One of my oldest Zelda friends, Mak, brought this interview to our attention the other day when a few of us were having a little conversation on Twitter about when fairy companions first appeared. Like we've all heard there was a lot of inspiration from Peter Pan, but in the series itself: where did we see it form... Was it Felica, was it Sprite? Was it the fairy friends in the Ran Maru manga? ...Was it simply the gameplay.
The interview snippet is just awesome and, for me, kind of makes the fairy spell in AoL make a lot more sense. I have a bunch of other wistful thoughts on it too, like how (back in the day) I had always wished that we had had a Zelda title that was a little bit more like Secret of Mana and/or one with a playable Zelda. Ah well, I'll keep dreaming.
Horii: I heard that Zelda 3’s going to be for the Super Nintendo. Have you already started working on it?
Miyamoto: Yes, we’re making progress, little by little.
Horii: What’s it going to be like?
Miyamoto: Basically, I intend to make a return to Zelda 1‘s style. This is something I’ve had in mind since even before we began making Adventure of Link.
Horii: That’s awesome.
Miyamoto: Ever since I started making the first game in the series, I’ve been saying that the 3rd Zelda will feature a party, one that consists of the protagonist, who’s a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl. The fairy that appeared in Adventure of Link was actually a party member designed for Zelda 3. A girl who looked a little like a fairy and whose role consisted of reconnaissance. Like the characters in action games that don’t engage enemies in combat but rather go and scout out the surroundings and return to you safely. It’s also fun when an action adventure game lets you choose who to send out. That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking I’d like to put in Zelda 3.
I'm only including the small part I really liked learning about, it's from Glitterberri's translations, and you can find the whole interview on her page.
Horii: I heard that Zelda 3’s going to be for the Super Nintendo. Have you already started working on it?
Miyamoto: Yes, we’re making progress, little by little.
Horii: What’s it going to be like?
Miyamoto: Basically, I intend to make a return to Zelda 1‘s style. This is something I’ve had in mind since even before we began making Adventure of Link.
Horii: That’s awesome.
Miyamoto: Ever since I started making the first game in the series, I’ve been saying that the 3rd Zelda will feature a party, one that consists of the protagonist, who’s a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl. The fairy that appeared in Adventure of Link was actually a party member designed for Zelda 3. A girl who looked a little like a fairy and whose role consisted of reconnaissance. Like the characters in action games that don’t engage enemies in combat but rather go and scout out the surroundings and return to you safely. It’s also fun when an action adventure game lets you choose who to send out. That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking I’d like to put in Zelda 3.
