Legend of Zelda 10 Things you didn't know about OoT...

[solitonmedic]

Thank you IGN for this article. :3
http://ds.ign.com/articles/117/1179328p1.html

#1: We're Sorry, Link, Your Game is Only in One Castle

Do you love galloping across Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time, running from Kokiri Forest to the castle to Death Mountain and everywhere in between? Lucky for you, Miyamoto doesn't always get what he wants.

"We put constructing the system first, and since we were going to determine the story in line with the system's capacity, at first I thought only having Ganon's Castle might be enough," Miyamoto said. "I thought about putting in all kinds of adventures into the different rooms, like making a dark meadow or an ocean--like in Princess Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64."

#2: Zelda's Not Designed to be Epic

While fans of the series love how epic Zelda stories are, it turns out the creators view things a little differently. They actually believe that it's not the story itself that's epic, rather the combination of the story, the characters, and the emotions the players feel.

"[Eiji Aonuma] said that while a lot of people say they like the epic story, on the level of the script, the story isn't actually that epic," Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata said. "It feels epic because everything you experience within the game is added to the story."

Miyamoto elaborated on the idea by stating how troublesome it can be sometimes to live up to the expectations of the fans. "The stories in The Legend of Zelda may not match up as the series progresses," he said. "We actually expend a lot of time trying to make them match up, though. It would make things a lot easier if the players said, 'Oh, that doesn't really matter.'"

#3: Let's Burn Down the Ranch!

Lon Lon Ranch is one of the many beloved locations Link journeys to during his adventures in Hyrule. It's hard to imagine the game without this quaint ranch, but if Miyamoto had gotten his way, it would've been burnt to the ground.

"At first, I imagined a scene in which Ingo, in a frenzy, sets the ranch on fire, so Epona jumps against a backdrop of flames, but then someone said, 'What about when Link comes back to the ranch later?' So I gave that up," he said.

#4: The Pressure to Cut the Grass

Game developers often feel pressure from fans to include certain gameplay aspects, and the people behind Zelda are no different. Cutting grass, for instance, is a fan favorite from A Link to the Past that fans demanded be included in Link's 3D outing.

"When you change something from 2D to 3D, though, you discover a lot of things, like certain things become no fun anymore," he said. "For example, cutting the grass was something that first appeared in The Legend of Zelda series with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. When we made it, it was surprisingly fun. Some people started talking about how this was a video game that you cut grass using Spin Attack! But when we went to bring that element of cutting grass into The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, it was like we were under orders to do so."

#5: A Cut Above the Rest

Long before the days of gyroscope technology and Wii MotionPlus, the Zelda team was attempting to make players feel like their actions had a real and tangible effect on the world around them. One way was by allowing players to chop up signs in a variety of different directions. "When I said that the signs should cut diagonally when Link swings diagonally, everyone froze up and said, 'We can't check exactly where they cut it!' Even with the Nintendo 64 system, that would be impossible." Miyamoto said.

His solution was to make several different cut patterns. "Then you could cut the signs from different directions, but then when a piece flew off and landed in the pond, since we hadn't taken care of collision detection when it hit against water, it would just fall to the bottom with a clack," he said. "Generally, you would just decide not to put a sign by the water, but Morita-san made it so the piece would float on the water. Yeah. Morita-san made that because he was certain the players would love it. Then we just wanted to put more signs by the water!"

#6: Miyamoto Thought of Autojump on His Day Off

Unlike his mustachioed brethren, Link's adventures have usually taken jumping out of the hands of the player. This action is instead done automatically, apparently an idea that Miyamoto thought of on his day off.

"I gathered everyone on Monday morning and said, 'We're gonna do something called autojump!' Everyone's response was, 'Say what?!' The team that had made Mario games was going to give up the jump button."

#7: I've Got a Feeling, A Feeling Deep Inside, Oh Yeah

Long before Ocarina of Time came to be known as one of the greatest games ever made, its creators had a hunch they were on to something special.

"In terms of having done new things with this game, I felt a very strong feeling that I only feel on a certain number of games that I'm involved in," Miyamoto said. "And I was really happy that we here in Japan could make a medieval tale of sword and sorcery liked by the people of the world. Despite using a historical drama at Toei Kyoto Studio Park as reference!"

#8: Wherever My Horse and I May Roam

It turns out that big, grassy field that is so satisfying to run across with Epona nearly didn't make it into the game. Miyamoto blames the fact that it was very difficult to do on the N64.

"Making a broad landform that you could ride a horse across weighed down the processing, so we took it out for a while. And after a while I returned to work with the production team and launched a huge campaign to regain the grassland!"

#9: Twin Peaks and Zelda

When making a new Zelda game, characters are key. So where did Miyamoto turn for inspiration? Oddly enough, Twin Peaks.

"While making it, I noticed that I didn't want to tell a story so much as I wanted to have a lot of people appear around the main character and portray their relationships," he said. "Some years back, a television show called Twin Peaks was popular. When I saw that, the most interesting thing wasn't the ins and outs of the story, but what kinds of characters appeared."

