Most today best know Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi as the director of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Due in no small part to the “Iwata Asks” interviews with Nintendo’s development staff, Fujibayashi’s work on Skyward Sword has made him fairly well known to the Nintendo enthusiasts of today.
That said, while Skyward Sword was indeed Fujibayashi’s first time directing a Zelda game on a home console, his history with the brand goes much further back to the days of the Game Boy Color. What’s even more interesting is that when Fujibayashi first began working on Zelda, he wasn’t even part of Nintendo—he was a Capcom employee.
Back in the day, Capcom’s Yoshiki Okamoto (Street Fighter II) founded an internal scenario-development studio named Flagship, of which Fujibayashi was a part. Flagship were contracted by Nintendo to work on a series of new Zelda games for portable Nintendo hardware, and began with The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages. Fujibayashi acted as “Planner” (the Japanese term for designer) on the two games, marking his first stint on Zelda.
Since then, Fujibayashi has gone on to become a Nintendo employee and directed several Zelda games—in fact, he’s directed the most games of any of the other Zelda directors at the company. Below is a quick list of these individuals and each of their projects. (Note that I’m only counting stints as the main director, not sub-director, assistant director, or producer.)
Hidemaro Fujibayashi (5 games)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Eiji Aonuma (4 games)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (with Yoichi Yamada)*
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Takashi Tezuka (3 games)
- The Legend of Zelda (with Shigeru Miyamoto)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Daiki Iwamoto (2 games)
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Hiromasa Shikata (2 games)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Toshiaki Suzuki (1 game)
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
* Ocarina of Time has a number of directors associated with it, each responsible for a different aspect of the game. Aonuma is listed as a “Game System Director” along with Yoichi Yamada.
Images courtesy Iwata Asks website. Information sourced via Nintendo game credits.
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