The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past developer interview

The following interview comes from a Retro Gamer Issue 165 talk with RG’s Nick Thorpe and the game’s Director Takashi Tezuka and Writer Kensuke Tanabe regarding the Super Famicom classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The magazine is available at newsstands and on both the App Store and Google Play and contains the full interview. Excerpts below include the transition from 8-bit to 16-bit, weaponry, the emotional connection with Link and the role of the Master Sword…

On the transition from Famicom to Super Famicom and from top-down to side-scrolling back to top-down…

“In Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link, we wanted to include sword combat with a variety of different moves into the gameplay, and so decided the project would use a side-scrolling view that made use of our experience from Super Mario games. We made two Zelda games for the NES, both making the most of that hardware. But then with the next Zelda for the SNES, we were able to add even more new things to the gameplay.

When we were starting the project, we experimented to see if it was possible to include a multi-world structure into the game. Our plan was that events in the hub world would have an effect on the other, overlapping worlds, In the end, we decided it would be best for us, the developers, as well as for players to have this as two worlds; one light, one dark. We felt the best way to represent this overlap of light and dark, and to represent the changes between them, was to use the same slanted top-down view used in the original The Legend Of Zelda game.’

About the original plan to shoot arrows with bombs attached and why this didn’t happen…

“At the start of development, we wanted players to be able to freely choose which weapons to hold, not just the sword and shield. We also thought about having these weapons combine, say for example, having the Bow & Arrows set to the A Button and a Bomb to B Button so that when you use them together (i.e. press both the buttons), Link would shoot an arrow with a bomb attached. In the end we didn’t use this in A Link To The Past as Shigeru Miyamoto requested that Link always have the sword equipped. We were able to implement this system in the next title, Link’s Awakening, though.”

On the early scenes of A Link to the Past and the players’ emotional connection with ‘regular village boy’ Link…

“In A Link to The Past, the game starts with a dark, rainy scene, with Link being just a regular village boy who, in the same situation as the player, doesn’t really know what ’s going on, but just follows Princess Zelda’s voice and works to save her. However, in doing this he somehow ends up becoming an outlaw. We wanted players to start feeling excited and wonder what will happen next. We didn’t intend to make players feel like the game was going to end there.”

We didn’t have Link start out as a sword-wielding hero right from the start, because we had already decided at the beginning of the project that we wanted him to awaken as a hero when he pulls out the Master Sword. We did make a number of adjustments to the placement and ordering of the weapons and items so that we could get the ideal flow for the game, no matter the player or play style. We thought that players would form an emotional connection with Link as they play and by the time he ultimately becomes a hero, it would just be natural that he can use a variety of different weapons.”

On the prestige of the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda series and its power to repel evil…

“Kensuke Tanabe already had an idea for a truly memorable hero-awakening scene when we started this project. In the midst of a forest, with light filtering down through the leaves, the sword stood waiting for someone worthy of wielding it to arrive. Link draws the sword out as the light trickles through the leaves.

In order to draw the sword, one needs to have both inherited the blood of the family of knights who protect Princess Zelda, as well as possess the three pendants. From the moment Link pulls the sword out, it recognises him as a hero, and grants hm its power. We also decided then that the Master Sword was a sword that alone holds the power to repel evil, and I suspect this is why it continues to carry such an important role in the rest of the series.

It’s at this point that the game’s real battle starts. Our main aim was to show the birth of a hero in a scene fitting of The Legend Of Zelda and overlap this with a sense of achievement for the player that they have been recognised as a hero after having overcome many challenges. What we had decided on from the start was that Link would first become a hero in the Light World and defeat the first boss. From that point is when his battle to defeat the real enemy, Ganon, in the Dark World begins.”

On the high critical praise of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past…

“We’re truly thankful, and consider it a great privilege. At the same time it also drives us to create new games that will surpass this acclaim.”

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