#IwataQuote

[hyruleinterviews]

In honor of David Lynch (1946-2025)

In honor of David Lynch (1946-2025), some quotes about how his work on Twin Peaks influenced the Zelda series.

Quote 1:

PEOPLE:

Kensuke Tanabe, age 35. Link’s Awakening Writer.

Takashi Tezuka, age 38. Link’s Awakening Game Director.

Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 30. Link’s Awakening Writer.

QUOTE: "Tanabe: When I started [on Link’s Awakening] I was given a list of requirements by the director, Mr. Tezuka, such as no Triforce, no Princess Zelda, no Hyrule, and a closed field. …

Mr. Tezuka requested a world full of strange characters like in Twin Peaks, which was a popular show back then. I then wrote a script that fit my vision of an egg hatching on a mountaintop ending the world with Koizumi’s ‘Your dream? Or someone else’s dream?’ Koizumi worked on the main thread of the story and I did the odd characters. "

Quote #2:

PEOPLE:

Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Director of Link’s Awakening.

Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Director or Producer of various Zelda games.

Satoru Iwata, age 49. 4th President of NIntendo.

QUOTE: "Tezuka: Oh, right, about Twin Peaks…

Aonuma: Whoa, here we go. [laughs] Iwata-san, do you know about Twin Peaks?

Iwata: No. Bring me up to speed. [laughs]

Tezuka: We were talking about this before you arrived. I was talking about fashioning The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening with a feel that's somewhat like Twin Peaks. At the time, Twin Peaks was rather popular. The drama was all about a small number of characters in a small town.

Iwata: Okay…

Tezuka: So when it came to Link's Awakening, I wanted to make something that, while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep and distinctive characteristics."

Quote #3:

PEOPLE:

Mark Frost, age 70. Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Twin Peaks.

QUOTE: "Q: [Interviewer asks about his meeting with Nintendo developers, who were reportedly inspired by Twin Peaks for Link’s Awakening]

Frost: They were talking to me about a Twin Peaks game, and they mentioned Zelda at the time. They said, ‘One of the things we love about your show [Twin Peaks] is how there’s all sorts of sideways associations that can drive the story forward.’ They asked me about that as they were thinking about expanding the Zelda universe.

… I’d played lots of Dungeons & Dragons when I was young, so I was familiar with the kind of story they were thinking about. I think I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to use dreamlike, Jungian symbolism. Things can connect thematically without having to connect concretely.’ It was things like that that I was urging them [to consider]."

Quote #4:

PEOPLE:

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time.

QUOTE: "Miyamoto: I didn't want to tell a story [in Ocarina of Time] so much as I wanted to have a lot of people appear around the main character and portray their relationships. Some years back, a television show called Twin Peaks was popular. When I saw that, the most interesting thing wasn't the ins and outs of the story, but what kinds of characters appeared.

… I think those suspicious and odd characters alone are interesting. I'm more interested in their presence than who is whose cousin and whose parents were sworn enemies way back when. … What's important is what role that person plays and how they contribute to portraying the main character."

[hyruleinterviews]

Linktober #17: Dragon Takizawa, Iwata, and Morita on a Volvagia animation shortcut, 2011. Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/94f214a3332f4b778f44b4e26a32ac8f

[hyruleinterviews]

Reggie Fils-Aimé on convincing Iwata and Miyamoto to bundle Wii Sports with the Wii

Source: Disrupting the Game (Fils-Aimé, 2019)

https://hyruleinterviews.notion.site/Fils-Aim-on-convincing-Iwata-to-pack-Wii-Sports-with-the-Wii-1cc41fe961fd806cb500db1965313244?pvs=4

https://hyruleinterviews.notion.site/Fils-Aim-on-convincing-Miyamoto-to-pack-Wii-Sports-with-the-Wii-1cc41fe961fd80e284a7d542639bf9e8?pvs=4

Quote 1:

PEOPLE:

Reggie Fils-Aimé. President of Nintendo of America (2006-2019).

