest and PC RPGs—they all seemed not to care much about the visual aspect. … I thought that actually seeing your characters there on-screen would create a stronger emotional bond for the player.
December 11, 2025 at 4:31 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Iwata on HAL employees’ lost faith in corporate (Hobonichi, 2019)

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

#IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/75446f6b0f75...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 59. President of HAL from 1993-2000, President of Nintendo from 2002-2015. QUOTE: Iwata: After we found ourselves in dire straits, and I took over as president [of HAL] and tried to make things right, the staff gave me the benefit of the doubt, since I had won their trust as the most well-rounded member of the development team. On the flip side, everyone had basically lost faith in the company. Let’s put it this way: if your company is on the brink of bankruptcy, all you can see as one of it’s employees is a heap of problems. After all, it’s only natural to look at things and say “Is this what happens when we take orders from corporate?”
December 8, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
maxnichols.bsky.social
Age of Imprisonment credits analysis:

Finally finished data entry-ing the AoI credits into @hyruleinterviews.bsky.social, so I can share some details!

1. Hyrule Warriors (2014) had 229 credits
2. HW: Age of Calamity (2020) had 702
3. HW: Age of Imprisonment has 843
December 8, 2025 at 5:48 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on targeting broad audiences with the Zelda series, 2013.

Source: IGN

#Zelda
#TheLegendofZeldaSeriesQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/e345b222102c...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 50. Producer in charge of the Zelda series. QUOTE: Aonuma: There’s been a tendency lately to see games as more focused in on a specific audience or a specific age. We’re seeing that range of interest in a game become narrower as we feel like we’re forced to make a game that appeals to a certain group. If we don’t make it appeal to a teenager, then it’s not a game that they’re going to mark off on their calendar. What I want to do going forward is to find that balance, where the game appeals to a wide audience, but is still true to what we’re trying to create. … It’s trying to find that direction and the vehicle through which we can accomplish that goal that’s the challenge we face every day in development.
December 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on how he isn't denying the importance of story, 2017.

Source: Time Magazine

#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/02e5a62ee904...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 64. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Producer for Breath of the Wild. QUOTE: Miyamoto: It’s not that I don’t like story, that I’m denying the importance of story. I think after someone has played a game, it’s important that a story lingers in their mind. But what I do think is a challenge, is to cut down on playtime to set up and explain a story that’s already been set. I think what’s important, especially for the Zelda series, is for the person to be able to think it through for themselves, and to really live the story. I think that’s [what] we’ve been working on through the many iterations of Zelda. And so in [Breath of the Wild], while you’re playing, you start to kind of dig the narrative out and see the overarching story that lies in the background.
December 4, 2025 at 11:48 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on sports preferences and what he doesn't like in sports, 1998.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/1a541fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 45. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department. QUOTE: Q: A representative told me that you belong to the ski club within Nintendo. Miyamoto: I used to be in the mountaineering club when I was a student, so I definitely enjoy mountain sports a fair bit. Although I don’t have many brilliant accomplishments when it comes to competitions. … Q: Are there any other sports you enjoy? Miyamoto: No specific sport comes to mind, however I recently started swimming. It feels really great to be physically active. However, I definitely have no interest in golf or tennis. You see, in those sports the equipment helps determine the outcome and if you don’t practice, you don’t play. In short I don’t like the wealth aspect to those games.
December 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on why Link had a crossbow in Link's Crossbow Training, 2008.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#LinksCrossbowTrainingQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/b5e9f8738b76...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 55. Producer of Link’s Crossbow Training. - Satoru Iwata, age 48. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: We argued that it would’ve been kind of strange for us to give Link a gun [for Link’s Crossbow Training], so I proposed a sort of Terminator style story about a time warp from the future, but… Iwata: Terminator!? Miyamoto: Yeah, [the team] vetoed that idea immediately [laughs]. … So we finally decided to give Link a crossbow, but the problem then became what to do about rapid-fire capabilities. Shooting a gun in machine gun style rapid-fire is really satisfying, but having a crossbow that was able to shoot rapid-fire seemed a little unrealistic. But in the end we kind of decided, well, it’s really just for fun, so whatever, and we gave it rapid-fire capabilities. [laughs]
November 30, 2025 at 6:19 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Tezuka on using leftover memory for Super Mario Bros., 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros.. - Takashi Tezuka, age 64. Co-creator of Zelda. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros.. QUOTE: Miyamoto: At the end of making a game, we have a debug process, and we left 10 bytes of memory for that [for Super Mario Bros.] Once we confirmed there were no bugs, we wondered what we could do to maximize what little we had left. Fun things, like, "Well, we can put in five more coins, so where should they go?” Tezuka: We couldn't just freely decide where to put pipes on each screen, and each course is made of multiple screens. Distinguishing between pipes you can enter and pipes you can’t uses memory, so we made if so that pipes placed in specific locations can always be entered. So we crafted the courses well, so players couldn't tell we had these restrictions.
November 29, 2025 at 8:27 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto, Itoi, & Iwata on how “passable” is unacceptable feedback, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote, #ItoiQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/8f65dbbe83ce...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Mario & Zelda. General manager of Nintendo EAD. - Shigesato Itoi, age 62. Creator of Earthbound. Editor of Ishinomori’s A Link to the Past manga. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: So sometimes when we're presenting what we've made, we end up saying, "I guess it's okay, right?" And I think that's really unacceptable. … You'll ask the director, "How it's look?" And he'll answer, "It's passable." How could you call something passable? … When someone asks, "How is it?" I think that it takes more courage to answer, "It's pretty good." Itoi: Hmm, that's true. Because "pretty good" means "good.” Miyamoto: Compared to that, "passable" doesn't really tell you anything. Is it 10 percent out of 100? 80 percent? 60 percent? It doesn't even tell you that. "Passable" takes away everyone's responsibility. Iwata: It's unsettling, because at that point the discussion is taking places without any set values.
November 29, 2025 at 1:46 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on being thankful for fans that look for deeper meanings, 2013.

Source: Zelda Dungeon

#Zelda
#TheLegendofZeldaSeriesQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/14aac30108d4...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 50. Franchise Producer of the Zelda series. QUOTE: Aonuma: From the perspective of others, we may be obsessed with details, but in reality we aren’t really like that. … That’s why the psychology of our fans can be funny at times. They look for deeper meanings in things. “How does it fit into the timeline?” and so on. But we want some flexibility outside of that setting. But since this is a series, we tied ourselves to certain things. I’m thankful for having fans that will go that far. I even want to make games for the people who say “This wasn’t the Zelda I was expecting.”
November 28, 2025 at 2:28 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Nakago on the first time he met Miyamoto, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote, #ExcitebikeQuote
#NakagoQuote, #IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/01d01475fc47...
PEOPLE: - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Main Programmer on Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Excitebike, Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros. & The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Iwata: So your job was to port arcade games like Donkey Kong over to the Famicom? Nakago: That's right. Then around the time that job was coming to an end, someone I didn't know came up behind me and said: “You're Nakago-san, right?” And that turned out to be Miyamoto-san. Iwata: So even though you'd ported Donkey Kong across to the NES, you didn't know Miyamoto-san? [laughs] Nakago: I honestly didn't know anything about him! [laughs] At that time, I didn't even know that anyone by name of Miyamoto was working for the company. Then he came up to me and said: “We're going to be working on Excitebike together.”
November 27, 2025 at 6:20 AM