![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: In the real world, there is a very specific smell right before it rains. I wanted to create the illusion of that smell with the visuals in [Breath of the Wild]. … If we could simulate senses like smell and touch through visual information, the world would truly feel alive, and that was one of our big goals.
We focused a lot on the air itself. The tropical rainforest is very humid, with particulates in the air. The sunlight is strong in the desert. The amount of dust in the air changes depending on what the wind is doing. The game adjusts light and air quality to more clearly express the differences in weather across regions.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiesqgwalejm4vj3klbcisf2v7qapzravmzmlirj44ou4wo3q4pmm4)
PEOPLE: - Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director. QUOTE: Takizawa: In the real world, there is a very specific smell right before it rains. I wanted to create the illusion of that smell with the visuals in [Breath of the Wild]. … If we could simulate senses like smell and touch through visual information, the world would truly feel alive, and that was one of our big goals. We focused a lot on the air itself. The tropical rainforest is very humid, with particulates in the air. The sunlight is strong in the desert. The amount of dust in the air changes depending on what the wind is doing. The game adjusts light and air quality to more clearly express the differences in weather across regions.
Takizawa on simulating all the senses through visuals in Breath of the Wild, 2017.
Source: Creating a Champion
#Zelda
#BreathoftheWildQuote
#TakizawaQuote
www.hyruleinterviews.com/13c41fe961fd...
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 34. Twilight Princess Art Director.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: I was particularly nervous about Link's design [in Twilight Princess]. The reason for that is ... the more realistic you make characters, the more they tend to start looking a bit like plastic dolls.
... We didn't see any reason to engage … in a struggle over who could make the most photo-realistic game, or any significance in attempting to recreate the real world for that matter. Rather, we felt that it would be more meaningful to create something we wanted to make, and then show the world what kind of game can be made when you have that kind of passion. So we decided to place our emphasis on creating the palpable atmosphere that everyone liked so much about Ocarina of Time.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigqrghfpn63x2rh2oxwsalhpmtvixw4ougl4hvq262okbjusa7qj4)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 44. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: In Japan, when we remember something that “stirs the soul”, we use 'gutto kuru' to capture that feeling. … To create an appealing, never-before-seen world, you need to break conventions. You need to be creatively reckless. So perhaps it's safe to say, in some ways, we game creators really enjoy violent work.
In what way did our artists add that gutto kuru feeling to their art [in Breath of the Wild]? They wracked their brains each and every day throughout development to fully manifest their individuality.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiaykwcwmzeplpymyzhq45dhnluhslebvhn66kcabwoo7jtbwoh6jm)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Art Director of Breath of the Wild.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: We wanted to create a world [for Breath of the Wild] that could accommodate the fantastical elements of Hyrule without sacrificing a more realistic art style, and we went about that by crafting a hybrid of the two that would allow the players to suspend their disbelief when certain things happen.
That allowed us to include a broad range of ideas from the designers and enabled us to have some crazy stuff happen. For example, the player is able to toss a bunch of ingredients into a pot and have a dessert pop out. We found that injecting humor into the visual shorthand helps players forgive the break from reality.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreieab4g3k6swqi2iy4dhgxs6ru74ifpysafynikyy23lot3h2wtbpi)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 46. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
Q: When [Breath of the Wild’s] Princess Zelda was first revealed to the public, there was a lot of talk about her thick eyebrows.
Takizawa: That was really surprising. I didn't expect it to become such a hot topic. The eyebrows are thicker than usual because it makes it easier to give her facial expressions. Princess Zelda has a lot of emotional expression this time around, so I think the design suits her well.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreie3r7nzfb2bbfuzg4urdw2p4bkg45qwjiaua3osan4it276aqihfa)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 41. Design (Art) manager on The Wind Waker.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 50. Director of The Wind Waker.
- Satoru Iwata, age 53. President of Nintendo.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: We had been trying to figure out which graphical direction to take for [The Wind Waker]. And we wondered whether continuing the path taken by Ocarina of Time, and evolving upon it by giving it more detail was really the right path.
Aonuma: Simply carrying on down that road was an option, and we proceeded with a prototype, but it was incredibly normal and didn’t exceed expectations.
