00:00I think you are now ready. Ready to hear what happened 100 years ago.
00:07Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at some fun facts you might not know about Hyrule
00:13from The Legend of Zelda,
00:15from history and lore to development stories from different games.
00:25But before we dive in, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the
00:31bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:34From Nothing to Something
00:41When development on the first game began, before it even had a name, it was simply a dungeon builder.
00:46The original idea was to build and share dungeons with others, since the Famicom Disk System was able to rewrite
00:52data.
00:58Shigeru Miyamoto and his team created a group of dungeons set beneath the mountains surrounding the main Death Mountain.
01:04But, in his own words, they couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to explore what was above them too.
01:10This caused them to add forests, lakes, and the iconic Hyrule field, before dropping the building and sharing aspect.
01:17Hyrule came from a yearning for more, and in a way that fits with the start of Link's own journeys,
01:22from small village to the grander kingdom.
01:33Germanic Inspiration
01:40Since Ocarina of Time would be Hyrule's first time in 3D, Nintendo took it seriously.
01:45With the market, it was also the first time Hyrule itself was shown to have a thriving community around it,
01:51rather than just being the royal family's stronghold.
01:54For inspiration in the market's design, Miyamoto looked to the half-timbered architecture in Lower Franconia, a district in Bavaria,
02:02Germany.
02:02He actually spent several weeks there to get a sense of it so they could replicate it within Zelda's world.
02:07And it helped. Seeing the town square full of NPCs and its buildings neatly packed together is a wonderful moment
02:14early on.
02:23The Real Castles
02:34Hyrule's market isn't the only thing that has found real-world inspiration.
02:39In Hyrule Historia, a caption next to concept art for Wind Waker's Hyrule Castle claims it was also known as
02:45the Swan Castle, due to it looking like a white bird unfolding its wings.
02:49This draws comparison to Himeji Castle in Japan, whose nickname is the Egret Castle for the same reason.
02:56Interestingly, Himeji Castle was reportedly also used in an early build of Breath of the Wild, seemingly to help create
03:02the game's scale.
03:03An ancient Zonai version of Hyrule Castle also appears in Tears of the Kingdom and Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment.
03:10This was inspired by a different Japanese castle, Tsutsu Jigisaki Castle, known for having a simpler, flatter design.
03:23All in the Name
03:32During the first game's development, Hyrule was a name that came up among many others, but which the developers felt
03:38suited a magical region the most.
03:40The staff liked it so much, in fact, that in Japan it was released under the name The Hyrule Fantasy
03:46Legend of Zelda.
03:47During promotion for the NES Classic, writer and designer Takashi Tezuka spoke about how the Hyrule Fantasy was originally intended
03:54to be the series' name.
03:56However, when asked why this title was dropped, neither he nor Miyamoto could remember.
04:02Its sequel used a different naming convention, and Miyamoto speculated that the Super Nintendo entry already having a subtitle, as
04:09well as the creation of Final Fantasy, led to the Hyrule Fantasy getting dropped entirely.
04:22The Hylian Language
04:31The Hylian language first appeared in A Link to the Past, looking like random markings and only readable by Link
04:38while using the Book of Mudora.
04:40But every version of the language since then, of which there have been many, has been inspired by real-world
04:46alphabets and translated by fans.
04:49The version used in Ocarina of Time, based on Japanese kana, would carry over to its sequel.
04:54An updated version of this would be introduced in The Wind Waker, and be used for Four Swords Adventures, The
05:00Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks.
05:03Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword would get their own Hylian alphabets, both inspired by Latin, that would only be used
05:10in their games.
05:11And finally, the latest iteration was introduced in A Link Between Worlds, combining elements from the Twilight and Skyward sets,
05:18and which Nintendo has stuck with ever since, making six different looks for the Hylian alphabet.
05:24However, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom did introduce new ancient languages for fans to translate, Sheikah
05:31and Zonai, respectively.
05:39Open Air
05:46When it came time to reinvent the world of Hyrule for Breath of the Wild, long-time producer Eiji Aonuma
05:52was able to reach his dream of what he called an open-air environment.
05:57Most previous games featured big worlds, but were still divided by small sections.
06:01He tried to reach a true open-air world with The Wind Waker, a huge ocean you could freely traverse
06:07with distant islands you could reach without obstacles.
06:18But he felt it still came up short, as the GameCube limited how many islands they could include.
06:23It wasn't until the Wii U and Switch that the tech caught up with his idea, and Hyrule was allowed
06:28to expand into a true open-air world that didn't stop you from going any direction.
06:44HOMETOWN INSPIRATION
06:55Many know that Hyrule, in its original creation, was partially inspired by Miyamoto's childhood in the countryside of Kyoto, Japan.
07:03Well, the city would serve as inspiration for the region's new era in Breath of the Wild as well.
07:08Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi laid a map of Kyoto over Hyrule, and imagined himself traveling between places he knew.
07:15He said it helped when calculating the distance between different landmarks in the game.
07:19He and the team went one step further in the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom.
07:23All of the shrines found across the surface of Hyrule are named for different locations in Kyoto.
07:39Once Upon an Inn
07:50Despite being a bustling kingdom in Ocarina of Time, Hyrule offers no shelter for outsiders.
07:56But it almost did, with one small remnant remaining at Lan Lan Ranch just outside the city's walls.
08:03Hanging just above Talon and Malon's living quarters is a sign, which has long been translated, and reads Inn.
08:10Furthermore, the script from a prototype version of the game features dialogue of Ingo, the ranch's grouchy stable hand, as
08:18the innkeeper.
08:19One interaction where he tells Link to sleep in the stables if he doesn't have any money.
08:23Just one of the many changes Ocarina of Time famously went through during development.
08:35The Crowing Village
08:47Kakariko Village
08:48Kakariko Village has appeared in multiple games as a nearby settlement in Hyrule Castle's warm embrace.
08:53One thing that usually accompanies it, established early on in games like A Link to the Past and Ocarina of
08:59Time,
09:00is a flock of cuckoos and their loud crows that often ring out.
09:10This actually ties in with its name.
09:13Kakariko is believed to have come from Kokoriko, an onomatopoeia used for a rooster's crow in French and Portuguese.
09:20This is backed up by the fact that, in French versions of the Zelda games the village appears in, it's
09:26called Kokoriko.
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09:59Useful ears.
10:09Hylians are the dominant race of Hyrule, and while they may just seem like less impressive elves,
10:14some of them are actually, canonically, meant to hold magical abilities.
10:19When the race was given a name for A Link to the Past,
10:22they were said to have long, pointed ears that allowed them to hear messages from the gods.
10:27Nintendo's Official Player's Guide stated these ears also allowed some of the more gifted Hylians to send psychic messages to
10:33each other,
10:34seen in this game through Zelda and Sahasrila.
10:37These gifts being linked to Hylian anatomy rather than just because someone like Link or Zelda is magically gifted
10:44is a trait the series seems to have left behind.
10:59Do you know of any other fun facts about Hyrule and its people?
11:03Share your knowledge with us in the comments, and we'll see you next time.
11:07We'll see you next time.
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