The Guy in Charge of Zelda Has Never Finished The Legend of Zelda

“I’ve never actually finished it.

I almost feel like there’s still no game more difficult than it. Every time I try to play it I end up getting ‘Game Over’ a few too many times and giving up partway through. Certainly after playing the original Zelda for the first time, I didn’t ever think that I wanted to make a game like that.”

Eiji Aonuma, current head of The Legend of Zelda franchise, telling Game Informer that he never finished the first game in the series — a task many of us completed as children in the ’80s and early ’90s before we even turned ten years of age — because it was too difficult.

What changed the Zelda honcho’s mind? The Super Nintendo iteration of the series, A Link to the Past:

“That sense of exploration of the world itself was really where I latched on to the series.”

This heavily influenced his first game, Marvelous, which got him noticed by the eccentric Shigeru Miyamoto and thrust onto the Zelda team.

(via Game Informer)