Even if you don’t know Takaya Imamura’s name, you’re likely to know his work. He was, after all, the artist who designed the Star Fox characters, and the one who gave The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask its signature dark look. Imamura collaborated with Shigeru Miyamoto regularly over the course of his 32-year career at Nintendo, and he believes that divisive art style of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is reflective of Miyamoto’s love of puppet theater.
Retweeting an image of the new Link design, Imamura says (via DeepL translation), “Looking at this model, I felt that… Mr. Miyamoto’s love of puppet shows really comes through here, too.”
Miyamoto’s love of puppetry is well known, and it’s particularly well evidenced in Star Fox, which both Imamura and Miyamoto were deeply involved in. The original Star Fox was marketed with puppets, and that old influence seemed to come back on its own modern Switch 2 revival, another new art treatment that got the cold shoulder from some fans.
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Ayer con el anuncio de Zelda, salieron un montón de personas a corregir el estilo de direccion de arte para “mejorarlo” Takaya Imamura, quien trabajó en Nintendo por más de 32+ años, revela que el arte está influenciado por las 人形劇 Ningyogeki (Marionetas Japonesas) pic.twitter.com/UXEoAOw2RgSeptember 9, 2026
But while the Star Fox designs are reminiscent of muppets, the new Zelda look has more in common with marionettes. And, in fact, there’s some pretty compelling comparison shots showing the new Link and Japanese TV marionettes side-by-side – frankly, it’s more than enough to convince me that puppetry was indeed a big inspiration here.
Either way, Imamura is excited to simply play a classic Zelda game again. “I haven’t played Ocarina of Time since the 3DS version, so I’m really looking forward to it,” he says in another tweet (again, DeepL translated). “The color palette and lighting are great… As expected!”
For more upcoming Switch 2 games, you know where to click.
