Zelda art director on how he came up with the Majora’s Mask design

Majora’s Mask is one of the more iconic elements of the Zelda series. Now as part of an interview with Gaming Boulevard, we get to hear a bit about how it was created.

Takaya Imamura had a legendary career at Nintendo where he was an artist on many different games and franchises, including Star Fox, F-Zero, and yes, The Legend of Zelda. According to Imamura, Majora’s Mask was about differentiating the game from Ocarina of Time, and the mask itself took some inspiration from Asian tribes.

Imamura had this to say when asked about designing Majora’s Mask for the Zelda N64 game:

“It comes down to the need to differentiate from the previous Zelda as much as possible. The mask essentially I decided to take an Asian tribal design on it. So I studied, I looked at as many of those masks in different regions and designs as I could and I combined the inspiration I took from them to find the design that worked the most.”

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launched for Switch in November 1998. Less than two years later, Nintendo wrapped up Majora’s Mask.

Imamura also recently spoke about Star Fox and how he personally believes it will return one day. Check that out here.