#MajorasMaskQuote
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Aonuma on how Majora's Mask was a challenge to the players, 2015.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.notion.so/aaab9d927dee...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Aonuma: When we talked about Ocarina of Time … we talked about hospitality. But Majora's Mask isn't like that. It's all a challenge to our players. It's like we're saying to them ‘can you clear this?’ It was something like until then you were welcomed with open arms being invited to come in, and now you're being told at the door to go home if you don't have what it takes! [laughs] … We didn't put in any kind of elements where we show people how to play this game. The game was made for those who have played Ocarina of Time, so I felt like there wasn't a need for step-by-step instructions.
September 30, 2025 at 3:13 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
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
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Koizumi on sneaking story into the Zelda games, 2007.

Source: Wired

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote, #LinksAwakeningQuote
#KoizumiQuote

www.wired.com/2007/12/inte...
PEOPLE: - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 39. Writer for Link’s Awakening & A Link to the Past. 3D Gameplay Director for Ocarina of Time. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Koizumi: I was the one coming up with scenarios, just on my own, ever since the time of Link's Awakening. … I felt like I came up with this entire scenario and a backstory for Link, but nobody really seemed to care. They were always saying “Let's not try to push the story forward too much.” So I would try to find sneaky ways to get it in without them noticing too much. For example, I always liked the idea of you coming upon another character and hearing little bits of conversation that slowly begin to reveal different parts of the story. And that was the way that I tried to work on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
June 9, 2026 at 3:58 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on his favorite music and town, 2017.

Source: Nintendo.com

#Zelda
#TheWindWakerQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/30441fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 53. Director of the The Wind Waker. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask. Zelda series producer. QUOTE: Q: What is your favorite song from Zelda series? Aonuma: There’s this song from The Wind Waker, the music in the battle in the desert against the sand worm, Molgera. I love that song. It has a kind of Japanese feel to it, with the Taiko drums. Q: Clock Town or Hyrule Castle Town – which is your favorite? Aonuma: Clock Town. Clock Town [in Majora’s Mask] is a whole society and microcosm, and I find that interesting.
February 27, 2026 at 4:05 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
#Linktober 13: Town/Village
Shikata on the design of Clock Town, 2000.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#ShikataQuote

www.notion.so/24fa4198de74...
PEOPLE: - Hiromasa Shikata. Field Designer responsible for Clock Town & Romani Ranch in Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Shikata: Organizing all the various parts of [Clocktown in Majora’s Mask] while managing the size was difficult. We created a complicated area so players would feel uneasy and uncomfortable, like they are in a strange town in a foreign country, carrying the sense of uncertainty that comes with that sort of situation. However, “I don't understand it at all” and “I played for a whole day, but I still don't know what to do” among others were many of the opinions that we kept hearing, so we continued to adjust. Now I think getting lost is a positive part of the game.
October 14, 2025 at 6:35 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Kondo on the inspiration for some Majora's Mask themes, 2014.

Source: Gamespot

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#KondoQuote

www.gamespot.com/articles/cre...
PEOPLE: - Koji Kondo, age 53. Composer for Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Kondo: When I saw the very first mask you see in Majora … it really brought to mind for me, for whatever reason, a type of Chinese opera. The kind where the performers wear masks and the music is all percussive, and there’s a lot of cymbals and bells and what not. Those two linked up when I first saw Majora’s artwork, and I thought a Chinese-influenced theme would be the way to go. Something else I remember is in the scene where the mayor is sitting and you have the two sides having a discussion. … You have the people on the left talking about something, and then the people on the right, and there’s this discussion back and forth. I had a lot of fun making the music feel like that argument so that you’d have music pouring in from the left speaker and then music coming in from the right speaker.
September 5, 2026 at 9:13 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Linktober #22: Favorite Character
Aonuma on his favorite. Presented without comment xD

(Couldn't fit alt text, see the description in tumblr post:)
www.tumblr.com/hyruleinterv...

#Zelda
#AonumaQuote, #KoizumiQuote
#TwilightPrincessQuote, #TwilightPrincessHDQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#Linktober
Collage of three quotes. I couldn't fit the alt text, but the tumblr version of this post, linked in the post body, has the full text.
October 22, 2024 at 6:12 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Trying something new today!

Zelda Dev Highlight:
Satomi Asakawa, Character Designer

In (mostly) her own words, Asakawa's game dev career from start to end!