Iwata: At Space World the year before we showed a demo video of an evolved form of Link from Ocarina of Time, so a lot of people were expecting something along those lines.
Aonuma: Yes. But it was difficult for us to imagine ourselves easily coming up with new ideas and expanding on that world if we had chosen that path.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicwp6x4nij6tgcpzgfw4lzvhdpnpserlwopl2rd6bcm6qzp5tkwp4)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: I was in the US to give a presentation at [the Game Developers Conference] on [Breath of the Wild’s] launch day, and, the morning after the talk, when I woke up in the hotel, one of the development team members had sent me a message. It said, ‘The reviews are incredible. Go look!’ I rushed to check them. A number of the media's reviews were out, and, at that point, nearly all of them were perfect scores. I was so excited I got goose bumps.
I was happy about the game's reception, of course, but I was thrilled about all the positive comments about the visuals that so many designers had spent so long developing. It was like being in a dream, waking up in a foreign country to something like that."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreia6gbe2pszc52s4ejldk6jlsry6k2wnapbwgcclylc6ivp5y2v5py)
![PEOPLE:
- Takafumi Kiuchi. Breath of the Wild Lead Enemy Artist.
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Kiuchi: The art director [of Breath of the Wild] gave me two directives in regard to the design of the Guardians. The first was that they should have many legs that move fluidly, and the second was that they are from an ancient culture. From there, I started sketching.
At the beginning of development, it wasn't yet decided whether the Guardians would be your allies or enemies, so I tried to design them to look neutral. That way, later, they could be used either way. As far as the legs moving fluidly, I designed legs that could bend freely like an accordion and would allow them to move quickly over variable natural terrain. I used Jomon-era flame-shaped pottery as inspiration for its body."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiamvoe3spz67bwe6skytry4ppmojkyquglo7z5o5o4dd5k3cyxwcq)
![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:
- Yusuke Nakano, age 47. Twilight Princess Illustrator.
- Satoru Takizawa, age 44. Twilight Princess Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Nakano: The Link up till now [Twilight Princess] had been in his teens, but for this one we were talking about making him around 25... maybe even 30.
He would be well-built. A skinny man with a pretty face wouldn’t stand a chance against a large enemy, so we thought about making him quite sturdy. So the first illustrations were, in a way, pretty amazing.
Takizawa: ... There was even a square-jawed, burly-looking Link. [laughs]"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreickozz4vfcfp23dsf3ufckd3t3kew346sjkvrhy2zpe6p63uvxbtq)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 54. Breath of the Wild Producer.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: Producer Aonuma-san declared that we would be revising expectations by updating Link for [Breath of the Wild]. He wanted Link to be a more neutral character that players could see themselves as. You can feel how energized and excited the artists were about this idea from the really interesting modern concepts they drew.
There were close to one hundred designs presented within the team for Link, and the number of sketches was too great to count."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihzqo4db55ylszky2maozwimrxrosnb67a5ivh772buk52qvm5dci)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: I am glad that our fans will be able to look at this material [in Creating a Champion] and see how [Breath of the Wild] was made. I believe there is significance in making so much development material available, especially if a child sees this book and thinks that they’d like to do this too someday.
The truth is, that's what happened to me. When I was in elementary school, I read an art book that contained a collection of design materials, got really excited, and decided I wanted to do work where I could create things. That's why I ended up joining Nintendo and making games. If this book could have that sort of significance for someone else, I'd be thrilled."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreicdhsk6y3crtykc4pzj42isidkokkwd6ej5fmvmi5oygprf4sywpi)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: In the real world, there is a very specific smell right before it rains. I wanted to create the illusion of that smell with the visuals in [Breath of the Wild]. … If we could simulate senses like smell and touch through visual information, the world would truly feel alive, and that was one of our big goals.
We focused a lot on the air itself. The tropical rainforest is very humid, with particulates in the air. The sunlight is strong in the desert. The amount of dust in the air changes depending on what the wind is doing. The game adjusts light and air quality to more clearly express the differences in weather across regions."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiembuqhmhqhlllv3hy7dirnqmcykfyopajuusssvyrwb7arcd7dku)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 26. Ocarina of Time Character Designer.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: My first impressions of Ganon [for Ocarina of Time] were of a twisted thief with a complex, and my intention was to create the character in that image. However, the character design team and the script director Toru Osawa told me that this time Ganon would be ... a ‘great fist’ like Raou [from Fist of the North Star]. They wanted to show a more charismatic big-shot, so I changed my thoughts accordingly.
