#ImamuraQuote
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Imamura on how it didn't feel like the eyes of the world were on them, 2021.

Source: IGN

#ImamuraQuote

www.notion.so/52576cb68c30...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 55. Art Director for Majora’s Mask. Designed Majora’s Mask, Tingle, the bosses in A Link to the Past, and the cast of the F-Zero and Star Fox franchises.. QUOTE: "Imamura: Historically, Nintendo was a relatively small company, so when working there it never felt like we were being watched by the whole world. It felt like working at an energetic local company."
January 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
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Imamura on what's different about developing a game outside of Nintendo, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

#OMEGA6TheTriangleStarsQuote
#ImamuraQuote

www.notion.so/19b41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art director of Majora’s Mask, artist and boss designer for A Link to the Past. QUOTE: Q: What do you love about working outside of Nintendo and how is developing [Omega 6] different now for you? Imamura: Now I enjoy it. I’m happy.
July 18, 2025 at 11:22 PM
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Imamura on keeping up with his old colleagues, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

#ImamuraQuote, #KyogokuQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/19b41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask, Artist in A Link to the Past. Designed the casts of Star Fox and F-Zero. - Aya Kyogoku, age 43. Writer for Twilight Princess and Four Sword Adventures. Director or Producer of most Animal Crossing titles. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 72. Producer or General Producer of all the games mentioned here. QUOTE: "Imamura: For the first six months or so after leaving Nintendo, I kept dreaming I was still going to work. I’d start developing a game and then I’d wake up and go, ‘Oh, oh. Okay that’s weird.’ I actually met with Shigeru Miyamoto once after I left and I said, ‘Hey, long time no see!’ But I actually didn’t feel like that was true since I was seeing him in my dreams all the time. He got a good laugh out of that. Q: You were at Nintendo for such a long time, so were you pretty close with a lot of your colleagues? Yeah, I still keep in contact with all of them. For example, the director of Animal Crossing, Aya Kyogoku, is coming out to see me teach in the classroom in October."
March 30, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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Imamura on Captain Falcon's surprising origins, 2017.

Source: Nintendo Website

#FZeroQuote, #SuperNESQuote
#ImamuraQuote, #ShimizuQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/SNES-Classic...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 51. Art Director of Majora’s Mask, artist for A Link to the Past and F-Zero. - Takao Shimizu, age 52. Director of BS The Legend of Zelda and F-Zero. QUOTE: Q You didn't think about [F-Zero] characters at all during development? Imamura: No. Captain Falcon was originally the mascot character for Super NES. Q: What?! Shimizu: That statement is a bit shocking, isn't it? [laughs] Imamura: Even most people at Nintendo don't know that. When development of F-ZERO was almost complete, I was doing a bunch of illustrations and someone expressed a desire to make a mascot character for Super NES, with a name like Captain Something. … So I started thinking about a character who would match the colors of the Super Famicom controller, with some red and blue and yellow. Q: How did [he] become Captain Falcon of F-Zero? Imamura: I don't really remember.
June 1, 2026 at 10:29 PM
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Linktober #20: Mask

Imamura on where the name “Majora” comes from, 2024.
Source: Zelda Dungeon

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#ImamuraQuote
#Linktober

www.notion.so/d74b83ea9eba...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask. Designer of the mask and the moon. QUOTE: "Imamura: The 'Majora' in Majora's Mask is a mix of 'Imamura' and 'Jumanji.' Really."
October 21, 2024 at 1:39 AM
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Imamura on his sadness over the 3DS and Wii U shop closures, 2023.

Source: Social Media

#TankTroopersQuote, #SteelDiverSubWarsQuote, #StarFoxGuardQuote
#ImamuraQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Takaya-Imamu...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 56. Majora’s Mask Art Director, Director or Supervisor for 3DS and Wii U downloadable games like Star Fox Guard, Steel Diver: Sub Wars, and Tank Troopers. QUOTE: Nintendo Tweet: Nintendo 3DS and Wii U “Nintendo eShop” product sales will end at 9:00 am on March 28, 2023 next week. Imamura Reply: Some of the games I worked on might never be available again... That's a sad thought…
May 7, 2026 at 6:37 PM
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Imamura recalling “the game of his life” in retirement interview, 2021.

Source: IGN

#StarFox64Quote
#ImamuraQuote, #MoritaQuote

www.ign.com/articles/the...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 55. Art Director of Star Fox 64 and, later, Majora’s Mask. - Kazuaki Morita, age 55. Programmer on A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time, & Star Fox 64. QUOTE: Imamura: Star Fox 64 is the game of my life. It was a bit like a reboot, but by using a lot of ideas we couldn’t implement in the original, we managed to enrich the game’s scale. From planning to writing the plot, coming up with the gameplay mechanics and graphics, I really worked hard on this game. I also instructed composers on what kind of music I wanted for it. It started out as an experiment with Kazuaki Morita. … As we continued to work on the prototype, more and more people joined and it started to become serious. From modelling the characters, mechs and enemies to working on effects and backgrounds, I really worked on a lot of things.
May 6, 2026 at 11:34 PM
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#Linktober 28: Mask

Imamura on his task as Majora's Mask art director, 2021.

Source: IGN

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#ImamuraQuote

www.notion.so/52576cb68c30...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 55. Majora’s Mask Art Director. Designer of Majora’s Mask, the Moon, and Tingle. QUOTE: Imamura: We had to develop Majora’s Mask in just one year, so it was a very short development window. When I saw a prototype of the game, I thought it looked too similar to Ocarina of Time, so it became my task to change the look of the game over a short period.
October 28, 2025 at 10:40 PM
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Imamura on why he left Nintendo, 2025.