#Zelda
#TwilightPrincessQuote, #OcarinaOfTimeQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#AsakawaQuote

Full image:
drive.google.com/file/d/1ywWD...
A very tall image. it's got 7-8 different quotes on it, an image of Satomi Asakawa, and screenshots of various games that influenced her early in her life and career. A very tall image. it's got 5-6 different quotes on it, screenshots of animation and film that influenced Asakawa, some images of her senior project from DigiPen, and some images of the first characters she designed for Ocarina of Time. A very tall image. It's got 4 different quotes on it, an image of Satomi Asakawa, and screenshots of characters she designed for Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, and Pikmin 2 A very tall image. It's got 2 different quotes on it, and a big collage of art of characters that Asakawa's team designed for Twilight Princess. It also has some photos of her, including some from Twilight Princess development and one from a few years after she retired from Nintendo.
January 20, 2026 at 4:51 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
#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
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on turning down the role of making Master Quest, 2004.

Source: Game Developers Conference (GDC)

#Zelda
#OcarinaofTimeMasterQuestQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote
#AonumaQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/f87f768d9182...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 41. Dungeon Director of Ocarina of Time. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 51. Producer of Ocarina of Time & Ocarina of Time Master Quest. QUOTE: Aonuma: After finishing work on Ocarina of Time, Mr. Miyamoto instructed us to use the Ocarina of Time engine to create [Master Quest]—Ocarina's second version with rearranged dungeon gameplay. But, I felt that just changing around the puzzle solving without changing the overall structure was too limiting. I turned down Mr. Miyamoto's offer and proposed that if anything I wanted to make a new Zelda game. Now, Ura Zelda was developed for the Nintendo 64 disc system that was released only in Japan, and since I turned down this project other staff members developed it. It was finally bundled in the GameCube version of Ocarina and released as The Master Quest.
April 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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Tezuka & Miyamoto on re-using minor characters for a sequel, 2000.

Source: Nintendo Power

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#TezukaQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Nintendo-Pow...
PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 39. Supervisor for Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 47. Producer of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Tezuka: There were a number of characters in Ocarina of Time that we wanted to describe more fully. We didn’t have the means to do it in Ocarina, but in Majora’s Mask we do because players have the opportunity to meet every character in the game and learn more about them. Miyamoto: After seeing Toy Story 2, I realized that Majora’s Mask used a similar technique as the sequel. We focused on some of the minor characters from the original in order to expand the world.
June 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Leung on what the Majora's Mask localization workflow was like, 2022.

Source: The Hyrule Journals (@javedlsterritt.bsky.social)

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#LeungQuote, #TrinenQuote

www.notion.so/ef3ac885e44a...
PEOPLE: - Jason Leung. Majora’s Mask localization. - Bill Trinen, age 50. Majora’s Mask localization. QUOTE: Leung: That's how they did all the game text back then: they'd just export it and import it from an excel file. So it was just thousands and thousands of lines of dialog. I was working [on Majora’s Mask] with Bill Trinen who was in the localization team, and he's very fluent in Japanese. He went through all the different blocks of copy, and he just translated them from Japanese to English. And then I went in there and … I would go in line by line and try to extrapolate what the story is and what the nuances are, or just spice it up with a more conversational style. Come up with the different ways that the different characters would deliver their lines, different personalities, things like that.
July 19, 2025 at 7:42 PM
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Koizumi on repurposing another design for Majora’s Mask, 2000.

Source: GlitterBerri's Game Translations

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#KoizumiQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/29f994ce55ec...
PEOPLE: - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 32. Majora’s Mask Co-Director. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 47. Majora’s Mask Producer. QUOTE: Koizumi: I had already been busy designing another game. But then, Miyamoto… Miyamoto: Recalled you. Koizumi: I heard the whispers: ‘Zelda… Zelda… Zelda…!’ And my game was canned! ... [Laughs] I’d originally been designing a board game, based around the theme of cops and robbers. I wanted to make it so that you technically had to catch the criminal within a week, but, in reality, you could finish the game in an hour. I figured I’d just throw what I already had into Majora’s Mask.
May 11, 2025 at 7:49 PM
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Miyamoto on wanting to make a game where playtime depends on the player, 2000.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote, #TheWindWakerQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

goodblood.games/mmdoublehead...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 47. Producer of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: Miyamoto: Take Ocarina of Time for example, that game took about 60 hours to complete. So people would ask “How many hours of playtime are you planning for [Majora’s Mask]?” and we would respond with something like “Around 80 hours…” and they would invariably follow up with “So the Dolphin game will be about 100 hours?” and we would have to reluctantly say, “Yes…” I really started to feel like we would be working non-stop forever [laughs]. So for [Majora’s Mask], I don’t want to say how many hours it is, instead I want to say something like playtime entirely depends on the player. … The job of Nintendo is to come up with the best game system to create that kind of play.
July 24, 2026 at 5:27 AM
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#Linktober 12: Obscure Character

