Hyrule Interviews
LightNews LightNews
banner
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Hyrule Interviews
@hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
3K followers 57 following 950 posts
A database of interviews with the Zelda team. Our goal is to preserve that legacy, share it here, and build a safe community for our followers!

By @maxnichols.bsky.social

www.hyruleinterviews.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Tezuka on using leftover memory for Super Mario Bros., 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros.. - Takashi Tezuka, age 64. Co-creator of Zelda. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros.. QUOTE: Miyamoto: At the end of making a game, we have a debug process, and we left 10 bytes of memory for that [for Super Mario Bros.] Once we confirmed there were no bugs, we wondered what we could do to maximize what little we had left. Fun things, like, "Well, we can put in five more coins, so where should they go?” Tezuka: We couldn't just freely decide where to put pipes on each screen, and each course is made of multiple screens. Distinguishing between pipes you can enter and pipes you can’t uses memory, so we made if so that pipes placed in specific locations can always be entered. So we crafted the courses well, so players couldn't tell we had these restrictions.
November 29, 2025 at 8:27 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto, Itoi, & Iwata on how “passable” is unacceptable feedback, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote, #ItoiQuote, #IwataQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/8f65dbbe83ce...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Mario & Zelda. General manager of Nintendo EAD. - Shigesato Itoi, age 62. Creator of Earthbound. Editor of Ishinomori’s A Link to the Past manga. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: So sometimes when we're presenting what we've made, we end up saying, "I guess it's okay, right?" And I think that's really unacceptable. … You'll ask the director, "How it's look?" And he'll answer, "It's passable." How could you call something passable? … When someone asks, "How is it?" I think that it takes more courage to answer, "It's pretty good." Itoi: Hmm, that's true. Because "pretty good" means "good.” Miyamoto: Compared to that, "passable" doesn't really tell you anything. Is it 10 percent out of 100? 80 percent? 60 percent? It doesn't even tell you that. "Passable" takes away everyone's responsibility. Iwata: It's unsettling, because at that point the discussion is taking places without any set values.
November 29, 2025 at 1:46 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on being thankful for fans that look for deeper meanings, 2013.

Source: Zelda Dungeon

#Zelda
#TheLegendofZeldaSeriesQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/14aac30108d4...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 50. Franchise Producer of the Zelda series. QUOTE: Aonuma: From the perspective of others, we may be obsessed with details, but in reality we aren’t really like that. … That’s why the psychology of our fans can be funny at times. They look for deeper meanings in things. “How does it fit into the timeline?” and so on. But we want some flexibility outside of that setting. But since this is a series, we tied ourselves to certain things. I’m thankful for having fans that will go that far. I even want to make games for the people who say “This wasn’t the Zelda I was expecting.”
November 28, 2025 at 2:28 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Nakago on the first time he met Miyamoto, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote, #ExcitebikeQuote
#NakagoQuote, #IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/01d01475fc47...
PEOPLE: - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Main Programmer on Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Excitebike, Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros. & The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Iwata: So your job was to port arcade games like Donkey Kong over to the Famicom? Nakago: That's right. Then around the time that job was coming to an end, someone I didn't know came up behind me and said: “You're Nakago-san, right?” And that turned out to be Miyamoto-san. Iwata: So even though you'd ported Donkey Kong across to the NES, you didn't know Miyamoto-san? [laughs] Nakago: I honestly didn't know anything about him! [laughs] At that time, I didn't even know that anyone by name of Miyamoto was working for the company. Then he came up to me and said: “We're going to be working on Excitebike together.”
November 27, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
maxnichols.bsky.social
New* article!

A history of Ocarina of Time's development, with a specific focus on the new game design problems presented by 3D, and how they solved them.

*I wrote this a few years ago for a magazine. I figure it's been long enough, so on my blog now!

Edited by @paigeedits.bsky.social!

