 Time for the really important question. Why is Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom so attractive? From the first trailers of the game, Zelda fans have been obsessing over just how good Ganondorf looks once properly hydrated. Up top, the moral of this story, Moisturizer. Also, probably a good SPF sunscreen. You're welcome. Fans of Ganon's new look have one man to thank for this, Satori Takizawa. While he doesn't get the credit of an Aonumaru or Miyamoto, Takizawa has been laboring behind closed doors for years with one singular goal – making Nintendo villains look as glorious as possible. Not only that, but this hardworking artist's Ganondorf drawings actually saved the Zelda franchise at one point when the design process stalled as developers couldn't agree on an art style for their latest game. According to Tears of the Kingdom director, Hidimaru Fujibayashi, with Ganon, this design really started with Twilight Princess. There's a staffer, Satori Takizawa, who's been in charge of Ganon's design since Twilight Princess, and Ganon holds a really special place in this staffer's heart. Takizawa has been involved in the Zelda franchise for decades, most recently serving as art director for Tears of the Kingdom. Before this, though, he'd already established a reputation as Nintendo's go-to designer for cool enemies. Takizawa wasn't a huge video game fan as a child. While he played the Famicom, he was more interested in manga and anime. Plus, like many members of the future Zelda team, he was heavily inspired by science fiction, including the popular western film Star Wars. It was at university, while studying film and animation, that he rediscovered gaming. He said, At that time, Super NES nostalgia was really trendy, so I bumped into one of the very popular RPG games for the system. I hadn't played a game since the Famicom generation, so it was a culture shock to see how far video games had come along as a form of entertainment. Soon after my introduction to gaming culture, I played The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, and I finally saw the light. I decided that I had to work for Nintendo, no doubt about it. Takizawa's experience with animation became invaluable as the Nintendo 64 era began, and he was tasked with creating 3D enemies. He made Klepto the Condor and Moray for Super Mario 64, even if most players would really wish he hadn't. He then worked on enemies for Star Fox 64, before being assigned to The Legend of Zelda, the Ocarina of Time. It was here that Takizawa worked on the very first iteration of Ganondorf, not counting his previous appearances as Ganon. Even so, he's more pleased with his work on a different pair of villains from this game. He said, I was brought into the Ocarina of Time project to create the Ganon you see in that world, plus unique bosses like Twin Rover. As Zelda fans know, Twin Rover is the spirit temple boss that starts as twins, one being a fire witch, the other an ice witch, that eventually combine to make one creature. We always create a design based on roughouts for the setting and scenario. The scenario designer had written the Twin Rover scenario that was really funny, with the two witches tormenting each other, and I was very skeptical that my proposed designs could live up to the comedy. But the director liked my treatment, and my Twin Rover ended up in the game. That's one of the biggest moments in my Zelda background. For Wind Waker, Takizawa was promoted to Art Manager. He wasn't as hands-on involved with the design of Ganondorf in this game, because the process of creating the art style for Wind Waker was a far more collaborative process. He said of this experience, On Wind Waker, when we decided to go ahead with that graphical style, the decisions about the overarching effects were made in consultation with other staff members. Twilight Princess, on the other hand, was a far more difficult process, and it was at this moment that Takizawa stepped up and started taking a more active role in guiding the design of the Zelda world. The move from the cel-shaded art style of Wind Waker to what was intended as a darker and grittier art style in Twilight Princess was not without controversy among the staff. Said the game's cinema scene director, Mitsuhiro Takano, there were such a huge number of people working on this project. There were also a lot of differences in each individual's perception of Zelda. On top of that, everyone was very stubborn about their opinions too. So of course there weren't many cases in which everyone agreed on how to proceed. It was much more common to have people voicing their disagreement and offering constructive criticism. As a result, the developers probably debated this Zelda with more further than any other Zelda game to date. This wasn't the only problem. A more serious and detailed art style required a larger team, which meant bringing in outside help. These new artists weren't always entirely clear on what they were supposed to be making, said Takizawa. With the increased staff size, it became even more important to properly care for everyone, effectively communicate the project's direction and manage the progress of the project. Also, the creation of some things that used to be hammered out by senior and junior artists working together closely had to be delegated to people who were not necessarily familiar with our internal processes. As the design process stalled and developers got caught in endless discussions over style and approach, it was Takizawa who took the lead to get the project back on track. Said Takano, at the beginning, when we had a vague idea of what the story and events would be like, the art director, Takizawa-san, worked with the other artists to create actual in-game screens in order to show us a visual representation of the Twilight Princess world. When he showed it to us developers, it became clear to us what the theme for this game would be and what the game world would be like. Before that, when the story was still only on paper, everyone had their own image in mind, and it was difficult to get everyone to share the same vision. But when Takizawa-san and the others did this for us visually, things started to come together, because it allowed everyone to understand for the first time what our direction ought to be and enabled us to make decisions such as how the dungeons and field areas should look. Takizawa explained his logic thusly. Well, of course I think it's acceptable for artists to make their own suggestions, but in order to make a good game it's very important to seek the most appropriate visual style for the game. That's why for a time I decided to take charge and create those images to give the project some momentum, when I noticed that it had started to stall, but once the ball got rolling again, the leaders of each section resumed their central role of creating artwork that suited the content of the game. It was Takizawa's influence then that got Twilight Princess's development back on track, and as a result the game's art style features more of his personal aesthetic than would otherwise have been the case. This has had a major impact on how Ganondorf has been portrayed across various games in the years since. Tears of the Kingdom director Hidimaru Fujibayashi has explained how, for the latest Zelda game, Takizawa was let off the leash when designing the new Ganondorf. He said, From my perspective, of course there's the understanding that Ganondorf is, of course, the evil antagonist, but he also plays almost as important a role as the main hero, who stand in contrast to each other as part of this legend. So my only request I made was that because he's such an important character at the same level as the protagonist, was to really make him a very cool, very awesome demon king. Because Takizawa is a veteran to the franchise, he's really able to think about the needs of the entire team. There's a part of Takizawa that really kind of sealed away the love they have for Ganondorf in the designs that they've done in the past. But when I made this request to really make Ganon the way he is, because the spotlight is on him this time around, and he really is a crucial, integral character, I vividly remember the sparkle in Takizawa's eyes as they heard this. Seeing that love, I was really confident that I could just leave it up to them, knowing something great would come out of it. The result is the brand new demon king that Tears of the Kingdom fans have fallen in love with. It's all thanks to one artist's tireless work over several decades to make Zelda art, villain art, and most importantly, Ganondorf art, the best that it can be.