The renowned classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, marked its 26th anniversary recently, yet it continues to surprise us with fresh insights even after all these years. Some fascinating interviews with Nintendo from that era have recently emerged, revealing previously unknown details.
Back in 1999, Shigeru Miyamoto gave an interview for a Japanese strategy guide, which has now been translated by Shmuplations. During this interview, Miyamoto shared thoughts on Navi, the in-game guide who provides hints to players. Reflecting on Navi’s role, Miyamoto admitted, "I think the way we give hints is still a little too unfriendly. Speaking plainly, I can now confess to you: I think the whole system with Navi giving you advice is the biggest weak-point of Ocarina of Time. Designing a system that provides accurate, player-specific advice is extremely challenging. To perfect it, you’d need as much time as you’d spend developing an entire game. I was concerned we’d be in over our heads if we tried to perfect that aspect."
He elaborated by highlighting Navi’s repetitive nature. “If you read Navi’s text, she says the same things over and over. I know it makes it sound bad, but we purposely left her at a kind of ‘stupid’ level. I think if we’d tried to make Navi’s hints more sophisticated, that ‘stupidity’ would have actually stood out even more. The truth is I wanted to remove the entire system, but that would have been even more unfriendly to players. You can think of Navi as being there for players who stop playing for a month or so, who then pick the game back up and want to remember what they were supposed to do. It’s a brazen excuse, I know," he chuckled.
These rediscovered interviews provide an intriguing look into the development process. Even decades later, they remind us of the game’s complexity and the thoughtful decisions that shaped its beloved yet occasionally critiqued elements.