Ganondorf grew his hair out from the first time you saw him to seven years later. We ended up making 3 forms for the final Ganon. At least temporarily, Ganondorf sort of has a Christopher Lambert-type [Highlander actor] image."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiblh3tlc6rsdsf6br73g5qudzh6hlh2utsmh7lsd5gdnb4j66nwoy)
![PEOPLE:
- Yoshiki Haruhana, age 46. Artist who designed Zelda in Ocarina of Time and Toon Link in Wind Waker.
- Satoru Takizawa, age 44. Breath of the Wild Art Director, designed Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time.
QUOTE:
"Haruhana: It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that playing this title [A Link to the Past] was what got me into the world of gaming and set the course of my life.
Takizawa: It’s the same for me, in that A Link to the Past was what inspired me to try my hand at Nintendo’s employment examination. It was truly sensational. "](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiagfqhrw6finrydqyoszwmf4gafswp32q6emiyjulqqjpwq5lhpdq)
![PEOPLE:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 33. The Wind Waker Art Manager, Twilight Princess Art Director.
- Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Director of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
"Takizawa: I remember the summer when we were deep into Wind Waker development: our [Takizawa & Aonuma] wives went off on their vacations to visit their parents, and we had to stay at work and focus on finishing the game. Suddenly, Aonuma- san’s wife sent a photo of his cute kid to his cellular phone, and he howled about wanting to be with his family.
Sigh—no doubt we’ll have another summer like that ahead of us as we head into final development on Twilight Princess!"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreiasmrwzshqb36mwnulwwrvewb6yquo5opna6cwxm5mi7kky7cdfda)
![People in quote:
- Satoru Takizawa, age 39. Enemy Designer for Ocarina of Time.
- Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.
- Kazuaki Morita,, age 45. Boss character engineer for Ocarina of Time.
Quote: "Takizawa: Volvagia [in Ocarina] is a dragon, so it wriggles and undulates. I only gave Morita-san the dragon model parts, but he set it in motion immediately. It was mysterious how he could do that. I couldn't help but ask how he did it. He said it was the same as the programming for Star Fox 64. There's this scene when another fighter aircraft is tailing Arwing and…
Iwata: … Oh, that? That's right! It's the same! … The way the fighter moves as it flies and Volvagia's movements are exactly the same.
Morita: I could do it easily by switching in the dragon for the fighter."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreigfruoymlf3lg34g54lb34gv3dhu6ebp3znqsmhdy4llew5jkxil4)
![People in quote:
-Satoru Takizawa, age 46. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
-Hidemaro Fujibayashi, age 45. Breath of the Wild Director.
Quote: "Takizawa: [For Breath of the Wild] we talked about how ‘The latest Ganon is the same as Taira no Masakado's vengeful spirit.’ It is something that has become ingrained in nature, like a typhoon in the real world, a thing that is beyond human control. From there, it became a story of calamity. I was worried about the way to express it until the end … To begin with, in an open-air world, it is difficult to depict why villains are villains.
Fujibayashi: That's why it didn´t need words, it had to be overwhelmingly bad.
Takizawa: From there, we began to create a worldview by concentrating on key phrases such as ‘An uncontainable vengeful spirit overflowing with malice’ or ‘deep-seated grudge’."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibi43ltf6ifuawrlmarxo7hmkk2irgjja5a2kjomgva5p46g4vyhe)
![People in quote:
-Satoru Takizawa, age 46. Breath of the Wild Art Director.
Quote: "Q: When [Breath of the Wild] Princess Zelda was first revealed to the public, there was a lot of talk about her thick eyebrows.
Takizawa: That was really surprising. I didn't expect it to become such a hot topic. The eyebrows are thicker than usual because it makes it easier to give her facial expressions. Princess Zelda has a lot of emotional expression this time around, so I think the design suits her well."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreid7bn7lkrnkqz3td6vgxinqinn6ktctx5axtwxsm6ijnwijxdfuey)