Zelda Dev Highlight: Satomi Asakawa, Character Designer
Trying something new today! In (mostly) her own words, Asakawa's game dev career from start to end!
Apologies to screen reader users-- these images are too big and full for me to summarize in alt text. A normal blog post version will be coming soon, you should be able to enjoy then!
Full image:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ywWD2SxVPfcDqTlzYgbjC7XmI35Cs5Oj/view
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Producer (later, Director) of Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
Aonuma: At the beginning [of Twilight Princess], Link is this cowboy living in Toaru Village—not in Hyrule. Hyrule does exist, but it’s a long way away. They raise cows in Toaru to sell [to Hyrule]. The two places have a friendly relationship with one another. There are several other villages, and every year the kingdom of Hyrule gathers them all together for a kind of festival where all the villages can communicate with each other. Each year, the chief of the village is supposed to attend the festival, but this year, the chief orders this young man to go instead.
On the way to the festival, Link is going to encounter some kind of accident, which … leads him to the main adventure.
Satoru Takizawa, age 45. Twilight Princess Art Director.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: There was a secret project we were considering working on before Twilight Princess, and Midna inherited the character profile for the ‘goblin/devilkin’ character that would have been featured in that project.
Looking back at the development notes from that time, there are some descriptions left on the notes clearly reminiscent of Midna, including ‘the appearance looks like a monster or a child,’ ‘can't tell if she's enemy or ally,’ ‘can't really tell what she's thinking,’ ‘sometimes selfish, but sometimes cute and naïve.’ That's why initial design sketches for Midna looked a lot like this ‘goblin’ character.
(My computer is back and so are the quotes!)
Takizawa on the dangers of realistic characters and how they approached Twilight Princess' art style, 2006.
Satoru Takizawa, age 34. Twilight Princess Art Director.
QUOTE:
Takizawa: I was particularly nervous about Link's design [in Twilight Princess]. The reason for that is … the more realistic you make characters, the more they tend to start looking a bit like plastic dolls.
… We didn't see any reason to engage … in a struggle over who could make the most photo-realistic game, or any significance in attempting to recreate the real world for that matter. Rather, we felt that it would be more meaningful to create something we wanted to make, and then show the world what kind of game can be made when you have that kind of passion. So we decided to place our emphasis on creating the palpable atmosphere that everyone liked so much about Ocarina of Time.
Eiji Aonuma, age 50. Director of The Wind Waker & Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
Q: What is the largest or most important change that you’ve made to the Zelda series because of feedback from fans?
Aonuma: Hmm… I think the project that reflects our reaction to fan opinion is probably Twilight Princess. The incentive for us to create that different version of the Zelda universe was certainly a result of The Wind Waker criticism that we received. Fans were saying that it wasn’t what they were looking for, it wasn’t what they were hoping for, so that’s why we went with this different graphic presentation.
So I think that’s probably the one, the biggest change that we made.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Keisuke Nishimori. Lead Modeller & Animator for Link, Wolf Link & Midna and the horse in Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
Nishimori: Back when I was in school, I played a lot of basketball and practiced kendo. Actually, when we were working on the sword-fighting motion capture, I wore the motion-capture suit and unleashed some of my kendo moves! Hopefully, my own moves will be in the final version of Twilight Princess.
Though I've also become interested in snowboarding, don't think that I have a secret plan to have Link use some kind of snowboarding moves in the game!
Eiji Aonuma, age 42. Producer, then Director of Twilight Princess.
Shigeru Miyamoto, age 52. General Producer, then Producer of Twilight Princess.
QUOTE:
"Aonuma: As soon as I arrived at my hotel in L.A., Nintendo people were congratulating me, saying ‘Nice job!’ and patting me on the back. I was like, ‘What? What did I do?’ Then I learned that the [Twilight Princess reveal] video [had already been shown] without my knowledge.
So I found Miyamoto and asked him, ‘Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you schedule it so I could be there?’ He just said, ‘Oh, sorry, I forgot.’ Just like that. [Laughs] Later on I saw a video of the unveiling, though—saw people standing, clapping their hands, even crying. I was very impressed."