A tribute to the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has seemingly been discovered in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with an NPC sharing a striking resemblance to the video game legend.
Iwata passed away in 2015 during Breath of the Wild‘s development, with the game’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi telling the New Yorker: “When he passed away, there were moments we’d come up with an idea which we’d be excited to talk to Iwata about. Then we’d remember he was no longer here. Miyamoto told me it was the same for him. He’d come up with an idea at the weekend and would feel excited to speak to Iwata about it on Monday, only to remember. The sadness runs deep. This is approaching spiritual talk, but we had the sense that he was watching over our work. That became a source of motivation, a drive for us to improve and be better.”
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It seems that Fujibayashi’s team wanted to honor Iwata in Breath of the Wild, with them inserting an NPC into the game that looks a lot like the former Nintendo CEO. Botrick, a watchman who can be found wandering around by the Outskirt Stable, shares many similarities with Iwata, from his glasses (he’s one of few NPCs throughout Zelda history to wear a pair) through to his parted hair. He appears a lot older than many of the other watchmen, and is friendly during Link’s brief conversation with him.
The comparison to Iwata was made by YouTuber Seannicus, and he definitely has a point. Though this could just be a happy coincidence, there are definitely similarities that certainly would have crossed Nintendo’s mind while developing Breath of the Wild, so we’re going to go with this being intentional.
Take a look at Botrick/Iwata in Breath of the Wild below:
