4. Link Over the Edge

Iwata:

This Legend of Zelda game is exactly what its name suggests, and while Zelda isn’t a princess this time, she is heavily featured.

Aonuma:

Yes. Mori-san has really dedicated himself to how to portray Zelda. That was true for Tetra in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass4, Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks5 and, to go back even further, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.6 4The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: A stylus-controlled action-adventure game released in June 2007 in Japan as the first title in the Legend of Zelda series for the Nintendo DS system. 5The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: A stylus-controlled action-adventure game released for the Nintendo DS system in December 2009. 6The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: An action-adventure game released for the Nintendo 64 system in November 1998 in Japan.

Iwata:

Mori-san, what were you in charge of for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?

Mori:

I was director of cinematics.

Aonuma:

Some people are still playing it, so I can’t be too specific, but the last scene.

Iwata:

Yes?

Aonuma:

He just couldn’t settle on an expression for her face.

Mori:

Yes, that’s right.

Aonuma:

Did you eventually find something that satisfied you?

Mori:

That was for the Nintendo 64 system, so there were hardware limitations to what we could express.

Iwata:

There were severe constraints on representing facial expressions on the characters.

Mori:

Yes. I asked about adding one more expression for eyes, but they said it was impossible.

Iwata:

You couldn’t do it the way you wanted.

Mori:

I proceeded with what was available, but it just didn’t look right to me. I ended up frustrated to the very end.

Aonuma:

Ever since, Mori-san has wanted Zelda to have more vivid facial expressions.

Mori:

That’s right. Later on, I worked on storyboards based upon scripts that others had written, but The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was the first time I wrote scripts for cinematic scenes. That was fairly...

Iwata:

Fairly what?

Mori:

(looking slightly embarrassed) I thought, “Yes! This is my Zelda!!”

Iwata Asks
Everyone:

(laughs)

Aonuma:

Oh! I like that honesty! (laughs) He talked earlier about breathing life into the characters, and I knew Mori-san would portray Zelda so she would possess a great deal of charm. This time there are also Mori-isms.

Iwata:

Mori-isms?

Fujibayashi:

Here and there, you run across wording that we call Mori-isms.

Aonuma:

Sometimes I can even cry a little from his writings. I’ll say, “So he decided to put this line here?” (laughs) They really hit home. Like, there are several places where I thought, “Ah, these are Mori-isms.” Those wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Mori-san, who has portrayed Zelda for so long.

Fujibayashi:

Because of that, when I wrote the synopsis, I left some places blank on purpose so Mori-san could fill them in.

Iwata:

You wanted him to fill them in with Mori-isms. (laughs)

Fujibayashi:

Yes. I wanted to leave the blanks to him. But I have my own preferences, so I wrote those places where I thought, “I definitely want this line to go in!”

Iwata:

And those are Maro-isms? (laughs)

Fujibayashi:

Well, we were a good duo and worked well off each other. (Editor’s note: “Maro-ism” is a play on words taken from the last part of Fujibayashi-san’s first name Hidemaro to contrast with the Mori-ism mentioned earlier.)

Mori:

Yes. But Fujibayashi-san can be really particular, too. For example, Zelda has a slightly mischievous side to her this time. In order to emphasise that personality, there’s an early scene in Fujibayashi-san’s script where she pushes Link off Skyloft!

Iwata:

Zelda shoves Link over the edge?!

Mori:

Yes. For some reason or another, she did it about three times.

Iwata:

Three times?! (laughs)

Iwata Asks
Mori:

Yes, because you can only repeat the same gag three times. (laughs)

Fujibayashi:

I did that for two reasons. One was, as Mori-san just mentioned, that I wanted to give Zelda a mischievous personality, and the other is that I wanted to emphasise how they were up in the sky.

Iwata:

Such a scene arose because the first setting is up in the sky.

Fujibayashi:

I wanted to emphasise how they were living someplace really high. But it is true that we’ve never had anyone push Link off from a high place before.

Aonuma:

If he fell from the sky, he would die, so as a bit of mischief, I wondered, “Isn’t that going a bit far?!” (laughs)

Fujibayashi:

I wanted to show how such occurrences were an everyday thing on Skyloft. If someone pushed you and you fell, your Loftwing would intercept you in the air.

Aonuma:

I guess you wouldn’t die.

Fujibayashi:

And you like that kind of thing, right, Mori-san? I mean, girls pushing around boys.

Mori:

Huh? Well... (laughs)

Everyone:

(laughs)

Fujibayashi:

So I told Mori-san to do a good job putting it together, and passed on to him the ingredient of Zelda pushing Link three times.

Mori:

When I received that ingredient, I understood that it was something that happened on a daily basis, but even Link would panic if he got pushed off all of a sudden.

Iwata:

It would be surprising.

Mori:

You’d really let out a scream, right? No matter how often it happened, it wouldn’t look right if Link just calmly accepted it with an unconcerned expression. I went to put in Link’s reaction, but when Miyamoto-san saw that he said, “Why is Link so surprised?” and “This is normal on Skyloft, right?” I thought, “Yes, I guess he’s right.”

Iwata:

But it would be strange to stay calm when pushed off like that.

Mori:

Yes. I wondered how I should make it look, but Miyamoto-san thought of a reason for why Link would be surprised when pushed off.

Iwata:

He didn’t just say, “Why is he surprised?” He also came up with an idea for you.

Mori:

Yes.

Fujibayashi:

So we fixed up the beginning a lot.

Aonuma:

Yes. Many times.

Fujibayashi:

Miyamoto-san said it just didn’t strike the right note. In the end, we have decreased the number of times Zelda pushes Link off to two.

Iwata:

When Miyamoto-san makes his final check, he pays a lot of attention to how it will look to people playing in that world for the first time.

Aonuma:

Yes, he does.

Iwata:

The longer development lasts, the harder it becomes for the staff to see that. One of Miyamoto-san’s important roles is viewing the game from the perspective of a first-time player.

Mori:

Yes. We were really thankful for that.

Fujibayashi:

We reworked that scene over and over, so I hope everyone will pay attention when Zelda pushes Link off Skyloft! (laughs)