Takaya Imamura, a designer for Nintendo and a character designer on Majora’s Mask, is leaving the company. His work includes character design on Star Fox 64, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and his very first piece of work with the company, F-Zero. His most recent work with the company was a Star Fox collaboration with Starlink: Battle for Atlas. On his Facebook page, Imamura posted this.
“This is my last day at work. I took a picture with the empty office. I suppose I won’t be coming here anymore. As you might expect, I’m going to miss it.”
Imamura also posted a Tweet.
最終出社日
空っぽの会社と自撮り(T ^ T)
もうここに入ることが無いと思うと
やはり寂しい‥
32年間お疲れ俺！ pic.twitter.com/NS2weIklxO— 今村孝矢 (@Fo83S) January 20, 2021
Star Fox isn’t one of Nintendo’s premier franchises, but, The Legend of Zelda is. Especially with Breath of the Wild and the revitalization of the franchise on the Nintendo Switch, Zelda is more prevalent than ever. Majora’s Mask may not be the best game in the franchise, or even better than its predecessor, Ocarina of Time, but it’s an incredibly unique game with some very interesting character designs, even though many of the designs are re-used assets from Ocarina. Imamura contributed greatly to some of the best Nintendo games and he will be sorely missed at the company. We can’t wait to see where he ends up next, but it’s always sad to see one of the old-time employees of Nintendo leave. While a Majora’s Mask character designer is leaving Nintendo, he was so much more than that and his legacy will live on through the games he helped craft.