Ocarina of Time’s fishing pond resulted from casual experiments in the Water Temple
This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…
Morita: The Water Temple is in Lake Hylia. Aonuma-san designed that dungeon. The boss that appears there is Morpha. Just when I was making that, there was a landform like a pool.
Iwata: Morpha rises up out of the pool and fights Link.
Morita: Right. When I was making that boss, I casually…
Iwata: “Casually”? (laughs) I doubt you had that kind of time!
Morita: But for some reason I did. (laughs)
Everyone: (laughs)
Morita: I just happened to have a model of a fish, so…
Iwata: You “just happened” to have it? (laughs)
Morita: Yes! (laughs) A model of a fish for putting in an empty bottle. I borrowed that and had it swim in the pool in the dungeon, and when I saw it swimming around, I thought, “Oh! I can go fishing!”
Iwata: What did you do for a fishing pole?
Morita: I took the model for something and made it a cylinder, and then… (gestures as if casting a fishing pole)
Haruhana: You used the motion for Link swinging his sword.
Morita: Yep. But at that time, it was just for my own enjoyment. You know, for when I needed to take a breather.
It was also discussed how the actual fishing pond was constructed…
Aonuma: So, Miyanaga-san, you had to make the landform.
Miyanaga: Yes. One day, all of a sudden, the field team came and said, “We need a place to go fishing!” But we didn’t know where we should make it.
Iwata: The fishing game actually doesn’t have anything to do with Link’s adventure.
Miyanaga: Yeah! (laughs) But if we could create such realistic fishing, everyone wanted to put it in, even if it increased our work.
Aonuma: Everyone was actually quite excited, saying, “We gotta put that in!”
Miyanaga: We thought a fishing hole should be near water and decided to put it at Lake Hylia. But we hadn’t originally planned on that, so we slapped doors onto a bare stretch of cliff at the edge of the lake. (laughs)
Aonuma: Yeah! We forced it in! (laughs)
Morita: It’s considered a minigame, but it actually isn’t all that small. We had to make a different room to read that data.
Iwata: So you decided on a place for the Fishing Pond and had to make the contents. Did you make lots of requests, like for the Pond Owner we discussed earlier?
Morita: Instead of putting in requests, I had them put me in charge of the design! I was like, “Put piles here,” and “Put floating weeds here…”
Miyanaga: We created a foundation and then Morita-san designed everything, even the placement of floating weeds.
Iwata: When a programmer gets ambitious, he is truly forceful! (laughs)
Aonuma: The Fishing Pond uses sound from fighting enemies, doesn’t it?
Morita: That was to create tension.
Miyanaga: Was that song at your request?
Morita: Uh…yeah. Iwata: You even decided the sound?
Morita: I requested it and put it in myself, and it got left that way.
Aonuma: When you say “request,” you mean you took it without permission and put it in yourself! (laughs)
Morita: Yeah…that’s about right. (laughs)
Everyone: (laughs)