#10: Pre-Rendered Cutscenes: Rejected

Miyamoto has something of a reputation for showing up during game development with some crazy, new idea he wants implemented right away. Turns out this is one of the biggest reasons why he's never relied on pre-rendered cutscenes.

"Pre-rendered movies and the way I make games just don't mix," he said. "If I wanted to fix something, they might tell me, 'We'll need at least a month to fix that.' In the worst case, they might say, 'The movie's done, so it can't be changed.' I'd be like, 'Huh? This would make it more fun, so why can't we fix it?' And they'd say, 'Because you can't change the movies.' I'd think, 'But what's more important to fans, the movies or how fun it is?' That's why I adopted a method of processing the movies in real time."

Surprising, ain't it?
Discuss or comment on the article.

 

[Spire]

Twin Peaks!? That's awesome!

Having the whole game in Ganon's Tower isn't a terrible idea either. They obviously took that concept to the drawing boards for the final design of Ganon's Tower because it is still reminiscent having the six elemental halls.

Wow, good read. Thanks for posting!

 

[Luigitoilet]

I was ready to be all snobby and be like "yeah I knew all of this!" but a lot of this is new to me. That Twin Peaks thing completely blindsided me.

also

"Miyamoto elaborated on the idea by stating how troublesome it can be sometimes to live up to the expectations of the fans. "The stories in The Legend of Zelda may not match up as the series progresses," he said. "We actually expend a lot of time trying to make them match up, though. It would make things a lot easier if the players said, 'Oh, that doesn't really matter.'"

I'm with you Shiggy, I'm with you

 

[Spire]

I'm with him as well on that point. If people would just accept the series for what it truly is, we'd have more excursions like Wind Waker and less like Twilight Princess. Excursions in concept, style, and experience. Sans Skyward Sword's story so far, I think it comes awfully close to being an outfielder.

 

[Luigitoilet]

And besides, I think I just like it better treating each game as an individualized legend. It stinks that they let themselves get pulled in halfway by fans, now it's this sort of half-*** timeline that requires many convolutions to even start to make sense.

Fortunately, all that stuff is pretty easy to ignore within the games themselves.

 

[theeboredone]

Lol, I was thinking of the Twin Peaks bar/restaurant.

 

[solitonmedic]

I was ready to be all snobby and be like "yeah I knew all of this!" but a lot of this is new to me. That Twin Peaks thing completely blindsided me.

also

"Miyamoto elaborated on the idea by stating how troublesome it can be sometimes to live up to the expectations of the fans. "The stories in The Legend of Zelda may not match up as the series progresses," he said. "We actually expend a lot of time trying to make them match up, though. It would make things a lot easier if the players said, 'Oh, that doesn't really matter.'"

I'm with you Shiggy, I'm with you

I know right?
Only fanboys would understand...

 

[IYM!]

what is Twin peaks??

 

[Luigitoilet]

what is Twin peaks??

old incredible TV show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjeRCsoufII

 

[IYM!]

old incredible TV show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjeRCsoufII

i dont get it , the show is weird.

In Chile, that TV show never arrived here.

 

[Spire]

It was made by David Lynch. All of his work is different by most standards. You should check out the movie Blue Velvet.

 

[theeboredone]

old incredible TV show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjeRCsoufII

Ha, now I recognize this. The show Psych had a full episode referencing this including the intro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyIxUWl0U3M

 

[solitonmedic]

I've learned something today..

 

[Pikaville]

That was a good read.

No.7 was pretty obvious though hahah.

How could you not know the game was gonna be spectacular?

 

[Gatlin]

Cool read, #1 was pretty interesting, guess that's where they got the idea for the elemental halls as Spire said. Thanks for posting

 

[solitonmedic]

Cool read, #1 was pretty interesting, guess that's where they got the idea for the elemental halls as Spire said. Thanks for posting

Your welcome, and bumped for your reading pleasure. :D

 

[Orboknown]

interesting read.

 

[GibbytheCreator]

lol i didn't know any of this its pretty interesting. good find

 

[Wizzrobe]

Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[Kakashi Of The Sharingan]

Miyamoto ftw!

But yeah this is pretty cool info.

 

[Luigitoilet]

so guys, try to add some content to your posts. The last four posts are literally "that's interesting" and nothing else of substance.

 

[titaniachkt]

Apparently OoT was supposed to be a FPS:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/68950/zelda-ocarina-time-was-once

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

That twin peaks thing is surprising. He look towards a pretty awesome show for an idea to a very awesome game

 

[yani_]

what a good read!

 

[Deleted member]

While I can see a reflection of the game's past idea in the halls of the sages, I couldn't imagine OoT without Hyrule Field.

That just...made the game for me.

 

[KrIsP!]

Lol'd at 2.
In regards to creating a timeine miaymoto said, "It'd be a lot easier if players said it doesn't really matter."
That's not going to happen, better make a tri-split time line.

 

[Gaogao]

You sorta expect a grand design from a grand game, but it was destiny! Zelda ftw!!!!

 

[PostmortemMessiah]

Very nice read. Hooray for random interesting facts.