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What real-life experience inspired Zelda’s sense of exploration?
Miyamoto has connected the original game’s expansive, exploratory feeling to his own childhood and outdoor adventures. In a 2015 interview with NPR, he recalled growing up in the Japanese countryside, playing outside and exploring hillsides. On a hike, he was struck by a large lake he reached near the top of a mountain.
He said that memory informed the game’s design: “I drew on that inspiration when we were working on the Legend of Zelda game and we were creating this grand outdoor adventure where you go through these narrowed confined spaces and come upon this great lake.” (NPR interview, published by Texas Public Radio, June 19, 2015.)
That recollection is about an experience and a feeling: moving through enclosed spaces and then arriving somewhere unexpectedly vast. Miyamoto did not name the lake or say that a particular real-world body of water was copied into the game.
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#1 Best Overall
- A comprehensive collection of enemies and items, potions to poes, an expansion of the lore touched upon in Hyrule Historia, concept art, screencaps, maps, main characters and how they relate, languages, and much, much more, including an exclusive interview with Series Producer, Eiji Aonuma!
- This, the last of The Goddess Collection trilogy, which includes Hyrule Historia and Art & Artifacts, is a treasure trove of explanations and information about every aspect of The Legend of Zelda universe!
- This 336-page book is an exhaustive guide to The Legend of Zelda from the original game through Twilight Princess HD.
What stories and genres influenced the original game?
Miyamoto also described the original Zelda as an adventure game built around treasure hunting in a swords-and-sorcery world. In a 2016 Nintendo retrospective, he recalled that the Indiana Jones films were coming out around the time he was developing the game. He wanted to bring that sense of adventure to video games, then chose treasure hunting as the premise: “So with a world of swords and sorcery as my theme, I decided to make an adventure game based on treasure-hunting, and that was the beginning of The Legend of Zelda.” (Nintendo UK’s 2016 interview.)
These influences help explain different parts of the game: Miyamoto’s remembered landscape informed the feeling of exploration, while adventure cinema and the swords-and-sorcery treasure hunt helped shape the premise.
Rank #2
Was Hyrule based on a real place?
The available account points to Hyrule as an invented fantasy setting, not a direct copy of a named real-world region. In the same Nintendo interview, Miyamoto described Hyrule as a fitting name for a spectacular fantasy land and a region. His comments do not establish that the kingdom was modeled on a specific place in Japan.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How later Zelda games relate to the original inspiration
Later design choices should not be mistaken for evidence about the original game’s origins. In a 2023 developer interview about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo’s team discussed adding caves and sky exploration to a familiar Hyrule. That describes a later development of the series, not the source of Miyamoto’s original inspiration. (Nintendo of America, May 9, 2023.)
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Rank #4
- The Legend of Zelda: Art and Artifacts contains over four hundred pages of fully realized illustrations from the entire thirty-year history of The Legend of Zelda including artwork from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild!
- Every masterwork is printed on high-quality paper in an oversized format so you can immerse yourself in the fine details of each piece.
- This book includes rare promotional pieces, game box art, instruction booklet illustrations, official character illustrations, sprite art, interviews with the artists, and much, much more!
- Hardcover: 427 pages.
Rank #3
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