Koizumi, Aonuma, & Miyamoto on the Ocarina characters they reused for Majora's Mask, 2000.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#KoizumiQuote, #AonumaQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/Koizumi-Aonu...
PEOPLE: - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 32. Majora’s Mask Co-Director. - Eiji Aonuma, age 37. Majora’s Mask Co-Director. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 47. Majora’s Mask Producer. QUOTE: Koizumi: Introducing [Ocarina’s Sages] into a different Zelda world might feel out of place. Instead we decided [in Majora’s Mask] to present characters who weren't deeply explored in the previous games. We gave them different backgrounds and settings to capture the feelings of the people who voted for less popular characters [in Nintendo Dream’s popularity poll]. Q: Anju only got 6 points in our magazine’s rating contents, but she has one of the most involved sidequests doesn’t she?  Aonuma: That's the part where Mr. Koizumi put in the most effort [laughs]. Miyamoto: It was a full-power throw [laughs]. Koizumi: Well, um... I personally liked her a lot [laughs].
October 12, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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Mori on struggling to get the moon falling cutscene just right, 2000.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#MoriQuote, #KuroumeQuote

www.notion.so/24fa4198de74...
PEOPLE: - Naoki Mori. Cinema Scene Support on Majora’s Mask. - Tomoaki Kuroume. Effect Designer on Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: "Mori: I struggled with getting the moon falling cutscenes to feel as powerful as they could be [in Majora’s Mask]. In the end, I think we were able to make it all work because of the hard work of Mr. Kuroume who oversaw effects. Link also sits somewhere on the title screen loop, so be on the lookout for him!"
December 22, 2024 at 9:30 PM
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Aonuma on why Zelda games have stealth sections, 2005.

Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)

#Zelda
#TheWindWakerQuote, #MajorasMaskQuote, #TwilightPrincessQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.notion.so/19841fe961fd...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Ocarina of Time Dungeon Director. Director of Majora’s Mask, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. QUOTE: Aonuma: I really don’t know why, but I love that kind of stealth action. Maybe it’s because I liked it when I was a child... the feeling of walking around and doing something secretly. Since most of the time in The Legend of Zelda, players have to engage in swordfights; it's very active and looks cool, but once again, in terms of making a good contrast, I think working in some quiet, silent, and stealthy moves is a very good idea. So, I'm willing to incorporate some of those stealth-game ideas.
August 31, 2025 at 7:34 PM
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Leung on translating Tingle in Majora's Mask, 2022.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#LeungQuote

www.notion.so/ef3ac885e44a...
PEOPLE: - Jason Leung. Majora’s Mask English Scriptwriter. QUOTE: "Leung: I think the weirdest one is always going to be Tingle. The whole coming up with some sort of weird catch-phrase, and then kinda explaining what he is, and kinda dancing around it without giving anyone any real answer about Tingle. I think that was the most fun part."
November 22, 2024 at 5:41 PM
maxnichols.bsky.social
But Koizumi had another side: the side that invented the backstory of the Triforce & the three goddesses; wrote the dreamlike story of Link's Awakening; designed the 3-day system and directed Clocktown & the bomber's notebook quests in MM.

That romantic side of him didn't get to thrive on Mario IMO
PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Director of Link’s Awakening. - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 41. Writer for Link’s Awakening. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 57. Producer of Link’s Awakening. QUOTE: Tezuka: It looked like [Koizumi] would be good at creating a story, so we lured him into our afterschool club. Koizumi-san was in charge of the opening movie and main story. He's a romantic, and I think that shows in Link's Awakening. He was in charge of the whole flow of the story. Iwata: What was Miyamoto-san doing [during Link’s Awakening development]? Tezuka: I think he was busy with something and didn't pay us much mind. Aonuma & Yoshiaki on co-directing Majora's Mask, 2000. Source: GlitterBerri's Game Translations #Zelda #MajorasMaskQuote #AonumaQuote,#KoizumiQuote https://www.notion.so/29f994ce55ec4439842c50abc3f2fbf2
October 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Koizumi & Aonuma on pulling off a 'good betrayal', 2000.

Via The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#KoizumiQuote,#AonumaQuote

www.notion.so/b9f85e0b047f...
January 12, 2024 at 5:43 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on how Miyamoto didn't "interfere" with Majora's Mask, 2000.

