The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might be the best game Nintendo has released in years – maybe their best game ever. And former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was certainly in the thoughts of the Zelda team throughout the development process. He was sorely missed for his optimism, leadership, and passion. But his presence was also felt.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi told the 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,” Fujibayashi told me. “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.”

Nintendo was trying to change the blueprint of what Zelda had become over its lauded 30-year history. Zelda: Breath of the Wild was to be a return to the series’ roots, but done in a way no one had seen before.

“They said, ‘Change anything you want,’ ” Fujibayashi recalled. “So we wrote down all of the stress points, the things that make Zelda games less enjoyable, and we replaced them with new ideas.”

And things didn’t always go as planned.

“At many times in the process, there were things that just weren’t functioning at all,” Takuhiro Dohta, the game’s technical director, told me. “We’d have to remove everything and build back up again.”

But now that Zelda: Breath of the Wild is finally in the hands of hungry gamers, it has set a Metacritic record for the most amount of perfect scores – 43 and counting.

Satoru Iwata’s Spirit Lives On At Nintendo

On July 11, 2015, Nintendo’s beloved president Satoru Iwata passed away.

For many who follow the video game industry, it was very sudden and unexpected.

The outpouring and grief that came out of the video game industry over Iwata’s passing was enormous. Condolences poured from all corners of the game industry as they mourned and remembered Nintendo’s president. He was beloved throughout the whole industry, especially by Nintendo gamers, who were devastated by the news.

Gamers collectively from all over the world put down their controllers, joined hands, and bowed their heads in mourning and respect of someone who was not just the president of a game publisher and console manufacturer, but a game developer. And someone who was a gamer himself – one of their own.

At the time, Nintendo was already struggling to carry their flagging Wii U console to a respectable finish. They were deep in development on the Zelda game everyone expected to be its crown jewel. Now they were leaderless.

It was known that Iwata did have some health issues that caused him to miss E3 in 2014, but most assumed they had been taken care of and he had recovered. He had lost some weight during this process, but this wasn’t perceived as life-threatening. No other word about his health was heard about for months until the announcement that he was gone. Just like that.

Nintendo is a unique company and their president was no different. Even gamers that aren’t necessarily Nintendo fans paid their respects in the days and weeks after Satoru Iwata’s passing.

Now Nintendo has done the same by releasing one of their greatest games in years in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Satoru Iwata wasn’t just a CEO in a suit, he was one of us, and the chief of the Nintendo tribe. Passionate and full of vision and optimism, he was loved by the gaming community, especially Nintendo fans. Iwata embodied so much of what Nintendo is as a game developer and publisher.

He will be dearly missed, but never forgotten.

RIP Iwata-san. Wherever you are, I hope you’re smiling.