The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has taken home numerous awards and ranked near or at the top of almost every single Best Of Gaming list from 2017. In a new behind-the-scenes book, titled Master Works, the developers behind the game express their feelings on how the game was recieved by fans, and how its success has still somehow surprised them. The clips, translated by Source Gaming's Matt Walker, are from much larger interviews that can be read (in Japanese, of course) throughout the book. Here are summaries of what four of the game's lead developers had to say:

Takumi Wada, Illustrator:

"He very much enjoyed reading people's reviews and thoughts on the game after it was released – it even helped provide motivation for him as he continued to create his art for the game."

Eiji Aonuma, Director/Producer:

"First and foremost, Aonuma-san wants to say 'Thank you' to everyone that played the game. Second, he wants to tell the dev team, 'It was tiring, but… happy, wasn't it? I know I was happy.' He says, 'It's been a long time since I've been so excited working on something, and if it weren't these specific people working on it, I don't think we could have made Breath of the Wild what it was.'"

Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Director:

"He mentions that there are all of these amazing videos online that people have shared, showing completely unexpected things they've found with how they play the game and the dev team has been checking all of those out – but there's still some things that haven't been discovered."

Satoru Takizawa, Art Director:

"Takizawa-san went to GDC to give a presentation, and the next morning he woke up to emails from the dev team – 'The reviews are crazy, check them out!' He rushed to check the web and found many outlets giving high scores – nearly all perfect 10s! He was so moved he got goosebumps. It felt like a dream – partly because of the haziness from waking up – and in a foreign country no less. He was ecstatic to see many different reviews complementing the work he and so many other designers worked so long and hard on."

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available now on Nintendo Switch.

Source: Source Gaming