Satoru Iwata. President of Nintendo (2002-2015).

QUOTE: "Fils-Aimé: We knew we had something magical in Wii Sports.

I advocated packing Wii Sports with Wii so that every consumer would get access to this great content. After I made this suggestion, Mr. Iwata paused long enough for me to notice the faint buzz of the incandescent lighting in his office and get uncomfortable.

‘Reggie,’ Mr. Iwata said, ‘Nintendo does not give away precious content for free. We work hard to create special experiences. It is unique software that motivates consumers to buy our hardware. And we expect to sell these games over extended periods of time. No, we should not pack in Wii Sports.’"

Quote #2:

PEOPLE:

Reggie Fils-Aimé. President of Nintendo of America (2006-2019).

Satoru Iwata. President of Nintendo (2002-2015).

Shigeru Miyamoto. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD.

QUOTE: "Fils-Aimé: Even after convincing Mr. Iwata that this was the right approach, I would also need to get Shigeru Miyamoto to agree [to bundling Wii Sports with the Wii in North America].

… The world’s best game designer was not happy. The ever-present smile and impish squint of Mr. Miyamoto’s eyes were gone. ‘[You don’t] understand the challenges of creating software that people love to play. This is something we constantly push ourselves to do. We do not give away our software,’ Mr. Miyamoto stated.

Mr. Iwata, however, was already sparking to our ideas. ‘Miyamoto-san, I am sure that … Reggie-san appreciates the effort of the developers. [He is] trying to solve for a different situation than ours in Japan.’"

[hyruleinterviews]

Aonuma quotes about the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, 2009, 2011.

Sources: Iwata Asks, The Guardian

https://www.notion.so/951cd9281b9c476fb231dc12c4243e87 https://www.notion.so/37ae9483800644c19df80c9c7db6914f

QUOTE 1:

PEOPLE:

Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director.

QUOTE: "Aonuma: The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time was notorious for being very tough to conquer. I am most sorry that it was not easy for you to put on and take off the heavy boots; that all the time you had to visit the inventory. I am very sorry about that. I should have made it much easier to switch to the heavy boots.

Aside from the problem with the boots, I like the Water Temple so much."

QUOTE 2:

PEOPLE:

Eiji Aonuma, age 48. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director, Ocarina of Time 3D Producer.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Iwata: Aonuma-san, what was your motivation for making Ocarina of Time 3D?

Aonuma: As I alluded to when I introduced myself earlier, I wanted to do something about the Water Temple. Everyone talks about it, so it's been a longstanding wish of mine these 13 years!

Iwata: No matter how much praise Ocarina of Time has garnered, the Water Temple has always been an issue—like a bone caught in your throat for 13 years.

Aonuma: Yeah. The worst thing was thinking about how many people may have given up there. So this time, if we used the Nintendo 3DS system's two screens, I thought, ‘Link can put on and take off his Iron Boots in a flash!’ So we were like, ‘Let's do it!’"

[hyruleinterviews]

Hirono on the direction she was given to design Ghirahim in Skyward Sword, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/6872a98342664fe8ae28f95354d67ca6

PEOPLE:

Akiko Hirono. Character Designer for Skyward Sword.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. 4th President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Iwata: What were you given to begin working with [for Ghirahim’s design in Skyward Sword]?

Hirono: 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.

Iwata: That was your assignment, and that's how he ended up?! [laughs]

Hirono: He's an important character, but I didn't have any more details, so we all threw out ideas and solidified his image. Design-wise, the opinion arose that if there is a shape to serve as a symbol of a character, that character will make a stronger impression, so he turned out with a design that features lots of diamond shapes."

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on people without the time and energy walking away, 2009.

Source: Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars

https://www.notion.so/bc2e76b023bd4ac597b36c8affcb97ff

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Iwata: We did a lot of thinking and investigating, but no matter how we looked at it, fewer people were playing games [in the early 2000s]. It wasn’t that children weren’t playing games any more—but they were graduating from them earlier. It used to be that they’d come home early and have plenty if time to play, but that time had disappeared from society as a whole.