#Zelda
The Seminal Third-Person Adventure - The Nameless Quality
“The masterpiece that people will still be talking about ten years down the road.”– Gamespot review for Ocarina of Time, 1998 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a towering achievement, a game th...
namelessquality.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:15 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Imamura on why he left Nintendo, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

#ImamuraQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/19b41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Object artist for A Link to the Past, Art Director of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Q: Do you remember what it was that made you want to leave Nintendo? You’d been there for many years, but it’s a dream for many to work there. Imamura: It’s actually pretty simple. I quit when I was 55. This is the same for anybody, but life is short. We’ve only got a number of years on this earth and there’s a limit to the amount of things you can do with that time. I was kind of mulling over that and at the same time I got an invitation from the university to come and teach and I thought, “Whoa, this is an opportunity to change things.”
November 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Kondo & Miyamoto on re-using short musical phrases in NES music, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#KondoQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Koji Kondo, age 64. Composer for The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Producer and Director for The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.. QUOTE: Kondo: The Famicom has little memory, so I remember thinking about reducing the size as much as possible for the music. It was hard work. For example, I thought that if I created a single group of phrases as a block, I could use that over and over again. By repeating that process, I think I ended up with a melody that stuck in players’ memories. Miyamoto: In the end, the player will hear those repetitions over and over, even though there are individual differences. … Because I myself started out by developing arcade games, the idea of people walking down the street hearing the music and sound effects coming from the arcade and immediately recognizing it was important.
November 24, 2025 at 11:51 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Fujibayashi on the core of the Zelda series, unchanged over time, 2017.

Source: GamesMaster Magazine

#Zelda
#TheLegendofZeldaSeriesQuote
#FujibayashiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/f5c48fb4baf1...
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.
November 23, 2025 at 8:25 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on how exercise helps him calm his game design thoughts, 1998.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/1a541fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 45. Creator of Zelda and Mario. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department. QUOTE: Interviewer: When you’re exercising, is that when your game ideas bubble up? Do you have an “Aha!” moment? Miyamoto: Hmm, I’d say it's actually the opposite. I exercise to empty my mind, and forget the thoughts that I’ve been stewing over. Once I start making a game however, that’s all I can think about. I start obsessing over the finest details, things like “I set that at 8 but maybe it’s better set at 7.5”. If I don’t get these ideas down right away, I feel sick and then the ideas get frozen and stuck in my head. In short, it's a balance between concentration and disseminating those ideas. In my case, swimming is effective in facilitating that.
November 23, 2025 at 2:07 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on being told that players care about rewards, 2008.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/b5e9f8738b76...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 55. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. QUOTE: Miyamoto: There are lots of reasons for playing video games; because you want to get to the next level, or because you want to see what the next boss you have to fight looks like. I’m told all the time that these kinds of "rewards" really matter to people. But I don’t think that’s necessarily true. What I’m always saying … is that it’s the process that must be fun for people if they’re going to really enjoy the game. … And there are times when game creators use well-made "rewards" as the excuse. For example, if someone invents an ending that they’re really proud of, that they just think is fantastic, then they might end up settling for a less-than-splendid journey.
November 21, 2025 at 4:28 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on Miyamoto's overriding direction for Hyrule Warriors, 2014.

Source: Nintendo Life

#Zelda
#HyruleWarriorsQuote
#AonumaQuote, #MiyamotoQuote, #HayashiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/2a741fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Zelda Franchise Supervisor for Hyrule Warriors. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 61. Creator of Zelda, General Manager of Nintendo EAD. - Yosuke Hayashi, age 35. Development Producer for Hyrule Warriors. QUOTE: Aonuma: At first, when Hayashi-san approached me [about Hyrule Warriors], he wanted to make this title closer to a Zelda game than a Dynasty Warriors game—that extended to having boss battles in the dungeons and certain characters in the game. However, Mr. Miyamoto came along and up-ended the tea table, saying, “No, that should not be the case. What we’re doing here is grafting Zelda onto the Dynasty Warriors experience.” It was a reversal of the original proposal from Hayashi-san, which was adding elements of Dynasty Warriors onto the Zelda franchise. It ended up being the other way around based on Miyamoto’s direction.
November 18, 2025 at 12:25 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyachi on how the Famicom Detective Club remakes began, 2024.

