![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 31. Director of The Minish Cap and the Oracles.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: I played the heck out of the first Legend of Zelda. I was in my first year of middle school when I heard that the Famicom Disk System would be released in January, so I excitedly saved up my money for it. Then when I went to buy it, it turned out the release date was delayed, and teary-eyed I returned home, and had to wait another whole month. [laughs]
I played A Link to the Past in high school, and now I'm working with the same people who made that game."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiep4sht4zyydgavq56s4ire54dauv664ea2fyx7jgdbvuahx5v2ty)
PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 31. Director of The Minish Cap and the Oracles.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: I played the heck out of the first Legend of Zelda. I was in my first year of middle school when I heard that the Famicom Disk System would be released in January, so I excitedly saved up my money for it. Then when I went to buy it, it turned out the release date was delayed, and teary-eyed I returned home, and had to wait another whole month. [laughs]
I played A Link to the Past in high school, and now I'm working with the same people who made that game."
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 28. Game director of The Oracles, and later Skyward Sword & Breath of the Wild..
QUOTE:
"Q: Fujibayashi-san, were you a Zelda fan, too?
Fujibayashi: Yes. In the case of the Famicom game [Zelda 1], I went straight to the toy store to buy it. I remember running to buy it, fist tight around my New Year’s money."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifjccc6shwpljsxh3gq7bbnubv6q6yg6dw4ohmaucomqodlttacy4)
PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 28. Game director of The Oracles, and later Skyward Sword & Breath of the Wild..
QUOTE:
"Q: Fujibayashi-san, were you a Zelda fan, too?
Fujibayashi: Yes. In the case of the Famicom game [Zelda 1], I went straight to the toy store to buy it. I remember running to buy it, fist tight around my New Year’s money."
PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 31. Director of the Oracle games.
- Yoshiki Okamoto, age 42. Capcom-side General Producer of the Oracle games.
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 51. Nintendo-side General Producer of the Oracle games.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: When I first saw one of our programmers at Capcom making Link's sprite move around, I wondered, ‘Why are we making a Zelda game at Capcom…?’
What had happened was, our boss Yoshiki Okamoto had been talking with Shigeru Miyamoto, and they'd agreed to do some exploratory research and prototyping, which is what I saw there. I never thought in a million years that I would be involved with it. But for some reason or other, they called me up and told me to draw up plans for a new Zelda game that Capcom would develop, and that was Oracle of the Seasons. I was amazed that Capcom was going to be making a Zelda game, and I thought it was an incredible opportunity. I was very happy."
#2: Hidemaro Fujibayashi. Director of The Oracles, Four Swords, The Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, & Tears of the Kingdom
#Zelda #OracleOfAgesQuote, #OracleOfSeasonsQuote #FujibayashiQuote
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 51. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: [Breath of the Wild] didn't come to me right away as a fully formed idea.
For a long time, I went from idea to idea before I finally reached what I think are the very roots of Breath of the Wild's gameplay: the idea of cliff climbing and paragliding back down, the keyword “survival", and the idea of “creativity of combination” whereby players make use of things that happen when their actions interact with objects placed on the map—for example, lighting wood with fire to create a bonfire.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiem3573p2s3yg5y7yexapc62w7rtb3l35eh7wr7bnsp2es6vqmxqm)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of the Oracles, The Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, & Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: The look and feel of the game has changed with the times, [but] I don’t think the core gameplay of the series has changed at all compared to that of 30 years ago.
I feel that’s because even though the puzzle-solving elements of the series changes with the times in how exactly players’ interact with it, the fun of it—the fun I experienced for the first time myself as a child—is still there in more recent Zelda titles, completely unchanged.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifpim4545qr6anotlv7e7taehe2xd56ywbbzhzuxdhgewjtqih5m4)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 50. Director of Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: We created the sky [in Tears of the Kingdom] first. But then we thought, ”There’s not enough in terms of distance.” So then we thought, ”Maybe we can look to the ground to provide more distance.”
When you’re talking about the sky, there’s just the idea of skydiving down to the surface. But if we were to, say, have a chasm, you can dive even further, and have even more fun doing that.
