Itoi discusses working with Iwata in his programmer days

When we were working on games called “MOTHER”, I decided who I wanted to team up with because one person had said, “Programmers aren’t allowed to say ‘no’.” Basically, that programmers can’t say, “We can’t do that,” to any ideas we would come up with. After hearing this from one of the programmers – who happens to be the president of Nintendo now – I said, “Oh?! I can just tell you to do whatever I want?” To which he responded, “Of course. That IS your job, after all, Mr. Itoi.” He told me, “Only at the very end, as a last resort, should one say, ‘We can’t do that.’” Having him say that made everything so much easier on me. - Shigesato Itoi

Sounds like Itoi has a pretty special relationship with Iwata. Man, if we could have been a fly on the wall during the Earthbound development days.

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