Source: The Hyrule Journals

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#AonumaQuote

www.notion.so/b9f85e0b047f...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 37. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: "Aonuma: I was given quite a lot of freedom this time [while directing Majora’s Mask]. I was entrusted with most of the decisions until basically the end of development when Mr. Miyamoto gave us corrections like: ‘Hmm, that's not quite right,’ on some of the finer details. Miyamoto really didn't interfere this time. At the very end of everything he came in as a player for just a little bit, but that was about it."
July 22, 2024 at 12:13 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
On parallels between Majora's Mask and Earthbound

Via GlitterBerri's Game Translations (2000) and Ask Iwata (Hobonichi, 2019)

#Zelda #Earthbound
#MajorasMaskQuote #EarthBoundQuote
#AonumaQuote #KoizumiQuote #IwataQuote #ItoiQuote
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 37. Majora’s Mask Co-Director. - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 32. Majora’s Mask Co-Director. QUOTE: Aonuma: I was responsible for the fairy-tale sections [of Majora’s Mask], and Koizumi was responsible for creating realistic depictions of the lives of the townspeople. I tried to emulate the fantasy atmosphere we had in Ocarina of Time… Koizumi: And I created realistic lives for the characters. Aonuma: You could say that Koizumi slapped his worldview on the whole thing. [Laughs] Koizumi: I put in everything I’ve seen in my 30-something years on this earth. PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata. EarthBound Program Director, President of Nintendo from 2002-2015. - Shigesato Itoi. Producer, Director, & Writer for Mother 1, 2 & 3. Founder of Ape, Inc., which later became Creatures, Inc. Founder of Hobonichi. My Neighbor Totoro voice actor. Iron Chef judge.. QUOTE: Iwata: What makes the Mother [EarthBound] series so special? I think it has to do with the role that Shigesato Itoi played. Nobody making games today is quite like him, and Mother remains without parallel. … There was a time when Shigesato Itoi was totally obsessed with games, and in that sense he’s truly a gamer at heart. At the same time, he had a variety of experiences that the average game designer hadn’t, and I think these two aspects combined to form a unique individual. … The overall effect is a game unlike almost any other. I think this is the cumulative effect of all the aspects of the gaming experience—the fun parts, sad parts, outlandish parts, and goofy parts.
May 9, 2025 at 10:29 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Asakawa on her approach to NPC characterization in Majora’s Mask, 2000.

Via The Hyrule Journals.

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#AsakawaQuote

www.notion.so/24fa4198de74...
PEOPLE: - Satomi Asakawa. Character Designer for Majora’s Mask. QUOTE: "Asakawa: NPC characters are always created by considering how they will be seen, and only have a small number of bones and polygons. To get the player to empathize with them, we use lots of motion and facial expressions to show off their personalities. We usually have a model when we create our characters. For example, the monkeys [in Majora’s Mask] were based off a cat I had bought. If anything, the monkey's faces look cat-like, right? Next, the giant turtle was modeled after the famous Japanese twins Kin and Gin, of which Kin happened to be in the news at the time for passing away. The beaver brothers also have special names! Younger brother Shtick (the one holding branch) and older brother Twig (the swimming beaver)."
March 9, 2024 at 8:24 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on his expectations that others would make games like Majora's Mask, 2015.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote
#AonumaQuote,#IwataQuote

www.notion.so/aaab9d927dee...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask. - Satoru Iwata, age 55. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: "Aonuma: When I finished creating Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64, I assumed that other companies would be releasing games similar to this one. But in reality, no one did. Iwata: I certainly haven't seen anything like this anywhere else. Aonuma: Even 15 years after the Nintendo 64 version of this game released, no one created a game like this. Because of this, the unique taste and feel of this game seems to exist for a long time..."
May 25, 2024 at 9:13 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Aonuma on why Miyamoto wanted to remake Majora's Mask, 2015.

Source: Iwata Asks

#Zelda
#MajorasMaskQuote,#MajorasMask3DQuote
#AonumaQuote,#MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/aaab9d927dee...
PEOPLE: - Eiji Aonuma, age 51. Co-Director of Majora’s Mask, Producer of Majora’s Mask 3D. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 62. Producer of Majora’s Mask, General Producer of Majora’s Mask 3D. QUOTE: "Aonuma: Miyamoto-san told me one day ‘let's release Majora's Mask for 3DS.’ … I think Miyamoto-san feels quite strongly that there are quite a lot of people … who gave up on the Nintendo 64 version part way through the journey. He probably felt that it was such a shame that we put in so much in the game, but then people aren't able to see it all because they weren't able to get there. Of course, we were the ones who challenged the players if they could clear these mysteries in the first place! [laughs] Well, when I was told that by Mr. Miyamoto, all I could say was ‘you're absolutely right.’ "
September 18, 2024 at 8:51 PM