Nintendo on Ocarina of Time’s opening scene
This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…
Iwata: Among the real-time demos, the opening scene is particularly striking. How did you make that?
Kawagoe: Today, you can use a CG tool to move the camera, but back then we couldn’t do that because of how the game was constructed, so we asked to make the system to enable Nintendo 64 console to move the camera and we used that.
Iwata: First there was the music by (Koji) Kondo-san, and you made the images to match that?
Kawagoe: No, the music came later. The landforms of Hyrule Field weren’t originally made for cut scenes, so even if you think, “I want to film a scene like this…”
Iwata: The right place for it might not exist in the game.
Kawagoe: Right. So I moved the camera around, like I was walking across the landforms on my own two feet, thinking, “Is this a good spot?” and “How about over here?” I went around looking for a place that would look good, just like searching for a location to shoot a movie.
Iwata: You looked for a location virtually.
Kawagoe: Right. At the beginning of the sequence, there’s a scene in which Link is riding around on his horse. I thought that spot was good and waited for a while, and then the moon slid down into view.
Iwata: By chance?
Kawagoe: Yeah. “That’s it!” I thought, and decided on that spot.
Iwata: It was too good to be true! (laughs) Kawagoe: I think a lot of chance happenings contributed to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but I suspect that Miyamoto-san still thinks that real-time cut scenes are easy to change.
Aonuma: Yeah. He definitely thinks so. (laughs)
Osawa: But it really isn’t that easy! (laughs)
Kawagoe: So I’m always worried what will come up. Even now! (laughs)
Everyone: (laughs)
