The Legend of Zelda series has seen many changes over the years. While its mainline games have pretty much established a Zelda formula of sorts, the sequels and spin offs tend to get something different. The very first game in the series saw a top down perspective of gameplay, while the sequel Adventure of Link tried its hand at side scrolling and platforming as well as an experience point system that leveled up the player’s magic, attack and strength.
One of the most abstract of Zeldas ever made was the sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask. The game was developed in a crunched time period but became one of the most iconic games to ever be made, even by Zelda’s standards. During that time period back in the year 2000, an interview with the Majora’s Mask staff by Japanese magazine The 64 Dream was held asking each of the staff to respond with their answers to various accounts of different areas of the game’s development. This has been translated and formatted in English by Rory Whelan and Javid Sterritt at Goodblood.games for our viewing pleasure.
These interviews are very compelling to read as a fan of the Zelda series or even just a fan of video game development. It’s interesting to see what the team had in mind when creating this game and all the hard work that went into it. One of the neat things is this one from Satoru Takizawa, who was responsible for the Mini-Boss and enemy weakness specifications:
“Not always but, my desires come out. Such as how I wanted to make the Deku princess’ ponytail move completely, kind of like how Skull Kid’s shoulder and neck are separated. The mini-boss’ demo was supposed to be simplified but when is it ever so simple? Because of this, I had a pretty hard time. I hope that these things bring you happiness when you see them.”
“There are many ways of playing this game. The enemy attack patterns aren’t necessarily only one-dimensional. So please try many different weapons and items when the time comes to challenge enemies. You’ll likely be able to see interesting battle strategies aside from the simple ones. Nevertheless, there are many enemies gunning to fight, so please have fun battling them!”
– Satoru Takizawa
It’s cool to see that the Zelda team back then was so full of energy and excitement for what became one of the most iconic Zeldas ever made. If you want to read the full interview please check out GoodbloodGames.