The result of all our hard work on making wonderful games was that people without the time and energy to devote to them were just saying ‘heck with it’ and walking away. The more we investigated this, the more severe we realized the problem was."

[hyruleinterviews]

Miyamoto on "not feeling" like making a sequel to Nintendogs, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/c7094a87dbf9466e8320a85772c6fdf1

PEOPLE:

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda. General Producer of Nintendogs and Nintendogs + Cats.

Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Miyamoto: To be honest, I didn't feel like making a follow-up Nintendogs at the time.

Iwata: The motivation for making the first Nintendogs game was when you first got a dog, but even if you could imagine a game with other animals, you didn't feel like making one.

Miyamoto: Right. I thought dogs were special at the time. Besides, I thought if cats followed dogs, it just wouldn't be like Nintendo.

… I thought that with Nintendogs we had done something new beyond what previous pet-raising simulation games had offered, and I thought it would be great if third parties came out with all kinds of similar products. Besides, I didn't have a cat yet back then. [laughs]"

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on questions they began asking after the success of the DS.

Source: Nintendo Magic (Inoue, 2009)

https://www.notion.so/bc2e76b023bd4ac597b36c8affcb97ff

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata. President of Nintendo from 2002 to 2015.

Genyo Takeda. General Manager of Nintendo R&D3, which created most of Nintendo’s console hardware.

QUOTE: "Iwata: The more positive feedback we got on the DS, the more we asked questions like ‘do we need a home console at all?’ Some of the stuff would have terrified Takeda had he heard them. [laughs]

It’s no good if the only difference is the home console using a big LCD screen, and the portable using a small one. We had many conversations about the raison d’etre of a home console. "

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on how Yamauchi would grin ‘like crazy’ in private, 2019.

Source: Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO

https://www.notion.so/0f7756f19ab8411bb1eef8876704379b

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, age 59. President of HAL from 1993-2000, President of Nintendo from 2002-2015.

Shigesato Itoi, age 70. Creator of Earthbound, My Neighbor Totoro voice actor, Iron Chef judge, founder of Ape, Inc (later: Creatures, Inc)..

Hiroshi Yamauchi, age 91. President of Nintendo from 1949 to 2002.

QUOTE: "Iwata: I had the opportunity two or three times a year to sit down with Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo at the time. Shigesato Itoi was also there, and sometimes Shigeru Miyamoto would join us.

I’m still not sure what Hiroshi Yamauchi had in mind when he set up these meetings, but I know they were valuable lessons for me. He must have known we were an eager audience. Despite being extremely busy, he set aside his valuable time to enthusiastically share his thoughts. President Yamauchi was infamous for never smiling, but when he spoke with us, he always grinned like crazy. "

[hyruleinterviews]

Miyamoto & Iwata on working with the constraints of arcade circuit boards, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/309b8c7728614e5c85f3faa04f2c9316

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo.

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Donkey Kong. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more.

QUOTE: "Iwata: The ‘board’ that you just mentioned is the circuit board inside the arcade game cabinet. At that time, there was a fair amount of individuality, shall we say, in each machine and, depending on the specific type of hardware, there were different limitations imposed.

Miyamoto: As we wanted [Donkey Kong] to be played on at least four connected screens, we simply referred to that as ‘scrolling’. [laughs] … The technical supervisor at the time asked us what on earth we were thinking: ‘One screen is plenty for a regular game! But you're making four separate screens! You might as well ask us to make four different games!’"

[hyruleinterviews]

Miyamoto & Iwata on single floating blocks and believability, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/309b8c7728614e5c85f3faa04f2c9316

PEOPLE:

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros., Director & Artist for Donkey Kong.

Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Miyamoto: Sometimes there'll be a single block floating in mid-air, right? When I first made that [in Super Mario Bros.], I thought it was totally outrageous.

