Typophile

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Dialogue Font

BandTrumpet7

Hello all,

My registration for Typophile FINALLY kicked in after 2 weeks (and 1 day) of waiting for my activation e-mail. So, I'm celebrating by requesting the name of a font, if at all possible. :-P

This is an unusual request - many people on here are asking for typefaces used in magazines, films, etc. ... the typeface I'm looking for comes from a game. As the name implies, and as you're probably wondering when I'm going to get around what I'm actually asking for, the font used in the dialogue bubbles in "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" for Nintendo 64 (the good old days).

This is just a sample... other (more complete) examples are:

(Please note: this font is used for both Nintendo 64 games...Ocarina of Time as well as Majora's Mask.) The most prominent feature, to me at least, is the way the exclamation mark seems to be curved/slanted slightly...also the roundness of the font is noticeable...

I've been wondering this for ages, and I do apologize for the lengthy post. Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
-BT7

Michael Yanega

Of course, in hindsight it makes sense that this would be the Latin lettering from a Japanese font family, since Nintendo is a Japanese company. Good work 'noclip'!

- Mike Yanega

davemo

hello, where can I download this font

I'll thank you very much for the info

noclip

The typeface is called Chiaro and it is available here:

http://www.fontworks.co.jp/typography/family/chiaro

Reed Reibstein

Wow! Thanks for helping us out, noclip!

Petar Belic

A lot of typefaces for games are custom made (or 'evolved', ahem) for a number of reasons, including copyright. I suggest this one might be a custom, especially considering the low resolution available for the game designers for these particular games.

brampitoyo

I wonder if the exclamation mark in the face itself was done in italic. If so, this one could be fairly easy to spot.

brampitoyo

Here's a screenshot to get y'all started.

Reed Reibstein

I looked around for a while, but couldn't ID it. It seems to be a modulated sans-serif, along the lines of the much-discussed Beorcana. I checked out Optima, as well as Amira, Amerigo, and others on MyFonts, to no avail. Renova EF is the closest match I've found so far, but it was designed in 2006. The font used on the Wii's menus has yet to be identified as well, so maybe Nintendo gets all their typefaces from one, midly obscure source.

mjpatrick

I'm thinking this was custom and Nintendo had developed it internally, they've always had the creative talent. It's very possible this font has only ever existed as single character bitmaps created for the game.

There were quite a few N64 games they released that had unique typefaces I'd never seen before (e.g. there was a great script in Mario Kart 64) or since.

BandTrumpet7

Thanks guys!

It's quite possible that this IS a Nintendo-bitmapped font...that possibility actually never occurred to me, although now it makes all the sense in the world.

However, there's a sense of familiarity about the font ... I'm not sure why...Beorcana actually looks fairly close.

I'm not sure if it's the font or the fact that I've been playing these two games since they first came out that the font is so strikingly reminiscent of some other font ...

Thanks for all your help so far!
-BT7

Michael Yanega

To me, this looks fairly similar to a widened version of FB Roxy. At least that might make a printable substitute, if the game uses only a bitmap font.

- Mike Yanega

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