Iwata Asks is a series of interviews conducted by former Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata with key creators behind the making of Nintendo games and hardware.



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Nintendo DS




Volume 2 : The History of Handheld The Legend of Zelda Games

Bonus Stage 1: Ancient Documents from 1985

Nakago

This is a bit of a digression, but...

Iwata

By all means. (laughs)

Nakago

(flipping through the file in front of him) After we talked about New Super Mario Bros. Wii for "Iwata Asks," I decided to see whether what we said was accurate or not.

Iwata

Oh, you dug up some old documents.

Nakago

These are the first specifications for The Legend of Zelda.

Iwata

Oh, wow! It's got Miyamoto-san's personal seal on it!

Nakago

It says "adventure." Over the course of these few pages it doesn't just talk about the overall structure of The Legend of Zelda, but also items and enemies.

Iwata

Was The Legend of Zelda called Adventure at first?

Tezuka

I think "Adventure Mario" was written on the file binding these specifications.

Iwata

It's for The Legend of Zelda, but it says "Adventure Mario"?

Nakago

It always said "adventure." Whether it was "Mario" or "Zelda." On the second page, for items, it mentions compasses, bows and arrows, boomerangs, and gold and silver.

Aonuma

Cool...

Nakago

On the third page, labeled "Enemies," it says "Hakkai." I think that became Ganon.

(Editor's note: The Hakkai reference must be from "Chohakkai" (which is the Japanese name, and called "Zhu Balie" in Chinese), a pig-like character that appeared in the 16th century Chinese novel "Xī Yóu Jì" ("Saiyuki" in Japanese). He is typically portrayed with having a pig's head. This story is popular in the Japanese culture.)

Iwata

Ganon was Hakkai?

Aonuma

It says "Bull Demon King" here. Is that Ganon? And it says "octopus." That must be the Octorok, right? Wow... And "Eyeball" must be Gohma.

Tezuka

That square bit at the top indicates the size of the characters.

Iwata

Oh, it's two by two. So this enemy should be two by four. It includes how to actually design it from the very beginning.

Nakago

And it has notes designating things as small, medium-sized, or large.

Tezuka

It was visualized clearly from the very start.

Iwata

I guess it's designed with the functions in mind, but still, I'm surprised.

Tezuka

These specifications were written on a white board that could be copied.

Nakago

Miyamoto-san jotted all this down, and then we copied it.

Iwata

It's dated February 1, 1985.

Nakago

These are the rough sketches that came up afterward.

Iwata

It's dated the same year, February 13. Not even two weeks have passed since the specs were first written on the white board.

Nakago

That's right.

Aonuma

Whoa, there's even a Blade Trap.

Iwata

For the first thing drawn up, it's rather complete. Did you talk about it beforehand and build up ideas?

Nakago

I think the three of us talked it over as we did it...

Tezuka

Yeah.

Nakago

We wrote down one thing after the next, and this resulted.

Iwata

The original specifications were drawn up in 1985, and here we are today still making The Legend of Zelda games by basing upon these specifications.

Aonuma

Amazing, huh?

Iwata

I wonder if this is what we always mean by the Zelda essence. (laughs)

Aonuma

It certainly does have the appearance of a source text. Without a doubt, this is where it all started. But it's like I'm working just on his palm... (laughs)

(Editor's note: This is also from the novel "Xī Yóu Jì", where the lead character "Sun Wukong" (Son Go Ku in Japanese) finds himself not being able to escape from the palm of Buddha even though he arrogantly thought he could.

Iwata

Was everything here used in the first The Legend of Zelda game? I see things I don't remember.

Nakago

No, we didn't use all of them.

Iwata

I thought so.

Nakago

We drew materials from this for quite some time afterward.

Iwata

You got enough ideas from it for five, ten years, I'd say. I'm surprised.

Nakago

And this is next...

Nakago

Last time we talked about how the first The Legend of Zelda only had dungeons. This is the planning sheet for the dungeon select screen we drew up back then. The title is "Adventure Title," so we hadn't decided on The Legend of Zelda yet. And that's Miyamoto-san's signature.

Iwata

You've even got this?!

Nakago

And this is the first land map for The Legend of Zelda.

Nakago

Back then we had some long paper, and Tezuka-san and Miyamoto-san would sit side-by-side and draw together.

Tezuka

We did?

Nakago

Yes, you did! (laughs) You drew the stuff on the left, Tezuka-san, and the right side is Miyamoto-san's. If you look closely, you can tell how marker was used to make small dots. These are rocks, and these are trees.

And you can see Miyamoto-san's personality. At first he's making individual dots, but as he gets tired of it, toward the top, he just fills in a bunch of space!

Aonuma

Yeah, the left and right sides do look different.

Tezuka

They really are different somehow.

Iwata

And they drew this all in one sitting.

Nakago

Yeah.

Aonuma

And it's marker, so it can't be erased. Amazing.

Tezuka

No, we had correction fluid, so it was all right if we made a mistake.

Aonuma

You should have stayed silent and just let me praise you! (laughs)

Iwata

Well, that's Tezuka-san's personality. (laughs)

Nakago

Oh, yeah, I can see where correction fluid was used.

Aonuma

Yeah, there it its! (laughs)

Iwata

But there aren't many places like that. Overall, it's quite a good batting average.

Nakago

The Lost Woods is there, too.

Iwata

I truly am surprised. Our discussion over New Super Mario Bros. Wii occasioned the unearthing of some ancient documents! (laughs)