Former Nintendo veteran Takaya Imamura may have some of the most beloved Zelda games under his belt, though working on the beloved franchise was something he initially wasn’t keen on doing at all.
Speaking to Edge in the magazine’s latest issue, artist Imamura recalls that he “wasn’t too pleased” about helping out with A Link to the Past when initially drafted in. Not because he had anything against Link and the gang, but more so because he was looking forward to playing the game as a fan – and not dealing with the strenuous process of QA.
“To tell the truth, when I was asked to help out on the Zelda team, I wasn’t too pleased about it,” he shares. “I didn’t really want to, and the reason was because I wanted to enjoy the game when it was finished, as a player. I can remember that feeling even now.
“I also remember that the debugging, the QA, was really tough, having to do the same thing over and over again. I still really don’t want to play that game – the testing was that difficult. Even now, if I just jump into the game for a minute or so, the feeling comes back. It’s like PTSD or something.”
Ouch. Imamura goes on to explain that he came to work on the Zelda game as the previous one did so well that then-president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, said he wanted a sequel “done in a year.”
“At the time, I was already on another project, and I got called in, yet again, into a Zelda project halfway through,” he says. “Again, I wanted to experience it as a player, not actually work on it, but hey, there you go.”
There you go, indeed. Next time you play A Link to the Past, maybe spare a thought for Imamura, who gave up playing the game stress-free so you could experience it unlike he did.
No longer of Nintendo, Imamura is gearing up to release his own 16-bit retro adventure game called Omega 6 The Triangle Stars, which is due to release next month.
