How Nintendo Almost Killed Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

4. Blending Man With Machine

The first major change workshopped seems rather small on the surface, but would have impacted the combat and exploration massively. Though there were plenty of Guardians scattered around Hyrule, all created with futuristic technology that far outmatched your regular swords and shields, you couldn't use their parts to create similarly devastating weaponry.

Sure, you could visit the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab and kit yourself out with a lush set of Guardian armour and suped-up versions of your regular weapons, but nothing really fundamentally changed from a gameplay perspective with these items equipped.

Initially, these new creations were going to be far more advanced, giving players access to the likes of a proto-grenade launcher and a context-sensitive grappling hook. Similarly the look of this technology was set to be far more insidious, with an idea being floated at one point that Link might merge with the material itself to create a weird, monstrous amalgamation of flesh and machinery.