Ki no ue no Himitsu kichi Ocarina of Time interview - Osawa and Takizawa comments
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A very big thanks to Zethar-II for translating these comments.
Below are translations by Zethar-II of comments from a couple of the staff from Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one from the Character Designer of Ocarina of Time, Satoru Takizawa, and one from the Script Director of Ocarina of Time, Toru Osawa. The interview is from a site called Ki no ue no Himitsu kichi , and apparently this site does very extensive interviews with the people behind video games, this whole OoT interview in particular is actually 21 pages of comments from the staff of Ocarina of Time. A unique thing about this interview is that it is not just Miyamoto or Aonuma being questioned, but other Zelda team staff such as those below. The original forum topic where this interview was posted about can be found here.
The entire Ocarina of Time interview can be found here http://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin1/index.htmIn the comments below, Satoru Takizawa talks about designing Ganon for Ocarina of Time and mentions that they were doing the backstory of A Link to the Past, which includes the Seal of the 7 Sages and the Imprisoning War (or "Seal War"), while Toru Osawa comments on how Ocarina of Time links with the previous games, such as the town names of Zelda 2.
http://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin1/nin1-6.htm
The Villain of This Game:
Apparently, it is designed so that "Ganondorf is bad, but has some good parts."
The first thing we thought of on Ganon was why did you make him that kind of character?
When I first thought about Ganon, I had the image of a crooked and complex thief, who was basically an all around abominable human being. That's why I wanted to make Ganon to this image I had, but the Design Team and the Script Director Mr. Osawa said "that's not the case. This time, Ganon will actually have parts where he is rather good." In terms of "Fist of the North Star"* he'd probably be like Raoh. He's supposed to be a more good man**, with lot's of charisma and a big-shot attitude, and so we remade him.
*a comic book series, and later a TV show
**the connotation for "man" is a younger one
We made three forms of Ganon: Ganondorf in the beginning, Ganondorf seven years later with long hair, and Ganon at the end. Just to let you know, Ganondorf actually has a tentative model. We kept Christopher Lambert's image in our heads.... But the end result came out quite different we think.
In past, when you thought about Ganon in Zelda, he was a pig. This time, when were collaborating ideas, we thought "He wouldn't be a pig, would he?" There were even some who thought "I don't want him to be a pig." But I still thought that at least the end should have Ganon as a pig. The whole time I wanted to know what Mr. Miyamoto thought, but in the end, I realized that Mr. Miyamoto didn't have an opinion on the matter, so I decided to do it the way I wanted.
This time, the story really wasn't an original. We were dealing with the "The Imprisoning War of the Seven Sages" from the SNES edition Zelda. To give that game a little "secret" recognition, I thought that keeping the "pigness" in Ganon would be the correct course. So we made him a beast "with the feeling of a pig."
Well, in that sense, "a pig is a pig." When he transforms, and we see the rise of face, there is that not quite concealed feeling of a pig left.
You know there's that cold medicine "Kaigen"*? Well, just between the staff, you know the "Wind God"** character for "Kaigen," some people have even called Ganon that. (laughs) "I've got a cold!"***
(Character Designer Satoru Takizawa)
*Kaigen is a brand of cold medicine
**The wind god is Kaigen's mascot:
http://www3.osk.3web.ne.jp/~mr001/kami/tachi.gif
I think the staff like calling Ganon the mascot because they sort of look similar.
*** That quote is probably what the Wind God said in his commercials or something.
http://www.1101.com/nintendo/nin1/nin1-12.htm
In this Zelda:
Apparently, "This is that part that you really have to
see." Part 1
Could you please find how this game connects with the previous ones?
Though in this game Zelda is now included in the Seven Sages, the other six have the names of the town names from the Disk System edition "The Adventure of Link."
In the SNES edition game, the story "Long ago, there was a war called the Imprisoning War" was passed along. A name in the Imprisoning War era is the name of a Town later. They were like "pseudo-secrets." We wanted to throw these out through the entirety of the game. That thing from then is now this.
Tarin and Marin, a father and girl who appeared in "Link's Awakening" (GB) were used as the base for a different parent and child who comes out in this game. These are the things that when they are seen by a person who has played Zelda before they will understand. If people begin to think "Do you think that this could be that thing from then?" then I will be happy.
(Script Director Toru Osawa)
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