How Nintendo Almost Killed Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

1. The Future

All of these were only the major changes as well, not including the hundreds of little tweaks and redesigns that took place while the game was in production. For instance it was going to be a thing that at one point Link would encounter micro villages, full to the brim with ant-size houses that you'd have to shrink down to size to explore. This was in addition to a radically redesigned Zelda, an expanded narrative surrounding the Master Sword and smaller details like Link swapping out his iconic costume for a red tunic.

Of course, very few of these new approaches will have even gotten past the conceptual stage, but it's still an interesting insight into just how much thought, trial-and-error and experimentation goes into continuing an iconic franchise like this. Obviously, after so long the vast majority of players have an idea of what Zelda is, and it's fascinating to see how difficult it can be to retain that essence while constantly attempting to innovate and push boundaries. Yeah, that means we'll thankfully never get Stoner Link, but it also means that some cool features may get thrown out simply because they threaten to derail what people expect from these games.

Still, the team are clearly doing a great job of finding the perfect balance, and the door is wide open as to where they go next with the franchise. And who knows, maybe some of these discarded ideas will show up in one form or another in the future.