10 Things You Never Knew About Zelda: Twilight Princess
6. Sheik Was Meant To Play A Role
In Ocarina of Time, Sheik regularly appears in order to offer Link advice on his quest. During early development of Twilight Princess, Sheik played a similar role, appearing sporadically to help Link understand the nature of The Twilight Realm. In the end, Nintendo decided to swap Sheik out for a brand-new character called Midna. The big question is: why didn't Nintendo keep Sheik? Why waste time creating a new character to perform the same function?
Well, throughout the game, Link transforms into a wolf to enter the Twilight Realm. Although this mechanic is integral to the story, Shigeru Miyamoto worried the player would be bored staring at a wolf's back for half the game. To make Wolf Link look more appealing, the developers created the character of Midna to ride on Link while he was in this form.
Since Midna followed Link for most of the game, it seemed sensible for her to be the one to help understand The Twilight Realm. As a result, Sheik had no purpose to the plot and so, was removed. Since the Zelda team had already designed Sheik for Twilight Princess they decided to implement the character's model into Super Smash Bros. Brawl two years later.