Interview:Ocarina of Time Development - Parts They Want You To See Part 2

The original interview can be found in its entirety at <a href="http://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin1/nin1-13.htm" target="new">1101</a>. Translation thanks to <a href="http://www.glitterberri.com/ocarina-of-time/1101-interviews/parts-they-want-you-to-see-part-2" target="new">Glitterberri</a>

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time news, direct from the production area! The Zelda team chosen by Shigeru Miyamoto created Zelda 64 with surprising stubbornness! One part of that stubbornness was to do a stubborn interview. We'll pass on a small part of that interview from the top of Hobonichi's nearby tree.

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(1-13) The Parts They Want You to See in This Zelda (Part 2)

We Want You to Experience a Cinematic Atmosphere

Naoki Mori (Cinema Scene Director): At the beginning, Miyamoto told us “I want to project an atmosphere”. I remember thinking that I wanted that idea to be our foundation. For example, for the sunset we had to figure out how to return the sun to the top of the sky. We were always thinking about how to best project the atmosphere. Everyone planned to have that in mind.

We Want You to Experience the Atmosphere of a Field

Makoto Miyanaga (Field Design): We didn’t get that tone, that feel, because we decided on it in the beginning. It came to us as we worked on it. While we were doing storyboards, we drew and coloured detailed sketches of the field as if it were real.

I myself had the atmosphere in mind. When I joined the development team, the sky’s complete transformation from morning to afternoon, evening, and night was already finished. More and more, I found myself thinking “why can’t we do things like air and atmosphere and wind and smell and temperature?” and ended up pouring all my energy into achieving that.

At least in that regard, I couldn’t let Ocarina of Time’s atmosphere be outdone by any other game. I made it with the thought “from now on, we won’t fail to our competitors.” I’m kind of vain.

The N64 hardware is able to produce fog. If you use too much of it, it will become cliched, but by tuning the amount subtly we got an “Ah, this.. this is morning” effect and gradually decided the thickness of the fog. We made the decisions for each part, working until the results were satisfactory and not usually having time to touch it up further. Even so, a short time later I’d usually find myself thinking “This is a little dark, isn’t it?” and even though things were already finished I went back and tuned it a little better.

Ganon is Totally Metal

Chie Takizawa (Character Design): We created Ganondorf’s clothing in the style of an 80’s Visual Kei band. He looks like a metal-head. *laughs* Ganondorf is recognizable as a person of the desert. Osawa-san suggested that this time we use red and black and gold to create his colour scheme, so I kept that in mind.

Yoshiki Haruhana (Character Design): Zelda’s apron is quite an elaborate piece of clothing. *laughs* I was the one who filled in the designs on it, like the Triforce and the bird spreading its wings. I redrew it so many times that, of all the female characters, I’ve now come to hate Zelda the most. *laughs*

Satoru Takizawa (Character Design): Creating the characters was really difficult. I was never sure how much I should tamper with the initial character designs and draw out the process. Even though I didn’t want to tamper with it anymore, I kept at it. After all, it’s difficult to make attractive characters. Creating villains is much better. There’s always a little bit of good inside them, which makes it interesting.

“(1-13) The Parts They Want You to See in This Zelda (Part 2)” has ended. The interview continues from here, so please check back for updates!