Iwata Asks Volume 7

Posted on November 17 2011 by Djinn

Another update of the popular Iwata Asks interviews has been posted on the Nintendo Website again this week. In this most recent edition we hear from the femal staff that worked on Skyward Sword.

This may just be my own idea, but I think many people have the impression that a bunch of guys make The Legend of Zelda games. The Animal Crossing1 game might give an impression as if a lot of women are involved, but The Legend of Zelda is a game in which a hero fights with a sword and shield. Actually, a lot of female staff members are involved with it, so today I would like to ask about how you invested this game with your sensibilities and your own personalities.

There are a few spoilers so beware. The highlights are just after the jump.

Hisada originally came onto the Twilight Princess team without having played a Legend of Zelda game, so she started with Ocarina of Time.
She didn’t have the courage to finish the Deku Tree stage, so she talked to the staff to learn more of the Zelda logic and approach
this lead to better understanding what Zelda is all about
the dev team also finds it fun to startle players by putting certain enemies in locations
Hosaka and Marunami both started the Zelda series with Wind Waker
the ideas of many staffers build up into the personalities of characters
Hirono tried to make Skyward Sword’s characters feel familiar and cute even if they looked weird
character details aren’t determined at the start, and requests are usually along the lines of, “Make him sort of such-and-such.”
the setting of Skyloft lead to character/location ideas like “Flowing cloaks would be cool,” and “The climate must be cool.”
the only direction originally given for Ghirahim was, “He is an opponent for sword battle, and a Demon Lord who has some sort of objective, and his personality was a little affected and vain.”
the reason Ghirahim has so many diamonds attached to his design is because the dev team used “shape to serve as a symbol of a character”, giving him a stronger impression
Ghirahim’s tongue has form and joint structure
Mogmas will cheer you on when you do well in certain situations
there is one portion of the game where all your items are taken away, and you have to use a different approach to get past enemies and recollect your items
items from Skyloft were designed with a simple approach, matching the people of the town
items of the Goddess were made with the approach of “mysterious metal or mysterious material that is oddly smooth.”
the dev team even factors in what the people of Skyloft would build their homes with, figuring that trees would be quite scarce, and therefor too valuable to chop down and make homes out of
the visual approach to the game was made to give “something that doesn’t look scary at first glance is easier to take in your hands”
characters and enemies were originally in the watercolor design we see now, but they blended in too much with the background
the team then switched to what they call ‘half-toon rendering’ for the characters and enemies
this still lead to the team adjusting colors on each item to make sure everything fit right
bombs were originally a darker blue, but they would just fade into the background with that coloring
Rupees were made bigger this time to make them more irresistable
heart flowers came about because the dev team said, why not heart flowers if there are bomb flowers?
the original design approach for the Stamina Fruit was, “a plant growing various places. It looks like it would give you strength and like it would taste crisp and refreshing.”