![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: We had to think about what to use as a mode of transportation, in place of a boat, and at that point, I remembered a certain picture book.
Iwata: A picture book?
Aonuma: ...Which I brought with me today...
Iwata: This book? 'The Tracks Go On'?
Aonuma: My son loved this book. When he was four or five, this was the book he'd bring me every night before bed. ‘Read it, Daddy, read it.’ ... It's a very simple [story], but the pioneering spirit, the kids building the railroad... Something about it seemed as though it would fit with The Legend of Zelda. But I didn't tell the staff about this book.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihgtyt4age665dgjfddv2ng42u5awbnas23nerbybrorbd75hnzhy)
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Aonuma: We had to think about what to use as a mode of transportation, in place of a boat, and at that point, I remembered a certain picture book. Iwata: A picture book? Aonuma: ...Which I brought with me today... Iwata: This book? 'The Tracks Go On'? Aonuma: My son loved this book. When he was four or five, this was the book he'd bring me every night before bed. ‘Read it, Daddy, read it.’ ... It's a very simple [story], but the pioneering spirit, the kids building the railroad... Something about it seemed as though it would fit with The Legend of Zelda. But I didn't tell the staff about this book.
Aonuma on the inspiration for the train in Spirit Tracks, 2009.
Source: Iwata Asks
#Zelda
#SpiritTracksQuote
#AonumaQuote, #IwataQuote
www.hyruleinterviews.com/d6e65557dce3...
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Director of Twilight Princess, Producer of Phantom Hourglass.
QUOTE:
Iwata: Aonuma-san, you're involved with both [Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass]. Are there any differences in how you work on the two?
Aonuma: When I work on the Wii edition, I'm right on-site, and I often do my job from a director's perspective. On the Nintendo DS version, I do proper producer's work.
...That said, when I worked on the previous game, Phantom Hourglass, I was simultaneously making Twilight Princess, so I couldn't keep a very close eye on things right from the beginning. Then, when Twilight Princess was finished and I went to the Nintendo DS version's office, the development was already pretty far along.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreih2ay6tffahbkv3mx7kzpemhj5nuqc2jerz4evqyvbirqusji277i)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Daiki Iwamoto, age 40. Director of Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: “Let's make it so that you can lay the tracks yourself.” I brought it up, and we started [Spirit Tracks] from that experiment. ...
Iwamoto: We thought it would be a lot of fun to lay the tracks any way you liked, to be able to travel anywhere at will. ... But the problem is that, even if people can lay the tracks anywhere they like, they won't know where to lay them. Then, to make the story work, there are places where you absolutely mustn't go, and other places where you really can't be at certain points in time. …
We spent half of those two years [of development] on the railroad. And then, one day, Aonuma-san said, “Why don't we just drop the idea of laying the tracks?”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreichoajku7ntg45ihw3opdrnyaefnrs5enotigj6pgqskmgus636nq)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: In the end we used the same cel shading approach [for Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks]. Players have to play on the DS and it has two small screens. For such a small screen we need to think about how we handle small objects, lighting effects and what kind of person or character we want. With three dimensional videogames, or those that you might call more realistic, you have to have the appropriate proportions between all the objects and enemies. Human beings must be depicted naturally as we are.
That would be rather strange on a small screen if you wanted to identify what a small object is or put in characters' actions, for example.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiejjqwk5uwfhacs5uwnqa4gzmrcqrmtxlsx2itoeryilxszqurn3i)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Daiki Iwamoto, age 40. Director of Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: We recently received information from a survey conducted in the US that indicated that, among our female characters, users had a preference for those that were more on the independent side, such as Sheik and Tetra.
Making Zelda a more integral part of the game was also a goal for our Director, Mr. Iwamoto, so we set out with this element in mind when we started making [Spirit Tracks].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreie6dynpbish6f6gg566oo6qeiuqhgqi5pbgiainrskycxyc66v3ha)
![PEOPLE:
- Daiki Iwamoto, age 40. Director of Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
"Iwamoto: If we'd concentrated too hard on making [Spirit Tracks] a sequel [to Phantom Hourglass and The Wind Waker], people who hadn't played the previous games wouldn't understand this one. We were careful to pay close attention to the parts that would pull people into the story even if they weren't familiar with the previous game.
However, we did put in [details] here and there that would let people who had played the previous game grin and think, ‘Oh, is that what happened to this guy?’ We'd like the players to imagine for themselves what happened to Tetra, Link, and Linebeck from the previous game, and we don't talk about it in much detail."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihrmq6vvj3w3hvnp2grvlg4zwfvh7sc63wjks77kywh7pv24z6vcm)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 47. Producer of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
"Aonuma: [In Phantom Hourglass’ battle mode] we had some solid response about the ability for the player to control the Phantom character by drawing the path he should follow. And we thought at that time that we would probably be able to take that and incorporate it into the main gameplay. That was actually one of the most important things that led us to the new project that eventually became Spirit Tracks.
… Why would an archenemy like the Phantom become your ally, we asked ourselves? And during that discussion we came up with the idea that one way would be if a second character took control of that Phantom for you. But who? We thought Zelda might be an interesting and appropriate character."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifno2tlj7xz5e6hzry2f56rc6ack6xevdweza36jc5ibgqjsqd6di)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 47. Producer of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
"Aonuma: [In Phantom Hourglass’ battle mode] we had some solid response about the ability for the player to control the Phantom character by drawing the path he should follow. And we thought at that time that we would probably be able to take that and incorporate it into the main gameplay. That was actually one of the most important things that led us to the new project that eventually became Spirit Tracks.
… Why would an archenemy like the Phantom become your ally, we asked ourselves? And during that discussion we came up with the idea that one way would be if a second character took control of that Phantom for you. But who? We thought Zelda might be an interesting and appropriate character."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreied3yxemgpnluvst6jruqbi73iisj6bf7tgouebpzbdwrnyuly4bu)
![PEOPLE:
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Supervisor on Spirit Tracks, co-creator of the Zelda series.
- Yohei Fujino. Planner for Spirit Tracks, programming on previous Zelda titles. Likely the planner Aonuma refers to.
QUOTE:
"Aonuma: One of our lead planners for [Spirit Tracks] is a programmer, so he has a different, more scientific or mathematical approach, so to say, to creating puzzles.
Development team members, including Mr. Tezuka and myself, actually got stuck in several places. So the dungeons and puzzles pose a different type of challenge than what we have utilized in previous games, and will certainly require longtime Zelda fans to approach each challenge differently.
I believe that the latter half of the Tower of Spirits dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks — [which] players will revisit throughout the game — has puzzles which require a different type of approach from those of previous games."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiefo476kk3pxu6l67f2czagcutaxczwzhuspfd6hvj2nmesl23som)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Producer of Spirit Tracks.
- Daiki Iwamoto, age 40. Director of Spirit Tracks.
QUOTE:
"Iwata: Before I discovered video games, back when I was in middle school, I was absolutely crazy about trains.
There were steam locomotives which ran in Hokkaido and were about to be decommissioned, and I went up there and tracked it down so I could get photos, and I collected model trains.... Things like that. Was there a railroad fan on the [Spirit Tracks] development staff?
Aonuma: No railroad fans.
Iwamoto: There weren't any at first.
Iwata: What do you mean, ‘at first’?
Iwamoto: Well, of course, while we were researching trains, some of the staff members got interested in them."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicby542sz3saa5e667b3nys6tnnpsimgrmfhqxxtsplr5wgqc2qg4)