Even when I was working on Donkey Kong, I'd design things properly. I'd make sure that if there was a floor here, then there'd be a pillar somewhere to support it. …

When we made the game, it would start off with a large number of blocks and Mario would go along smashing those until there was just a single block floating there. We decided that ending up with just one block floating there didn't seem to feel unnatural.

Iwata: But why doesn't it fall? [laughs]

Miyamoto: Well, it's actually connected round the back… [laughs]"

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on what Yamauchi couldn’t stand in Nintendo products, 2009.

Source: Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars

https://www.notion.so/bc2e76b023bd4ac597b36c8affcb97ff

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo from 2002-2015.

Hiroshi Yamauchi, age 81. President of Nintendo from 1949-2002.

QUOTE: "Iwata: What did Hiroshi Yamauchi care about? He couldn’t stand making the same kind of toy the other guy was making, so whatever you showed him, you knew he was going to ask, ‘How is this different from what everybody else is doing?’

The worst way to answer was to tell him, ‘It’s not different, it’s just a little better’. He’d be furious. He was very clear on just how foolish that attitude was for a toy company."

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on the depth and wonder of making games (Inoue, 2009)

Source: Nintendo Magic

https://www.notion.so/bc2e76b023bd4ac597b36c8affcb97ff

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Iwata: I feel there’s a depth, a wonder to the act of making games. Creating a single game involved constant trial and error, integrating control and play while remaining true to your theme, your concept. You wade through the vast possibilities, converging on a product. I really don’t think there’s anything like it. "

[hyruleinterviews]

Ota & Iwata on temperature drift for the Wii MotionPlus, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/b84e83e6ba56468282e47386ef4d0975

PEOPLE:

Keizo Ota. Programming support on Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. SDK Developer for Wii MotionPlus.

Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Ota: The sensitivity of the [Wii MotionPlus] gyro sensor's detection ability could be adversely affected by changes in the surrounding temperature. … Normally, if something is not in motion, the data being sent back should read zero. But in the case of the gyro sensor, even when it's perfectly still, data that reads one or two will start to be sent back after a while.

Iwata: So although no one is touching it, it's behaving as if it were in motion.

Ota: The technical term for this phenomenon is ‘temperature drift.’ … It's not just temperature that can do it: humidity or sudden impacts can have the same effect."

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on an “uncanny fusion of scattered thoughts”

Source: Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO (Hobonichi, 2019)

https://www.notion.so/cb278bf9f77248869a5d023adbaf916a

PEOPLE:

Satoru Iwata. President of Nintendo.

QUOTE: "Iwata: The controller for the Wii, which you can operate one-handed, seems like it was a foregone conclusion, but it was less the result of one person coming up with a great idea and more the uncanny fusion of the scattered thoughts of a large number of people following an unlikely path to it’s conclusion.

Leading up to the release of the Wii, we produced boxes upon boxes of mock-ups and prototype devices and software, none of which were a waste of time. There was an outpouring of ideas, and when we came upon a handful of fortuitous technologies, all kinds of problems were solved at once. "

[hyruleinterviews]

Iwata on Nakago & Tezuka's relationship with Miyamoto , 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

https://www.notion.so/01d01475fc4749f29efa7a7dcd9610e1

PEOPLE:

Takashi Tezuka, age 48. Assistant Director of Super Mario Bros., co-director of The Legend of Zelda.

Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Programmer for Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.

Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director & Producer of of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.

QUOTE: "Iwata: Now the two of you have lunch with Miyamoto-san on a more or less daily basis. I sometimes join you, which means that we've spent a lot of time together. But this is the first time we've ever spoken in this kind of formal setting.

… You know, I always got the sense that you were suspicious that there was some kind of ulterior motive behind these interviews. [laughs]

Tezuka: Well, I always thought it would be better to stay out of them. [laughs]

Iwata: [laughs] Well, I asked you to join me for this interview because I felt that it was impossible to discuss the history of Mario without reference to the triangle formed by Miyamoto-san, Tezuka-san and Nakago-san."