Daiki Iwamoto

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Daiki Iwamoto is a game director and game supervisor at Nintendo, and a company director at Monolith Soft.[1]

Biography

After joining Nintendo, Iwamoto's first job involved programming 3D tools for Star Fox 2 on the Super Famicom. Following this, he served as a programmer on Super Mario 64, and would then be placed in charge of cinematic sequences for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Iwamoto would then go on to be one of many programmers on Luigi's Mansion, the Game Boy Advance port of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Pokémon Box for the Gamecube, and then serve as boss battle director on The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.

Around May 2004, after development of Four Swords Adventures had concluded, the game's developers began experimenting with the Nintendo DS, Iwamoto among them. Iwamoto began to prototype a multiplayer Zelda along the same lines as Four Swords Adventures for the Nintendo DS, when Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma stepped in and advised that the team devise a new style of Zelda gameplay using the Nintendo DS's touch controls instead.[2][3] At the time, Aonuma was dividing his time between Twilight Princess and The Minish Cap, and left the five-man Nintendo DS team to continue with its experiments. When he returned from E3 the following month, the team informed him that the Nintendo DS hardware was capable of supporting cel-shaded graphics like the ones used in The Wind Waker.[4]

Aonuma had been disappointed by The Wind Waker's poor sales and asked the team to implement cel-shading in their prototype, hoping to give the style a second chance at success. Soon afterwards, the team presented Aonuma with a tech demo of Toon Link moving around in a 3D environment on the Nintendo DS's top screen. On the bottom screen was a map with an icon that the player would drag to move Link around. Feeling that these controls weren't intuitive, Aonuma asked the team to flip the two screens, moving the game world to the bottom screen instead, which would allow the player to control Link by touching him directly.[5]

This prototype would go on to become The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourlgass, a sequel to The Wind Waker, on which Iwamoto would serve as director. According to Aonuma, Iwamoto put considerable effort into improving upon the gameplay from The Wind Waker, and was especially particular about the characterization of the Linebeck character, working with sub-director Hidemaro Fujibayashi to finalize his dialogue.[6][7]

Iwamoto would return as the director of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, a game with which he desired to create something more original than Phantom Hourglass, which was largely a straightforward sequel to The Wind Waker.[8] As part of this pursuit, he elected to have Link's partner be Princess Zelda herself, rather than Tetra, who had served as his partner in The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, citing that he "didn't like Tetra all that much."[9] Iwamoto's reasoning was that Tetra had already played as significant role in two games, and that since the series was named "The Legend of Zelda," it would make sense to have Zelda herself play a more prominent role.[10] Iwamoto also stated that he didn't wish to get too caught up in what counted as "Zelda-like" during the development of Spirit Tracks, which contributed to the game's more original feel.[11]

In the years following Spirit Tracks's release, Iwamoto has taken on a number of responsibilities at Nintendo. He served as a planner on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, where he was placed in charge of the game's sky section and played a major role in the game's introductory sequence, events involving the people of Skyloft, and the Loftwing flight mechanics.[12][13]

In addition, he has served as a game designer on New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U. He also supervised the development of both The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, alongside serving as the assistant director of Breath of the Wild. In 2023, he was added to the list of company directors at Monolith Software, Inc., developer of the Xenoblade series and co-developer of Breath of the Wild.[1]

Notable Achievements

Iwamoto has been employed by Nintendo since the early 1990s, and has worked on a number of critically-acclaimed projects released by the company, encompassing both the Mario and Zelda franchises.

With The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Iwamoto and Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma successfully introduced the series to a wider audience through its more accessible control scheme and mechanics.[14] Iwamoto also served as the assistant director of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that has gone on to sell over 25 million units worldwide, making it the highest-selling Zelda game to date.


The Legend of Zelda Games

Game Position
Ocarina of Time Cinema scene assistant director
A Link to the Past & Four Swords Programming (A Link to the Past)
Four Swords Adventures Boss battle director
Phantom Hourglass Director
Spirit Tracks Director
Skyward Sword Planning
The Wind Waker HD Director
A Link Between Worlds Supervisor
Tri Force Heroes Supervisor
Breath of the Wild Assistant director
Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch Production management
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Supervisor

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "代表取締役:杉浦 博英

    取締役 : 高橋 哲哉

    取締役 : 野村 匡

    取締役 : 蘒原 智洋

    取締役 : 本根 康之

    取締役 : 寺﨑 啓祐(任天堂株式会社)

    取締役 : 岩本 大貴(任天堂株式会社)

    監査役 : 鬼束 正則(任天堂株式会社)