On top of that, there’s also the idea of expanding the amount of exploration and the amount of discovery that you can have within the game. The Depths, as this place to explore and expand—not only in the sense of adventure, but also in terms of distance—really suited the game.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicucv3rzch3mbrbl32fvb7ejphjcqrhdda2pm4csanvtzmugdusjq)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of the Oracles, Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, & Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: [In the Nintendo adventure club we do] things like cave diving where you actually go down into the water to get into the cave, as well as rafting routes and so on.
I know this may not be such a big deal in the west, but in Japan it’s quite an adventure!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreid5bmrezjpxkzrcqapg4ix2e3qufafpzv6fm7p4unybwigyp6xer4)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 39. Director of Skyward Sword.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 48. Producer of Skyward Sword.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: There was one scene [in Skyward Sword] I wanted to do no matter what. It's toward the beginning. Zelda jumps down from Skyloft toward Link as he is flying on Loftwing, and Link panics and tries to catch her.
I wanted to portray Zelda's personality in this game all at once in that scene. She's bright and lively, emotional and impulsive. We made that cinematic scene, but when Aonuma-san saw it, he said, "It's so long… It's too long!" I thought, "Oh no! If it stays like this, he's gonna cut it!"
Aonuma: What bothered me the most at the time was how, toward the beginning, cinematic scenes were running one after the other.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiaadtidat47otg5u7qhbd7fxhgmiwvmkhdqgtc4os2wi4b3tpfwwe)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Breath of the Wild Game Director.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: [For Breath of the Wild] I was rather inspired by playing Minecraft and Terraria. I was able to learn from the gameplay and possibilities found in [them]. I could learn from the sense of adventure, exploration, and how it inspired curiosity.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicglyt77pesjz6udqdwrrxvm5iy334fnksx7e5zrsflzcpnrxqjoa)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 39. Director of Skyward Sword.
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: [With about two years left on Skyward Sword], we had to think about a number of things all at once … and the cinematic scene staff were beginning to join the team, so we were under pressure to make the hakogaki soon.
Iwata: The hakogaki is a rough synopsis of the essential points of the script.
Fujibayashi: Yes. Time was running out, so I told everyone that I didn't feel well and holed up at home one whole day to write it! [laughs]
Iwata: I can't condone such behavior, but you wanted to concentrate alone.
Fujibayashi: Yes. I locked myself in and from morning to evening did nothing but write the synopsis.
Iwata: Even though you didn't feel well? [laughs]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreieo4xxvsh5zy65gqwitgk7wvtqxe7yohlpgyv3nurnxhpoztrp6lq)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 51. Director of Zelda titles including Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, & Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: It's not like we're trying to plan ahead for [fan] theories, but in the series, there's this idea of reincarnation in that Zelda and Link, as they appear in the different titles, they are not the same person per se, but there's sort of this fundamental soul that carries on.
Because of that, certain scenes may turn out similar, like you were saying, the antagonist kneeling before the king, those scenes …. are sort of like glimpses or representations of the soul of the series. For people to kind of pick up on that and see that, it's something that we enjoy also and it kind of helps create this myth of The Legend of Zelda.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreid6nt2r3fs3purssqmso7y64zx4sulz6gh5w4cu4c4yvwxrvcbnwm)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 28. Director of Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons.
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 48. General Producer for Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons.
- Yoichi Yamada, age 37. Supervisor for Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: When I met Mr. Miyamoto, I clearly understood that there’s a logic behind the games he thinks up.
Understanding that was a huge learning experience for [the Oracles] team. Another thing was that Mr. Yamada would ask us “What’s this character’s name?” about characters we’d just randomly put in the game. Giving those characters a name really brings them to life and the staff’s attachment to them evolves, too.
”You should name your characters”… such a simple sounding idea really opened my eyes to something important. This is just one example, but I feel like I was taught the secret to Nintendo’s “warm game feel”.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibd7mfid2fgdwgqxp6myultiqf6tehbepnbyy6rde3gu2uda2p2za)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 60. Producer of Tears of the Kingdom.
