{"id":49566,"date":"2025-06-30T18:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49566"},"modified":"2025-06-30T18:14:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:14:38","slug":"nintendo-is-so-full-of-geniuses-even-zelda-and-star-fox-veteran-takaya-imamura-felt-a-constant-sense-of-inferiority-working-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-is-so-full-of-geniuses-even-zelda-and-star-fox-veteran-takaya-imamura-felt-a-constant-sense-of-inferiority-working-with-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo is so full of geniuses, even Zelda and Star Fox veteran Takaya Imamura felt a \u201cconstant sense of inferiority\u201d working with them\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Game creator Takaya Imamura recently shared some comments about his experience working for Nintendo \u2013 particularly about how frustratingly talented everyone around him was. Before going independent, Imamura worked for Nintendo for 32 years, serving as art director and designer on The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and F-Zero franchises.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere were so many incredible people at Nintendo,\u201d Imamura <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ima_1966\/status\/1938107363799798252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writes on X<\/a>, \u201cand I remember constantly wondering how I could demonstrate my own worth in such an environment.\u201d He goes on to say that, while he was working for Nintendo, he would always feel a sense of inferiority. So much so that leaving the company came as a relief.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u9000\u793e\u3057\u305f\u3068\u304d\u3001\u9577\u5e74\u62b1\u3048\u3066\u3044\u305f\u52a3\u7b49\u611f\u304b\u3089\u89e3\u653e\u3055\u308c\u305f\u3088\u3046\u306a\u3001\u305d\u3093\u306a\u958b\u653e\u611f\u304c\u3042\u3063\u305f\u306e\u306f\u4e8b\u5b9f\u3002\u3067\u3082\u540c\u6642\u306b\u3001\u300c\u3082\u3046\u3053\u306e\u4eba\u305f\u3061\u3068\u4e00\u7dd2\u306b\u4ed5\u4e8b\u304c\u3067\u304d\u306a\u304f\u306a\u308b\u3093\u3060\u306a\u2026\u300d\u3068\u3044\u3046\u5bc2\u3057\u3055\u3082\u3042\u3063\u305f\u3002\u3068\u306f\u3044\u3048\u3001\u9045\u304b\u308c\u65e9\u304b\u308c\u5b9a\u5e74\u307e\u3067\u306f\u3082\u3046\u6570\u5e74\u3057\u304b\u6b8b\u3063\u3066\u3044\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3057\u3001\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u958b\u767a\u306f\u4f55\u5e74\u3082\u304b\u304b\u308b\u3053\u3068\u304c\u591a\u3044\u306e\u3067\u3001\u3053\u306e\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/o44R1wPIak\">https:\/\/t.co\/o44R1wPIak<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u4eca\u6751\u5b5d\u77e2 \/ Takaya Imamura (@ima_1966) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ima_1966\/status\/1938107363799798252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 26, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI felt like I was finally free from the inferiority complex I\u2019d been carrying for years,\u201d Imamura says. At the same time, the creator admits that he felt sad knowing he\u2019d no longer be able to work with those same people. Ultimately, his desire to create games at his own pace and with greater creative liberty was what drove him to leave Nintendo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to Imamura, another former Nintendo developer \u2013 Shinji Watanabe (now CEO of Epsilon Software) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/es_s_watanabe\/status\/1938131920317256011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expressed a similar sentiment<\/a>, even likening Nintendo&#8217;s highly skilled staff to \u201ccelestial beings.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ken Watanabe, who was a software developer at Nintendo for 10 years and now works as an independent creator, also joined in the discussion, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/waken\/status\/1938109693035216959\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">commenting<\/a>, \u201cThere really is nothing but amazing people [at Nintendo]. Trying to find a way to stand out among them was both draining and fulfilling.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1192\" height=\"674\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1192px) 100vw, 1192px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20241224-41989-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20241224-41989-header.jpg 1192w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20241224-41989-header-380x215.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20241224-41989-header-768x434.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This silent pressure caused by the high level of Nintendo\u2019s human resources seems to be a recurring topic among developers who used to work at the company. While the testimonies from Imamura and his former colleagues come from a mostly positive place, there have also been creators more negatively affected by the environment. CG designer Miura Koichi went viral in 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20231115-23031\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for saying that<\/a> Nintendo was \u201clike a haven for geniuses and superhumans, but for an average person like me, it was hell.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With its long history and prestige, Nintendo <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-ranks-third-among-most-sought-after-employers-in-japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is a very attractive employer in Japan<\/a>, which secures the company a big pool of talent every year as the competition over human resources in Japan grows fiercer. Not only that, but Nintendo <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230905-21355\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has an unusually high employee retention rate<\/a> at 98.8%, meaning that its expertise and knowledge stay in-house and only keep expanding. These could be some of the reasons why positions at Nintendo might seem like they\u2019re only meant for superhuman geniuses. Although, seeing even highly skilled creatives like Imamura talk about struggling to feel good enough kind of makes you wonder \u201cWhat hope is there for the rest of us?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Nintendo veterans talk about the unnaturally high concentration of &#8220;incredible&#8221; people working at Nintendo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-49566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nintendo is so full of geniuses, even Zelda and Star Fox veteran Takaya Imamura felt a \u201cconstant sense of inferiority\u201d working with them\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Nintendo veterans talk about the unnaturally high concentration of &quot;incredible&quot; people working at Nintendo.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-is-so-full-of-geniuses-even-zelda-and-star-fox-veteran-takaya-imamura-felt-a-constant-sense-of-inferiority-working-with-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo is so full of geniuses, even Zelda and Star Fox veteran Takaya Imamura felt a \u201cconstant sense of inferiority\u201d working with them\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Nintendo veterans talk about the unnaturally high concentration of &quot;incredible&quot; people working at Nintendo.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-is-so-full-of-geniuses-even-zelda-and-star-fox-veteran-takaya-imamura-felt-a-constant-sense-of-inferiority-working-with-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-30T09:14:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-30T09:14:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250206-43835-header.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"798\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nintendo is so full of geniuses, even Zelda and Star Fox veteran Takaya Imamura felt a \u201cconstant sense of inferiority\u201d working with them\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49574,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49566\/revisions\/49574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}