Link’s Awakening Began as a Pet Project

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As a kid, I burned through so many AA batteries to experience Link’s Awakening on the Gameboy. Even to this day, it stands the test of time as one of the most unique entries to the Zelda series thanks to the additions of many things that are standards to the franchise, such as fishing and the inclusion of musical instruments. But how did this classic come to be?

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Zelda director, Takashi Tezuka reveals the truth behind what started it all. Tezuka states that during the development, the team was making a parody of a Zelda game as opposed to a true entry.

“The main programmer wanted to challenge himself to create a Zelda experience on a portable system to see what he could do, and I was into the idea. We just had a passion to try and do something interesting,” Tezuka says, “We didn’t really have permission to do it necessarily. We were just playing around.”

links awakening official art

Originally intended to be a modified version of a Link to the Past for the Hero of Time’s  handheld debut, that plan had faded. Instead, Tekuza and team spent time after normal business hours to drive this off-the-record, passion filled project.

With Zelda games we usually plan them out, every detail is considered. With Link’s Awakening, we were working on that after our other work was done. Kind of like a club of people who loved Zelda and got together to make it. It has a different feeling for that reason.

After time, the game became too big to simply just be an after-hours experiment. Tezuka had to show off what they were up to.

Once we got it to a certain level of creation and completion that we wanted to show, then we took it to the company and got permission to continue developing it,” Tezuka says. “But initially it was just a little pet project of ours. Because we started it that way – just making a game we wanted to make – it may defy Zelda conventions. It might have interesting characters and situations we may not have had otherwise.

So there you have it. Had it not been for a small group of people sharing a passion for the Legend of Zelda and just doing what they love, we never would have gotten to experience the bittersweet Ballad of the Windfish and the mystery of Koholint Island.

Source:Game Informer

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