Shigeru Miyamoto Discusses Ocarina of Time’s Development, Notes Comparisons to Princess Mononoke in Newly Translated Interview

Posted on February 27 2025 by Julia Wilson

A 1998 interview from Japanese magazine GAMEJIN with Shigeru Miyamoto, then the Nintendo Information and Development Division Head, has recently been translated into English by Good Blood, pseudonym of online content creator Javed Sterritt. The interview took place following the release of Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64.

Miyamoto shared some interesting insights into the fauna of Hyrule, starting with the Cuccos, citing a lack of time “to create an animal unique to Hyrule.” However, as the Cucco hunting quest developed, the gameplay evolved as a direct result:

“I wondered what would happen if you held the cucco and then ran, wouldn’t it feel nice if you flew? This led to the solution for what happens when you run off a cliff holding onto a cucco.”

When it came to the creation of Epona, there was debate about what form the mount should take. Should Link’s mode of transport be a horse? Or a mythical creature?

“During development some staff argued about making it a unicorn or a moose but in the end we ended up going with a horse.”

One would think that, if Epona had been a different type of creature, she would have needed a different name, given that “Epona” is a legendary Celtic horse goddess.

In discussing Epona’s role in Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto also notes that the game was influenced by Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, which was developed at the same time:

The game was certainly also influenced by [Ghibli’s] Mr. Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.

Both works were roughly in development around the same time and when we finished, I was surprised at the similarities. Scenes of Link firing the bow and arrow while riding Epona or the Giant Goron walking behind the mountain stirred thoughts like “oh that’s Ashitaka!” or “That looks like the Nightwalker”.

We really struggled with the similarities. However, in the end we decided to really build up Hyrule this time to differentiate it.”

This decision helped inform Ocarina of Time‘s incarnation of Hyrule, which Miyamoto wanted to make into a diverse and vibrant world:

“In my words, it is a sort of “box garden” [hako niwa], a place that feels so real and lively that players are under the illusion that it really exists. In other words, it’s like creating an amusement park so to speak. As an example, if you visit Disneyland over and over again, you naturally memorize the layout/map of the park. It’s our hope that players will remember the land of Hyrule in the same way.”

When asked to describe the appeal of Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto stated that he wanted people to enjoy the game as if they were Link rather than follow a strategy guide or experience it through another player’s gameplay:

“Therefore, I think players will find the most satisfaction when playing 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.”

Miyamoto, who was also responsible for development on Super Mario 64, further spoke about how the capabilities of the Nintendo 64 were utilized. As Ocarina of Time was the first Legend of Zelda with 3D animations, he revealed that the game took the console’s boundaries very close to the limit:

“When we created Mario 64 about 64% of the hardware’s limits were tested, but with this new Zelda, I think we pushed the limits even more. Perhaps I’d say we used about 90% of the capabilities. At first, we tried to use the same tools from Mario 64’s system but we ran into a number of issues with the 3D technology, so we ended up swapping and adjusting a lot of aspects to make things work which took a lot of time and effort (strained laughter).”

You can read the entire translated interview right here. Scans of the original interview in Japanese can be found right here.

We want to thank Javed Sterritt, known by the pseudonym Good Blood, for bringing this interview to the English-speaking world. You can see more of Sterritt’s work on the Good Blood YouTube channel, as well as the Zelda-centric Hyrule Journals YouTube channel.

What do you think? Would you have preferred Epona as a moose or unicorn? Do you think the Ocarina of Time has similarities with Princess Mononoke? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: GAMEJIN (via Good Blood)