twin peaks has long been touted as an influential The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakeningnow the show’s co-creators are talking about how straightforward it was.
Twin Peaks was so popular in Japan at the time it aired that a series of Georgia Coffee trailers appeared, featuring several members of the original cast, including Agent Dale Cooper (aka Kyle McCrack) Lun) himself. In 2010, Link’s Awakening director Takashi Tezuka even pointed out the show’s influence on the Game Boy classic during an Iwata inquiry. Then, last year, to everyone’s surprise, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost quoted a tweet about Link’s Awakening, writing: “Has anyone played this? I’m meeting them I met and gave them some ideas that I had never tried myself.”
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Obviously, this has fans excited, as it’s never been confirmed that anyone working on Twin Peaks was involved in the game itself. Now, in an interview with The Verge , Frost has further revealed the extent of his involvement. “I don’t want to exaggerate. It was just a conversation,” Frost explained. “But it’s funny.” Apparently, this conversation took place between seasons one and two, so before Twin Peaks’ ratings started to drop due to its chaotic second half.
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“I remember meeting a guy who was their resident engineering genius,” Frost continued. “He had hyperhidrosis, so his hands were really sweaty, and he was wiping his palms throughout the whole meeting. They were talking to me about the Twin Peaks game, and that’s when they mentioned Zelda. They Say, ‘One of the things we like about your show is that there are all kinds of lateral connections that move the story forward.’ They asked me that question when they were thinking about expanding the Zelda universe. ”
Frost noted that he’d never actually played a Zelda game before, though he’s also told fantasy stories through Dungeons and Dragons. “I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons when I was younger, so I was familiar with the types of stories they were thinking about. I think I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to use fantastic Jungian symbolism. Things can be connected thematically without being specific. Contact. That’s how I urge them. [to consider]”.
Nintendo can be very secretive at times, and it’s fun to get insights like this, even for a 30-year-old game. The full interview is worth a read, as Frost was also asked about Deadly Premonition, another game clearly influenced by Twin Peaks, and how he felt about it.