Nintendo elaborates on first-person perspective idea for Zelda: Ocarina of Time
A few years ago, Nintendo revealed that they considered making The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with a first-person perspective. The latest issue of Iwata Asks, featuring members of the original development team, have elaborated on the idea. Satoru Iwata, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and director Toru Osawa took part in the interview:
Koizumi: First, I talked with Miyamoto-san about how we should make The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo 64 system, and he asked, “How about making it so that Link will not show up?”
Iwata: Huh?! Miyamoto-san said that?!
Koizumi: Yeah. He wanted to make it a first-person game. Iwata: Oh, he wanted to make an FPS (first-person shooter).
Koizumi: Right. In the beginning, he had the image that you are at first walking around in first-person, and when an enemy appeared, the screen would switch, Link would appear, and the battle would unfold from a side perspective.
Iwata: It was said that making one character and making all the backgrounds carried an equal burden with the Nintendo 64 system.
Koizumi: Yes. And from my experience making Super Mario 64, I knew that displaying a character constantly running around on a broad field would be incredibly difficult. But—while it wasn’t very nice of me toward Miyamoto-san—I didn’t try a first-person scene even once!
Iwata: Why didn’t you experiment with a first-person game?
Koizumi: I was making the model for Link, so I couldn’t stand to see my Link not appear.
Iwata: Oh, I see. In first-person, you wouldn’t be able to see him.
Koizumi: Right. Link is cool, so I wanted to always be able to see him.
Iwawaki: But…I do think we tried out a first-person perspective a little.
Osawa: I think we made something to try it out, but decided it wasn’t interesting visually and abandoned it right away.
Koizumi: Oh, is that right? (laughs) So we had Link appear from a third-person perspective, but it was really hard to get the art to connect right. I remember making the most impossible requests to Iwawaki-san.
Iwawaki: No, no… (laughs)
Iwata: You went straight to making irrational demands. (laughs)
Koizumi: Yeah. (laughs) Thanks to him, we were able to show Link the whole time, but it got really hard in ways that would have been extremely easy in first-person, like how to handle the camera and battles.
Iwata: You tied your own noose.
