PEOPLE: - Kensuke Tanabe, age 35. Link’s Awakening Writer. - Takashi Tezuka, age 38. Link’s Awakening Game Director. - Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 30. Link’s Awakening Writer. QUOTE: "Tanabe: When I started [on Link’s Awakening] I was given a list of requirements by the director, Mr. Tezuka, such as no Triforce, no Princess Zelda, no Hyrule, and a closed field. ... Mr. Tezuka requested a world full of strange characters like in Twin Peaks, which was a popular show back then. I then wrote a script that fit my vision of an egg hatching on a mountaintop ending the world with Koizumi’s ‘Your dream? Or someone else’s dream?’ Koizumi worked on the main thread of the story and I did the odd characters. "
PEOPLE: - Takashi Tezuka, age 49. Director of Link’s Awakening. - Eiji Aonuma, age 46. Director or Producer of various Zelda games. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. 4th President of NIntendo. QUOTE: "Tezuka: Oh, right, about Twin Peaks... Aonuma: Whoa, here we go. [laughs] Iwata-san, do you know about Twin Peaks? Iwata: No. Bring me up to speed. [laughs] Tezuka: We were talking about this before you arrived. I was talking about fashioning The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening with a feel that's somewhat like Twin Peaks. At the time, Twin Peaks was rather popular. The drama was all about a small number of characters in a small town. Iwata: Okay... Tezuka: So when it came to Link's Awakening, I wanted to make something that, while it would be small enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep and distinctive characteristics."
PEOPLE: - Mark Frost, age 70. Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Twin Peaks. QUOTE: "Q: [Interviewer asks about his meeting with Nintendo developers, who were reportedly inspired by Twin Peaks for Link’s Awakening] Frost: They were talking to me about a Twin Peaks game, and they mentioned Zelda at the time. They said, ‘One of the things we love about your show [Twin Peaks] is how there’s all sorts of sideways associations that can drive the story forward.’ They asked me about that as they were thinking about expanding the Zelda universe. ... I’d played lots of Dungeons & Dragons when I was young, so I was familiar with the kind of story they were thinking about. I think I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to use dreamlike, Jungian symbolism. Things can connect thematically without having to connect concretely.’ It was things like that that I was urging them [to consider]."
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Producer of Ocarina of Time. QUOTE: "Miyamoto: I didn't want to tell a story [in Ocarina of Time] so much as I wanted to have a lot of people appear around the main character and portray their relationships. Some years back, a television show called Twin Peaks was popular. When I saw that, the most interesting thing wasn't the ins and outs of the story, but what kinds of characters appeared. … I think those suspicious and odd characters alone are interesting. I'm more interested in their presence than who is whose cousin and whose parents were sworn enemies way back when. … What's important is what role that person plays and how they contribute to portraying the main character."
In honor of David Lynch (1946-2025), some quotes about how his work on Twin Peaks influenced the Zelda series.
#DavidLynch #TwinPeaks #Zelda