Iwata: Zelda dev an "exercise in suffering"

By Oli Welsh Published 1 February, 2010

How handheld "parody" changed the series.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said that development of Zelda games is traditionally "an exercise in suffering" - but recognised that one game in the series, made in a completely different style and atmosphere, had a major influence on those that followed.

That game is the 1993 Game Boy classic Link's Awakening, the first handheld Zelda, and the main focus of the latest Iwata asks covering the portable entries in the series.

Nintendo general manager Takashi Tezuka - a producer and director of many Mario and Zelda games, alongside Shigeru Miyamoto - revealed that its development began unofficially, as an after-hours experiment, and even after approval it continued in an informal atmosphere.

"I remember that we made Link's Awakening in a really peculiar frame of mind. We began in the free spirit of an afterschool club, so the contents are quite unrestrained. If you look at it, you can tell," he said, noting that they threw in characters who looked like Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Kirby without thinking.

"It was for the Game Boy, so we thought, 'Oh, it'll be fine,'" Tezuka said. "We moved along at quite a good speed in a relatively freewheeling manner. Maybe that's why we had so much fun making it. It was like we were making a parody of Zelda."

"I thought it was a tradition for working on a Zelda title for it to turn into a kind of exercise in suffering," Iwata countered.

"I remember it was fun working on it, and when it was over, I remember us talking to each other about how fun it was," Tezuka said.

Neverthless, the offhand creation of Link's Awakening had a long-lasting impact on the Zelda series, the Nintendo veterans admitted.

Current Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma argued that "It wasn’t until Link's Awakening that the Zelda titles started having a proper plot." This came from an unlikely source - Tezuka's fascination with David Lynch's surreal TV series, Twin Peaks.

Tezuka decided that, like Twin Peaks, the game should focus on a singular location, and feature "suspicious" characters. "After that, in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, all kinds of suspicious characters appeared. I didn’t tell them to do it that way, but personally, I did find it considerably appealing," he said.

"I'm certain it was a breakthrough element in the series," Aonuma said. "If we had proceeded from A Link to the Past straight to Ocarina of Time without Link's Awakening in between, Ocarina would have been different."

The bigwigs also discuss the decision to farm handheld Zeldas out to the "sporty" types at Capcom, how the smooth and "fun" development of latest instalment Spirit Tracks resulted in a great game ("You can really feel the enthusiasm of the developers when you're playing" - Tezuka), how Miyamoto's original design document for Zelda in 1985 contains all the core elements of the series, and how Miyamoto and Tezuka drew the map for the first Zelda game together, in ink on graph paper, in a single sitting. Those were the days.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • frankfurter209 #1 2 years ago

    The headline and the article contents are totally incongruous.
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/10 @ 10:37

  • Ignatius_Cheese #2 2 years ago

    Good article with a typically "tabloid" headline, eh? ;o)

    A really interesting read. Will give the Iwata Asks a look up.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #3 2 years ago

    It's a fair cop.

    That said, the incongruity of Link's Awakening's development is kind of the point. And you just can't pass over a quote like that.

  • asphaltcowboy #4 2 years ago

    Curious article! But interesting! :)

    I'm playing Spirit Tracks at the moment, and I agree, you really can feel the enthusiasm of the devs whilst you're playing. It feels a lot fresher and more fun than Phantom (which, let's be honest, was a bit of a slog).

  • wizlon #5 2 years ago

    Even though Link's Awakening was my first Zelda game, I have to say it's one of my favourites, brilliant story and characters I really cared about.

  • JeroenZM #6 2 years ago

    Zelda always had this peculiar, tongue-in-cheek quality to the characters and surroundings. Remember that guy who lived in a toilet in Majora's Mask who asked you for paper? I guess Link's Awakening contributed a lot to the surrealistic feel of the series.

  • gav_and_the_gavster #7 2 years ago

    Link's Awakening was awesome, a brilliant world crammed in to a little GB cart. I've stopped playing Spirit Tracks after 8 or so hours...this is the first time I have ever stopped playing a Zelda game mid-quest to be forever left uncompleted. I love Zelda games for their sense of adventure and exploration and traversing the world linearly on tracks does not satisfy my inner Link. Go back to the Link's Awakening model please Nintendo, just the right balance of Story, overworld exploring and "dungeoning" :)

  • Ninja_Tino #8 2 years ago

    You gave up on Spirit Tracks? I just don't know what to say...

  • zoweewowee #9 2 years ago

    TO THE FINDER... THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT, IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER,
    SEA, SKY... A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND
    KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE... CASTAWAY, YOU SHOULD
    KNOW THE TRUTH!... ... ... ... What? Illusion!

    lv6, face shrine, epic music, one of the most mythical zelda bit

  • kinky_mong #10 2 years ago

    Link's Awakening was my first Zelda game and it's still one of the best in the series.

    Have to echo what a few people have said about Spirit Tracks, I was disappointed with it. The first three dungeons were great and helped make the linear travel bareable, but after that point the game started to feel like a chore and having to control Zelda and Link at the same time over longer distances becomes really fiddly and irritating.

  • Doctor_What #11 2 years ago

    "It wasn’t until Link's Awakening that the Zelda titles started having a proper plot."