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 50. Director of Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: There was a time when I was … sitting and playing [an early build of Tears of the Kingdom] myself, and exploring these caves. And I would often make my way really deep into one of the caves and kind of wonder, ’Where does this thing end? I’m kind of lost. And if I want to get out, I need to go all the way back to the entrance of the cave, which seems kind of troublesome.’
Hearing that, Mr. Fujibayashi said, ‘What if there was a way for us to just leave the cave by going through the roof?’ We started exploring the idea, and we realized this would be another way for us to take that theme of increasing the options available to the player, and also tie in with our theme of verticality.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifspi3oq5ugil3ymwkwv7qmn4bhor4ctc7dp6jvlyrygj4eto7mzi)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Breath of the Wild Game Director.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: When we first presented this [Breath of the Wild prototype] to Mr. Miyamoto, he spent about an hour just climbing trees. We left little treats like rupees on the trees, but we also left other things in other places we thought he might go. But he just kept climbing trees. Up and down.
And so we got to the point where we go, “Do you want to look at other stuff?” But he just kept on going. Once [he] got out of the Shrine of Resurrection, he spent an hour just within a 25-50 meter radius outside of that cave just climbing trees.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigm5vjhqj2jcgxvt4jktazdi4vyjn2ds3rzk33hpvfin6mxbw6qwi)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 45. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Fujibayashi: The more ideas we had, the more massive the scale of [Breath of the Wild], but, as robust as this game is, there were still a number of ideas we couldn't implement or which left only traces.
In some cases, that left things a mystery. For example, why is the Yiga Clan's crest an upside-down version of the Sheikah eye symbol, and, while we know that the king of Hyrule is dead, how did he die? We had also created rich backstories for the Champion characters like Daruk and Mipha during the development of the main game but weren't able to touch on them much.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifrrjltkgbiiwixtxrilorqc6i662vcofuvsxybf4opaurnbpfkq4)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Skyward Sword & A Link Between Worlds.
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 37. Director of Skyward Sword.
- Hiromasa Shikata. Director of A Link Between Worlds.
QUOTE:
"Aonuma: As soon as I come to my office I start checking my emails from the Japanese companies as well as from NCL and overseas companies.
Then I start chatting with the directors on my right and left hand - my desk is situated between the DS director [Shikata] and the Wii director [Fujibayashi]. I start talking with them about the progress made in the last day and then we decide a priority order of what we as a team need to do in the next 24 hours or so. If there are any versions of the software ready by the morning I start checking those."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihqloklgkua5vlzemb4af4k5xvfe5pej5wxkaqc44sbd4scdf72fm)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 45. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: If you look up Akkala Citadel [in Creating a Champion], it talks about the position of the cannons and the direction they face, as well as why the citadel was strong against attacks from behind. It explains why the citadel, protected by a group of trained professionals, fell, and why Fort Hateno, guarded by amateurs, was able to withstand assault.
There were backstories for particular settings during development but they were very complex, so we couldn't explain them in [Breath of the Wild]. This book allows us the opportunity to tell those stories, which makes the development team and me very happy."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihaiih27uqad55vusb4esd3i5rlq6jo72m3yxgyqntvzgqqqxcz2u)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 44. Art Director for The Wind Waker HD and Breath of the Wild.
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: It was actually one weak spot in The Wind Waker HD art style. An important point in Mr. Fujibayashi's game concept [for Breath of the Wild] was to fill the vast game world with fun multiplicative experiences using physics and chemistry gameplay. And this was difficult to achieve with The Wind Waker’s art style. Why is that?
The Wind Waker art style in it's depiction of form, feel of materials, etc. is very stylized. One of our goals was to have the art intuitively suggest possible physics and chemistry gameplay based on the player's experiences in the real world. The problem with The Wind Waker art style was... the lies it told were too big."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibtnmqboindrki6tkadxg6maswds6dwunadejxsthmazdld7hzsfy)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Breath of the Wild Game Director.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: [For Breath of the Wild] I was rather inspired by playing Minecraft and Terraria. I was able to learn from the gameplay and possibilities found in [them]. I could learn from the sense of adventure, exploration, and how it inspired curiosity."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifigogafsolcqz37ltawqls4x6kmnwuwwexer6puegsj6hf466cx4)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: Rather than coming up with [Princess Zelda from Breath of the Wild’s] story, we approached her character in two separate ways. The planners started by thinking about what kind of person Zelda is, and why she's in a position that makes us want to save her. They focused on what sort of setting the game should have.
