It is no secret that personal events in the lives of the development staff played an important role in shaping the Legend of Zelda series. From Shigeru Miyamoto’s childhood escapades in Kyoto to his love of Disney franchises, Zelda games have proven that inspiration can come from anywhere.
This brings us to The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. How did Eiji Aonuma and crew come up with the idea for Link and Zelda to ride a train across Hyrule? The answer to this intriguing question is simple but also charming. During a 2009 interview panel with late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, Eiji Aonuma gave us a peek behind the development curtain for Spirit Tracks.
At the beginning of Spirit Tracks‘ development, Aonuma mandated that the team could not reuse the boat mechanics from Phantom Hourglass. Instead, Aonuma challenged the staff to think of new and exciting ways for Link to traverse the land of Hyrule. As the team struggled to come up with ideas, the Zelda producer’s mind wandered to a certain children’s book.
Every night before bed, Eiji Aonuma’s son requested that his dad read the book The Tracks Go On. The story is a simple one that involves children laying train tracks across a vast world. The children dig a tunnel through the mountains, build a bridge to cross a river, and even craft railroad crossings at intersections. At the end of the story, the children make a railroad station and ride the train back home.
Not wanting to reveal the source of his inspiration, Aonuma pitched the train idea without telling his staff about the children’s book. Trying to be casual about the idea, Aonuma would say things like “Let’s make it a train” and “It would be fun if we could lay the tracks, wouldn’t it!” The staff agreed and went hard at work on the concept of giving players the creative freedom to lay train tracks across Hyrule.
Unbeknownst to Aonuma, the late Satoru Iwata was obsessed with trains and railroads. Iwata collected model trains as a child and took pictures of steam locomotives that operated close to his home in Hokkaido. To see a new Zelda game developed with a train as its core mechanic must have thrilled Iwata. But when Iwata asked if the development staff were also fans of trains, Aonuma replied that no one on the staff had any history with railroads. The similarity between Iwata’s obsession and Aonuma’s inspiration was pure coincidence.
Giving players the freedom to lay train tracks was ultimately scrapped in favor of simpler mechanics, but Spirit Tracks proved to be a hit. As the game launched in 2009, Aonuma revealed that his son was finally old enough to start playing the Nintendo DS Zelda titles. As he journeyed the high seas in Phantom Hourglass, Aonuma’s son proclaimed, “Ok, Dad, first boat, and then train? Surely next time, Link is going to fly in the sky…” Little did he know how that simple statement would soon come to life in his dad’s next Zelda game, Skyward Sword.
