10 Ways Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Was Almost Completely Different
A motorcycle-riding stoner who saves the world from an alien invasion? Sure.
Long before it was a medium-shaking, Switch-justifying phenom of 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was going through all manner of shakeups across development.
As revealed both through a three-part 'Making Of' series and a lengthy talk at GDC, Breath of the Wild's various project leads systematically broke down each aspect of the design process, going from concept to early gameplay features, iterations on puzzle elements and - best of all - how characters like Link and Zelda were redesigned for this particular instalment.
Don't forget, aside from A Link Between Worlds (whose appeal could somewhat be attributed to its riff on A Link to the Past), the last main instalment in the canon was the supremely divisive Skyward Sword; an ambitiously flawed attempt to twin Zelda's tropes and gameplay with the Wii's motion controls, resulting in something that ticked neither box with confidence.
For Nintendo to revisit The Legend of Zelda, take note of everything fans have grown to adore about the mythology from the last 30 years and modernise it without losing that necessary traditional feel - that would be a Herculean task.
Naturally, the final product speaks for itself, but getting there was one hell of a journey.