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Eiji Aonuma (born Eiji Onozuka; March 16, 1963) is a Senior Officer at Nintendo EPD. He is best known for his work on The Legend of Zelda series, taking directorial roles on the early 3D Zelda titles on Nintendo 64 and GameCube, and eventually becoming producer of the whole series.

History[]

Aonuma originally joined the company on the Nintendo R&D2 department as a graphic designer. After working on a few projects, the first game he directed was Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima for the Super Famicom, which was influenced by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

When Shigeru Miyamoto noticed Aonuma's work on Marvelous, he got him to move to Nintendo EAD; after supervising a few titles by third-party companies, he was appointed as assistant director on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; he joined the project in the middle of development and designed six dungeons (including the Water Temple), enemy characters and boss battles.

Later on, he acted as co-director on Majora's Mask along with Yoshiaki Koizumi, where Aonuma acted as the main supervising director and was in charge of the overworld areas. Later on, he was the sole director of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Aonuma eventually became the main producer and supervisor of the Zelda franchise, a position he still holds to this day.

Until Ocarina of Time, he was credited by the name Eiji Onozuka; he changed his surname to Aonuma upon his marriage.

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