    They have a plot?

  • Luckyjim #12 2 years ago

    It still has the best story - and ending - of any Zelda game. I'd love to see a Wiiware remake with updated graphics.

    And also, great music.
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/10 @ 11:41

  • MORZTAN #13 2 years ago

    @ gav_and_the_gavster

    Spoiler:

    Complete it! The final boss encounter is epic, and is almost on par with that of Ocarina of Time
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/10 @ 12:01

  • KDR_11k #14 2 years ago

    I wish they'd never invented Epona, for some reason Aonuma believes that modes of transportation are mandatory in Zelda now and makes the "overworld" a disjointed set of points of interest held together with a minigame that was designed to waste your time and please his son, not actually be fun. Both of these have been admitted by Aonuma himself, the train is supposed to slow you down because players just rushed from dungeon to dungeon. Maybe he should have looked at WHY players wanted to do that and instead of artificially forcing them to go slow. Maybe having an overworld that's more than a stupid obstacle would have made people actually explore it and care about it. Ocarina of Time started this mess with its huge and boring Hyrule Field that was no fun to cross on foot just so you'd have a use for the horse. Look at the world maps of Zelda 1, Link's Awakening and Link to the Past, they are FULL with interesting things and going through them on foot meant going past many different things instead of walking on a flat plane for minutes.

  • gjgjg #15 2 years ago

    twin peaks really?

  • Stomp224 #16 2 years ago

    I love these interviews. Its a shame we can't get Iwata to ask Molyneux a few probing questions ....

  • Sonic_D #17 2 years ago

    Iwata: So, Peter Molyneux, why are you such a twat?

    Molyneux: Years of making out my games do much more and mean much more than they actually do has spread in to my real life.

    Iwata: Please give me an example.

    Molyneux: Well I accidentally pissed off my missus the other day by talking utter bollocks at the dinner table. So in order to cheer her up again I danced like a loon in front of her several hundred times.

    Iwata: Did it work?

    Molyneux: Yes, she left me. Bringing consequences and morality to life in a real environment has always been a dream of mine. Anyway I have to go now and use my being a paedo simulator, he's called Milo and it uses Natal you know.

    Iwata: Natal, what's that? Is it as good as the iPad?

    Molyneux: No, you'll still look a bigger prick using an iPad than using Natal.
    Edited by 2 at 01/02/10 @ 14:32

  • mcmonkeyplc #18 2 years ago

    Zelda hurts my soul.

  • menage #19 2 years ago

    I hated Phantom, I hated that fucking terrible main dungeon so much.

  • MORZTAN #20 2 years ago

    @ menage

    You can't hate a Zelda game :)

    There is a law somewhere saying that.

  • tnt_2008smum #21 2 years ago

    "You can't hate a Zelda game :)

    There is a law somewhere saying that."

    Its true its called smelly's law and it covers all things Nintendo!

  • FenderMaster #22 2 years ago

    Just because the Zelda team is having fun, doesn't automatically mean the Zelda game is going to be a great one...

    imo, Spirit Tracks is the worst canon Zelda title so far... by eliminating exploration from the game, it may have been easier to make, but it was definitely an inferior Zelda title...

  • Pasco #23 2 years ago

    Ocarina of time sucked salty chocolate balls.

  • KillerMonkey #24 2 years ago

    @Pasco
    That's a good thing, right?

  • Bremenacht #25 2 years ago

    I find these things wonderful - almost as shambolic and silly as an EG podcast. I don't want to fire up any fanboys here, but I just cannot see the heads of Microsoft or Sony broadcasting unscripted stuff like this. The beginning is particularly silly:

    (Iwata is late, and no-one knows what to talk about)
    Aonuma: About making the characters for Link’s Awakening, you said you wanted to create a world that was inspired by Twin Peaks2.
    Tezuka: Oh, that’s right!
    Nakago: You said that?
    Tezuka: Yeah. I’m glad I said that then, because I always forget such things.
    Everyone: (laughs)
    Aonuma: I remember you saying that, but I didn’t really know what you meant. I’d like to hear about it today.
    Tezuka: Oh, okay.
    Aonuma: You wanted it to be like Twin Peaks, but characters that looked like Mario and Luigi were appearing.
    Tezuka: Yeah. And Kirby.
    Aonuma: Did you get permission from HAL Laboratory?
    Tezuka: I don’t know…
    Aonuma: You don’t remember?
    Tezuka: No, not really. I think they approved it, but…
    Aonuma: Is that alright?
    Tezuka: Umm, just what did we do? (The door opens.)
    Iwata: Sorry you had to wait.
    Everyone: Come on in.
    Aonuma: We’ve already started! (laughs)
    Iwata: What were you talking about?

    Well, Mr Iwata, they were telling us how Zelda:LA was influenced by televised LSD trip, and that they indulged in a spot of IP theft to help make it. Carry on! (laughs)

  • Vyse #26 2 years ago

    I agree. The Iwata Asks articles are wonderfully bonkers and are becoming more and more so. Bearing in mind Iwata's earlier career, I was also amused by the slight hint of worry that kept surfacing regarding whether they had permission to use Kirby or not.