Fishing mini-games have long been a part of The Legend of Zelda. The first game to include fishing was Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy.
The feature, according to the development team, was created by Kazuaki Morita, a programmer that has worked on a number of Zelda games, including the first. Morita, whose love for fishing is known among older Nintendo staff, is a board member at a company named SRD Co. Ltd., which takes on videogame development contracts. Since it shares its headquarters with Nintendo, it has worked on a number of Nintendo titles over the years, including Link’s Awakening.
In fact, the conceptualization of Link’s Awakening is actually credited in part to Morita himself, who nudged things along by getting ahold of the only Game Boy development kit at Nintendo at the time, and using it to prototype a Zelda-like game to see what the hardware could do.
Morita, as you might expect, also programmed the fishing game in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Here’s how he narrates the course of events that lead to its inclusion in that game:
Morita: The Water Temple is in Lake Hylia. Aonuma-san designed that dungeon. The boss that appears there is Morpha. Just when I was making that, there was a landform like a pool.
Iwata: Morpha rises up out of the pool and fights Link.
Morita: Right. When I was making that boss, I casually…
Iwata: “Casually”? (laughs) I doubt you had that kind of time!
Morita: But for some reason I did. (laughs)
Everyone: (laughs)
Morita: I just happened to have a model of a fish, so…
Iwata: You “just happened” to have it? (laughs)
Morita: Yes! (laughs) A model of a fish for putting in an empty bottle. I borrowed that and had it swim in the pool in the dungeon, and when I saw it swimming around, I thought, “Oh! I can go fishing!”
Iwata: What did you do for a fishing pole?
Morita: I took the model for something and made it a cylinder, and then… (gestures as if casting a fishing pole)
Haruhana: You used the motion for Link swinging his sword.
Morita: Yep. But at that time, it was just for my own enjoyment. You know, for when I needed to take a breather.
Iwata: How long did it take before the other project members discovered this?
Morita: Hmm, not long.
Aonuma: At first, I didn’t have any idea he was doing that.
Morita: Oh, that’s right. Aonuma-san came over and I was like, “Uh-oh!” and immediately closed the screen.
Everyone: (laughs)
Aonuma: Well, you were supposed to be making a boss!
Iwata: We had pushed back the project several times, so making a boss was pressing business. You should have been doing that! (laughs)
Morita: Nonetheless, for some reason, it just kept coming together and…
Iwata: “For some reason”?! Yeah, because you were pouring your energy into it! (laughs) Is it really that easy to make a fishing game?
Morita: Yeah. I didn’t have to put much effort into it.
Aonuma: Really…?
Morita: No, it’s true. And it turned out just as I imagined.
Aonuma: Oh, so you had a complete idea of it before you made it?
Morita: Yeah.
Fishing is, naturally, a part of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well. In the new game, you can actually fish using bombs instead of a rod.
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