Source: Nintendo Life

#ImamuraQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/19b41fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Object artist for A Link to the Past, Art Director of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Q: Do you remember what it was that made you want to leave Nintendo? You’d been there for many years, but it’s a dream for many to work there. Imamura: It’s actually pretty simple. I quit when I was 55. This is the same for anybody, but life is short. We’ve only got a number of years on this earth and there’s a limit to the amount of things you can do with that time. I was kind of mulling over that and at the same time I got an invitation from the university to come and teach and I thought, “Whoa, this is an opportunity to change things.”
November 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
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Imamura on where the name “Majora” comes from, 2024.

Source: Zelda Dungeon

#Zelda
#Majora'sMaskQuote
#ImamuraQuote

www.notion.so/d74b83ea9eba...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask. Designer of the mask and the moon. QUOTE: "Imamura: The 'Majora' in Majora's Mask is a mix of 'Imamura' and 'Jumanji.' Really."
May 1, 2024 at 4:57 PM
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Quotes on the real-life counterparts of some quirky characters

Via GlitterBerri's Game Translations (1998), Iwata Asks (2011), and Nintendo Life (2025)

#Zelda
#OcarinaOfTimeQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#MoritaQuote, #HaruhanaQuote, #ImamuraQuote, #TakanoQuote
PEOPLE: - Kazuaki Morita, age 45. Programmer on Ocarina of Time. - Yoshiki Haruhana, age 41. Ocarina of Time Character Artist. - Satoru Iwata, age 51. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: "Morita: I also worked on the fishing minigame [for Ocarina]. Aonuma: You didn't just do the programming, but you also wrote the script for the Pond Owner. ... Haruhana: … Morita-san made lots of requests regarding that character's face and movements. He requested specific movements … and even drew a rough sketch of how his face should look. Iwata: Did you make so many requests because that character was modeled after someone real? Morita: Yes, that's right! [laughs] I like fishing and I'm from an area near Neyagawa in Osaka, and there's a fishing store I used to go to in that neighborhood. My model was the shopkeeper there." PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 58. Art Director of Majora’s Mask. Designer of tingle, the titular Majora’s Mask, and the Moon. QUOTE: "Q: So I know you’re very famous for creating Tingle - was there anything specific that really inspired you to make him? Imamura: The background and the lore of the character was decided beforehand and I was only responsible for the visuals. Basically, I found a guy on the team and drew a caricature and there was Tingle!" PEOPLE: - Yoshiki Haruhana, age 28. Ocarina of Time Character Designer. - Mitsuhiro Takano, age 31. Ocarina of Time Project Coordinator. QUOTE: "Haruhana: There are more than 60 characters in Ocarina of Time! One character takes about 2-3 days to make, so our schedule is always uncertain. We just have to go from one to the next. Fellow staff-member Takano once told me, ‘All the people you make turn out to be freaks.’ I never intend to do that! My response is always ‘Oh, is that so?’ [laughs] For example, Dampe the gravekeeper is a hunchback, right? In Kakariko Village, there’s a guy sitting by himself on top of a house. It was also never my intention to make a character similar to myself, but afterwards 5 people said to me ‘Hey, that’s you!’"
February 18, 2025 at 2:35 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Linktober Day 18: Boss
Imamura on his contributions to A Link to the Past.

Via IGN, 2021.

#Zelda
#ALinkToThePastQuote
#ImamuraQuote
#Linktober

hyruleinterviews.notion.site/The-Man-Who-...
People in quote: -Takaya Imamura, age 55. Object Designer on A Link to the Past. Quote: "Imamura: I designed all the bosses [in A Link to the Past] except for the last one and one other. It was not just the art; I also designed the mechanics together with one of the programmers. For some bosses, we came up with the mechanics just with the two of us, while for others we first received instructions from planners on what kind of enemy they wanted. I also designed the game’s [Japanese] title logo and dungeon maps. Designing dungeon maps is a harsh job, as the dungeons consist of multiple floors and their structure kept changing over the course of development."
October 19, 2023 at 12:46 AM
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Imamura on the last time he worked with Miyamoto, 2021.

Source: IGN

#StarFoxZeroQuote,#StarFoxZeroTheBattleBeginsQuote
#ImamuraQuote,#MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/52576cb68c30...
PEOPLE: - Takaya Imamura, age 55. Majora’s Mask Art Director, artist for A Link to the Past. Supervisor for Star Fox Zero.. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 68. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & Starfox. Director of Star Fox Zero. QUOTE: "Imamura: The last time [Miyamoto and I] really worked together was during the production of Star Fox Zero. I was supervising the project, and Miyamoto wanted to create an anime [Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins]. I worked on the anime very hard together with Production I.G and Wit Studio. I wrote the scenario and storyboard in the early phases of the project, which the professionals then made a really great anime out of. Miyamoto was heavily involved and gave detailed instructions. He was there when we recorded the dialogue, too, so he really cared about the project."
May 19, 2024 at 4:23 AM
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Linktober Day 6: Mask
Imamura on his task as Majora's Mask art director.

Via IGN, 2021

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#ImamuraQuote
#Linktober

hyruleinterviews.notion.site/The-Man-Who-...
People in quote: - Takaya Imamura, age 55. Majora’s Mask Art Director. Designed the titular Majora’s Mask, the Moon, and Tingle. Quote: "Imamura: We had to develop Majora’s Mask in just one year, so it was a very short development window. When I saw a prototype of the game, I thought it looked too similar to Ocarina of Time, so it became my task to change the look of the game over a short period."
October 6, 2023 at 4:09 PM