Takaya Imamura, Majora’s Mask Art Director and Creator of Tingle, Reflects on Working with the Zelda Series

Posted on April 16 2021 by Andrew Millard

Takaya Imamura, a key figure in the designing of the Nintendo style and the father of Tingle, retired this past January. Known for contributing key elements to F-Zero, Super Smash Bros., and The Legend of Zelda, Imamura-san was on the scene for Nintendo’s entire rise to prominence.

In an exclusive interview with IGN, the designer sat down to share some of the intimate details of his time with Nintendo. Throughout the comprehensive discussion, Imamura-san shared a number of fun anecdotes about his work on various Zelda titles.

On stepping up to a bigger role with A Link to The Past:

“In the middle of the development of A Link to the Past, I was asked to join the project to design the bosses. If I remember correctly, I designed all the bosses except for the last one and one other. It was not just the art; I also designed the mechanics together with one of the programmers. For some bosses, we came up with the mechanics just with the two of us, while for others we first received instructions from planners on what kind of enemy they wanted. I also designed the game’s title logo and dungeon maps.”

That’s pretty in-depth, considering Imamura-san’s credited title on A Link to the Past is simply “Object Designer.”

On taking on the complete art direction for Majora’s Mask:

“We had to develop Majora’s Mask in just one year, so it was a very short development window. When I saw a prototype of the game, I thought it looked too similar to Ocarina of Time, so it became my task to change the look of the game over a short period.”

For context, Imamura is responsible for the name Majora, the design for the game’s titular mask, and the design of The Moon. Seeing as how Majora’s Mask is now known as a singularly unique entry in the series, it’s fascinating to think that that quality was born of a desire to differentiate the game from Ocarina of Time, one of the most imitated games of all time!

Imamura-san’s tenure covered some of the earliest days of home gaming through to the age of the AAA blockbuster. As such, he also shares a keen insight on what game design has become.

On evolving to work on big games with large teams:

“Today, bigger projects like Zelda are made by over a hundred people, but in the days of the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64, I remember that even teams for the bigger projects consisted of only around 30 people. That made it easy to communicate within the team, and there was room for us to express our opinions. Today, for the bigger projects, I think there might even be some staff that aren’t aware of exactly what part of the game they are working on.”

IGN reporter Esra Krabbe’s full interview with Takaya Imamura is full of thoughtful behind-the-scenes insight. Be sure to check it out here!

What has been your favorite Imamura-influenced aspects of the Zelda series? Tell us about them in the comments!

Source: IGN