    ※常勤の取締役は50音順に表記しています。"
    — Monolith Software Inc., COMPANY , www.monolithsoft.co.jp, published 2023, retrieved January 28, 2023.
  2. "It was around May 2004, right after we finished the Four Swords Adventures game. The DS hadn’t been released yet and the game was in the experimental stage. We started by trying many ideas on how to use the stylus and the two screens." —Daiki Iwamoto (The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass interview with Eiji Aonuma.)
  3. "At first we worked on creating a game that followed the connectivity style of Four Swords Adventures with the two screens, but then Mr. Aonuma suggested we didn’t continue with that. He said we should think of a completely new Zelda gameplay that would become a DS standard. We didn’t mind the simplicity, so we ended up with the idea of a stylus-controlled game." —Daiki Iwamoto (The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass interview with Eiji Aonuma.)
  4. "Upon returning from E3, I heard from my staff that the DS hardware was capable of of supporting Toon Shading. I immediately asked my staff to start implementing cel-shading on the DS because I was disappointed the cel-shaded Zelda had not been received as well as I had hoped. In a short amount of time, they were able to show me a toon-shaded Link moving in a 3D world on the top screen, and on the lower screen a Link shown on a map that was controlled entirely by touch. While I was surprised to see the toon-shaded Link from the Gamecube version moving around on the DS screen, the controls were not intuitive. So I asked my staff to display the 3D world on the bottom screen and change it so players would control Link by touching him directly." —Eiji Aonuma (Reflections of Zelda.)
  5. "Upon returning from E3, I heard from my staff that the DS hardware was capable of of supporting Toon Shading. I immediately asked my staff to start implementing cel-shading on the DS because I was disappointed the cel-shaded Zelda had not been received as well as I had hoped. In a short amount of time, they were able to show me a toon-shaded Link moving in a 3D world on the top screen, and on the lower screen a Link shown on a map that was controlled entirely by touch. While I was surprised to see the toon-shaded Link from the Gamecube version moving around on the DS screen, the controls were not intuitive. So I asked my staff to display the 3D world on the bottom screen and change it so players would control Link by touching him directly." —Eiji Aonuma (Reflections of Zelda.)
  6. "Aonuma: Even as he applied it, he searched like mad for things he wanted to tinker with and improve from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker." —Eiji Aonuma (Why Tetra Makes No Appearance.)
  7. "青沼 そんな心配は無用ですよ。逆に、『夢幻の砂時計』をプレイしてから『風のタクト』を遊んでもらってもいいと思っていますから。一応ストーリーはつながっていますが、それを知らないと楽しめないというものではないので。『ゼルダ』シリーズではいつものことなんですけど、遊びの仕組みを作ってからストーリーや舞台設定を考えているんです。だから今回は、ストーリーを書いた藤林がいちばん苦労したかも?(笑) 藤林 ばらばらの材料だけ渡されて、これをつじつまが合うようにつなげなさいって。しかも岩本からは、「ラインバックはこんなこと言わない」とか、いろいろ注文がうるさい(笑)。 岩本 リンクと冒険を共にするラインバックは、僕のこだわりのキャラクターですから。 青沼 岩本の分身ですよね、まるで。" —Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Eiji Aonuma (ニンドリドットコム~ゼルダの伝説 夢幻の砂時計 開発スタッフインタビュー~.)
  8. "Aonuma: So for Spirit Tracks, I think he wanted to be free to make things he'd thought of on his own... Is that about right?" —Eiji Aonuma (Why Tetra Makes No Appearance.)
  9. "Aonuma: Back when I heard the story's rough outline, I asked, "What? Why isn't Tetra making an appearance?" And he said, "Well... I don't like Tetra all that much." Aonuma: "What do you mean, you don't like her!?" "Don't cause me trouble, now. You mustn't say things like that..." That's about how the exchange went. (laughs)" —Eiji Aonuma (Why Tetra Makes No Appearance.)
  10. "Iwamoto: But it wasn't that I didn't like her so much as that I was enthusiastic about characters in my own way. I was searching for something that hadn't been portrayed much, and there was Princess Zelda. At first, we hadn't settled on the subcharacter, and I discussed several things with the staff. Then we thought that, since they're adventuring together, it would be better to have it be a girl. But, you know, we couldn't have it be Tetra every time, so we started to consider introducing a new character. The thing is, though, it's "The Legend of Zelda". I thought it wouldn't be much fun if Princess Zelda didn't show up and if we brought in some unrelated princess instead, so, in the end, I asked for permission to use Princess Zelda." —Daiki Iwamoto (Why Tetra Makes No Appearance.)
  11. "Iwamoto: But I did think that I didn't want to get too caught up in making it "The Legend of Zelda-like". There was even an argument about how a train didn't really seem to fit with "The Legend of Zelda"." —Daiki Iwamoto (When You Hear 'That Legend of Zelda Sound'.)
  12. "Iwamoto: I'm Iwamoto from the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division (EAD). I was in charge of overall planning for the sky and town. I worked on composing the introductory sequence, subevents involving the townspeople and Link, and scenes of riding the bird (Loftwing) through the sky." —Daiki Iwamoto (Inspired by Course Selection in Super Mario.)
  13. "Iwamoto: When I joined, it had been decided that there was one big island in the sky and you would jump down to earth through a hole in the clouds. We thought of different methods of moving around, but since it's a sky, a bird only seemed natural. We tested a number of things and wanted to make it so you could fly anywhere you wanted." —Daiki Iwamoto (The Producer Trap.)
  14. "And actually, if you look at the registration on Club Nintendo, although The Legend of Zelda series has traditionally had more of a male audience, on the Nintendo DS, it seems as though lots of women are also enjoying it." —Satoru Iwata (New Puzzles and Drama.)

Nomenclature

TMC Forest Minish Artwork.png Names in Other Regions TMC Jabber Nut Sprite.png
Language Name
Japan Japanese 岩本 大貴 (Iwamoto Daiki)