The designers, on the other hand, took a completely opposite, or perhaps I should say different, approach compared to the planners. For them, it was all about first impressions... about how Zelda's design could make you feel something deep inside. At first, the planners maybe didn't understand that as much."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidor5go2rsfbcjtfj7yoautrx2ozmeixmfyx7bedf5oweyeltisn4)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 28. Director of Oracle of Ages.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: There’s a “Dark Tower” in Oracle of Ages, with people made to work there. Their dialogue is along the lines of “There’s no end to this work” or “I can’t go home”. There were also team members that couldn’t go home much during development, so we put those characters in as a parody [laugh].
But our team feels really cozy, so the general atmosphere was great. People who’d just come by with a message would end up in a meeting and chat with us for two hours before leaving again."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiffqfeahzmha7aasivq233igxlh3h36jsdjxkqw4d4mxneb5apiwu)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: With Ganon, first of all we came up with how he should fit into [Breath of the Wild] mechanically as the final boss.
After that, we discussed him with the designers. We talked about things that would fulfill our 'final boss' criteria, like his size and visual design. Then we took into account the material feeling of the world, and decided how he should look from there."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicglauujt2ml5ht2yg7utpdgwj4hyljszqnhuqomjzketiaaihtjq)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Breath of the Wild Game Director.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: It's not a stretch to say that the objects that made up each of these puzzles were made specifically for those puzzles [in past Zelda games]. This of course allows us to fine-tune and polish the gameplay experience, but unfortunately it requires a lot of resources, and this method of development by addition was not going to work for the new Zelda [Breath of the Wild].
So my next thought was, 'I wonder if I can use this idea of multiplication, and apply it to the mass-production of these puzzles.'
Make the game so that objects react to the player's action, and the objects themselves also influence each other."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihie3yjfo6xgaozz3ifzdfmiquhpecvn3ckuh5ivw275ltbd7wxle)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 50. Director of Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: Toward the end of Breath of the Wild, we were kind of experimenting with this idea of being able to stick things together. And at the time, you know, of course, there was a little bit of doubt, or question, about whether this was going to be something that people enjoyed, and [would] have fun with.
And it was about that time that we started to see a lot of people starting to upload videos about all of the things that, basically, we were already wanting to do in Tears of the Kingdom. Making unconventional vehicles, and things like that. And seeing people have fun like that really provided us with the confidence that what we were going to start working on would be enjoyable."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifreav2kybmu42ekwsusgf2jtmvpdy4eek37ky5mubhy32ke6o7ju)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 51. Director of Tears of the Kingdom.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: We had been calling [Colgera in Tears of the Kingdom] the ‘aerial battle’, and within that aerial battle, thinking about how we would use arrows or … dive and use your body to attack. We spent a lot of time thinking about what kinds of scenarios we could put in that would make aerial battles feel good, feel right.
… The idea of diving and using your body, or using bows and arrows against the big enemy, these were all new experiences... things that the player hadn't been able to do at that time. And so what we took a lot of time and effort doing was making sure that on the player's journey to that boss, that they learned the things that they needed to do to defeat this boss."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidje2vf4h6d53riyjm5sxayzvyozactysh6tjrfsbv5w6ft6c3j5m)
![PEOPLE:
- Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 44. Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
"Fujibayashi: We had this idea of including tiny people [in Breath of the Wild]. Since this is a 3D game, we could have all these tiny-sized towns, and Link himself could shrink. We thought it'd be super fun if we had all these tiny characters all over the place... but with all these other characters that stand out, we thought it would be difficult for these little guys to be able to live out their own place in the game.
So we really wanted to have them in there for the gameplay, but sadly had to give up on the idea."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiamodna427g2ktjnil73mix6vz5kub6ittgo6rjq4kjint5zro25a)