Source: Ask the Developer

#FamicomDetectiveClubQuote,
#MiyachiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/781f98d5a70a...
PEOPLE: - Kaori Miyachi. Coordinator for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Age of Imprisonment, and the Famicom Detective Club remakes. QUOTE: Q: How did the [Famicom Detective Club] remakes for the Switch come about? Miyachi: … An employee from MAGES pitched the idea to Nintendo with incredible passion. Even during a different meeting between our point person for external developers and MAGES., they brought up the subject by saying, “By the way, we’ve updated the remakes proposal we talked about the other day!” and “We’ve also updated the video materials. Here's what we want to create!” and so on. I heard those suggestions continued for more than a year. Seeing how serious they were, our staff started pitching their proposal and reference materials to internal teams, and that’s how it started.
November 16, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Hyrule Interviews
historyofhyrule.com
To keep things organized I made another account where I'm going to post some of the non-Zelda scans I make. Because I collect for Zelda I end up with a lot of rarer stuff from the 80's and I'm finding out that people have been looking for it: bsky.app/profile/its-...
November 16, 2025 at 9:10 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Shigeru Miyamoto turns 73 today!

Miyamoto on how long he wants to be involved in game development, 1999.

Source: The Hyrule Journals ( @javedlsterritt.bsky.social )

#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/24441fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 46. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department. QUOTE: [Answers to a “yes” or “no” survey in Nintendo Dream] Q: “I want to be involved in game development until I die.” Miyamoto: Yes. Q: “I want my children to enter the game industry in the future.” Miyamoto: Either yes or no is fine. Q: “I would like to be the president of Nintendo at least once.” Miyamoto: I don't want to do it even if you ask me. You're not going to ask me, are you? [laughs]
November 16, 2025 at 4:30 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on why Metroid Prime is 1st-person, 2002.

Source: IGN

#MetroidPrimeQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/5899f3beec61...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 49. Producer on Metroid Prime. QUOTE: Miyamoto: People kind of have this tendency to call [Metroid Prime] a first-person shooter because of the perspective, but really we think of Metroid as an exploration game—particularly Samus exploring really tight tunnels and passageways and whatnot. When you get into really tight places like that, the third-person camera can be difficult and that's why we went with the first-person camera.
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Mori on the first take of Ganondorf's voice in Ocarina of Time, 1998.

Source: GlitterBerri's Game Translations

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#MoriQuote, #NagasakoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/0e093b226205...
PEOPLE: - Naoki Mori. Ocarina of Time Cinema Scene Director. - Takashi Nagasako. Voice of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time. QUOTE: Mori: In [Ocarina of Time] there are bits of voice acting here and there, but the voice actor in charge of playing Ganondorf in the first cutscene you see really made him seem like a devil, somehow awful and evil. Afterwards I took the actor aside and asked him not to play a demon, but cool and dangerous at the same time. A voice like cheap wine.
November 12, 2025 at 8:03 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on playing a Musou crossover before Hyrule Warriors, 2014.

Source: Nintendo Life

#Zelda
#HyruleWarriorsQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/2a741fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Zelda Franchise supervisor for Hyrule Warriors. QUOTE: Q: You happened to be playing a Musou game when Koei Tecmo approached you [about making Hyrule Warriors]. Did that affect how you approached the game you were playing at the time? Aonuma: At the time I was playing a Musou collaboration game called One Piece: Pirate Warrior. In this game, you are fighting a battle where there are many bases on the battlefield, and you have to figure out what order you take the bases in—and also the timing in which certain things occur. This is not something that had been in previous Zelda games, and so it was a very exciting idea for me to connect with.
November 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Fujibayashi on a reason why Tears of the Kingdom has the Depths, 2023.

Source: Polygon

#Zelda
#TearsoftheKingdomQuote
#FujibayashiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/54f2e16d70b8...
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.
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Nakago & Miyamoto on collaborating as director and programmer in the 80s, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #NakagoQuote, #TezukaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Producer and Director of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - Toshihiko Nakago, age 68. Lead Programmer of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. - Takashi Tezuka, age 64. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros., Director of The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Miyamoto: Though Nakago-san is a programmer, I invited him to planning meetings [for Super Mario Bros.] with us. Aside from the music, it was the three of us for the most part. We did anything and everything we could. Nakago: When working on the programming, I even brought in Miyamoto-san and the others to devise how to structure the game data. We've always been involved in all sorts of things. Miyamoto: … It was my job to present game ideas that can be conveyed to programmers, and even before Super Marlo Bros., Nakago-san would get mad at me. It felt like he was my editor or something, saying, “If you continue doing this, it’s never gonna get done!” [Laughs]
November 9, 2025 at 4:44 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on Super Mario Galaxy music, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Museum

#SuperMarioGalaxyQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #KondoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Creator of Zelda & Mario, Producer of Super Mario Galaxy. - Koji Kondo, age 64. Original composer for Zelda & Mario, and Super Mario Galaxy. QUOTE: Miyamoto: For Super Mario Galaxy, we had other team members make the music. And the music was good, but there were times where I felt it wasn’t “Mario” enough. And when Kondo-san composed the music for the observatory where Rosalina is, I felt like, “Oh, now THAT’S Mario.” No one else seemed to get it though. It makes you wonder. Kondo: At the time, you didn’t come out and say, like, “That’s bad,” or anything, Miyamoto-san, but I don’t remember getting praise. Today, though, you’re really laying it on. Miyamoto: I’m the type of person who gets better when he gets praise, but I think I haven’t given much praise. [Laughs]
November 7, 2025 at 11:42 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Matsushita on the challenge of writing Princess Zelda in Age of Calamity, 2020.

Source: Polygon

#Zelda
#HyruleWarriorsAgeofCalamityQuote
#MatsushitaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/20041fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Ryota Matsushita. Director of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. QUOTE: Which character was the most challenging to design or write [for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity]? Matsushita: I think it’s Princess Zelda. While she also serves as the most important representation of the Zelda series as a whole, her character always has to have a sense of delicacy in all of her scenes. It was a difficult challenge for us to figure out a way to get that character to do Warriors-style action sequences.
November 7, 2025 at 1:49 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Hayashi on shared memories creating a common language, 2025.

Source: Creator's Voice

#HayashiQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/1f941fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Yosuke Hayashi, age 46. Producer for Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity, and Age of Imprisonment. QUOTE: Hayashi: Games are kind of like tools for sharing memories in that there are common experiences players have. For example, in the Legend of Zelda games, there are mechanics like "here's what you do if you find a cracked wall" or "do this when Ganondorf summons a ball of energy." These experiences are shared by everyone as a common language, and that's what makes them so appealing.
November 5, 2025 at 5:04 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Hirono & Kobayashi on Zelda's design in Skyward Sword, 2013.

Source: Hyrule Historia

#Zelda
#SkywardSwordQuote
#KobayashiQuote, #HironoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/29a41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Ryūji Kobayashi. Player Design Lead in Skyward Sword. - Akiko Hirono. NPC Designer in Skyward Sword. QUOTE: Hirono/Kobayashi*: [In Skyward Sword, Zelda] isn’t a princess, So the first thing we did was remove any sort of regal ornamentation from her head. Afterward, her look was much too simple... We wanted her to look like a typical village girl, but we also wanted to establish her as a heroine at the same time, so this is what we decided upon. Her outfit is a pretty sky blue, and compared to previous iterations, we went with a dress that was more red than purple. We had a director who requested Goddess Zelda be dressed “simply, and in white.” *It’s unclear who is speaking
November 4, 2025 at 4:24 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on playing unspoiled being more "Zelda-like", 1998.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/1a541fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 45. Producer of Ocarina of Time. QUOTE: Miyamoto: Zelda is a game series that is fun to play because of the puzzle solving elements—at least for me. I think that in this way, if you watch other people play the game or follow a strategy guide while playing you reduce the amount of “Zelda-like fun”. I think you would maximize the fun of the game by playing with a subjective feeling, almost as if you yourself were Link. Therefore, I think players will find the most satisfaction when playing [Ocarina of Time] with this mindset and saying things like “The game is fun because I'm playing it!”. I’d honestly be over the moon if players experienced our game in this way.
November 3, 2025 at 4:48 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on the "interesting misunderstanding" of Kakariko Village, 1999.

Source: The Hyrule Journals ( @javedlsterritt.bsky.social )

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/24441fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 46. Producer of Ocarina of Time. QUOTE: Miyamoto: [We had] been working in the flat world of the Famicom, so we tend to think about the flat layout of the area first, but real villages are different. When I watch TV programs or actually visit villages, I often see that many of them are located on slopes. There are fields, houses, and mountains in the background. So, in [Ocarina of Time], we decided to create a village with ups and downs. The image I had in mind was terraced fields, a waterwheel, and a winding path leading down to a well at the bottom, but what actually ended up being built resembled the form of a staircase [laughs]. But I thought, “This is good too,” and the designer made it on their own, which led to an interesting misunderstanding.
November 1, 2025 at 5:13 PM