Aonuma and Miyamoto Were Used As Test NPC’s in Breath of the Wild
Posted on December 26 2017 by Rod Lloyd
There are quite many unique non-player characters living in the land of Hryule in Breath of the Wild. From villages, to stables, to roads dotting the countryside, Link always has someone new to meet. With so many NPC’s occupying the world map, some fans were expecting to see a familiar face or two in the game’s cast, perhaps as special nods by the developers. The jury’s still out on the current NPC’s of Breath of the Wild, but developers recently revealed that some longtime Zelda producers were in fact used as test NPC’s during the game’s development.
Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and series producer Eiji Aonuma recently sat down for an interview on the premiere episode of the Nintendo Power Podcast. When host Chris Slate asked the developers how the character of Kilton was created, Fujibayashi shared about how members of the game’s staff were used as characters in the game:
“Slate: Now, there’s a character in the game who isn’t a monster himself. His name is Kilton. But he apparently really, really loves monsters, and even will sell monster parts and some other weird items. He’s such a unique character that I feel there has to be a very unique story about how he was created.
Fujibayashi: When we were thinking of Kilton… So actually, the planner that was designing him needed someone to sell unique items, so apparently it was kind of based on that planner. I think the designer probably made a sketch of the planner, and then that’s how maybe perhaps it got to become Kilton.
Slate: That’s great. I guess if you’re on the team, you have to be careful you don’t end up in the game yourself.
[laughs]
Fujibayashi: Actually, when we were thinking of designing NPC’s, we had models kind of after Aonuma-san and Miyamoto-san initially as townspeople. And we just had a bunch of Miyamoto-san’s everywhere.
[laughs]”
I would have loved to see that build of the game.
Are there any NPC’s in Breath of the Wild that you think are based on real people? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Nintendo Power Podcast
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
