Did You Know Gaming, noted researchers and discoverers of lost video game lore, recently began diving into pitches by Retro Studios for various Zelda spinoffs back in the mid-’00s. Their main focus was on a Wii title that followed the last male Sheikah alongside Sheik (from Ocarina of Time), they also uncovered a bit about a DS strategy title named Heroes of Hyrule. And now we have more concrete info on the pitched game thanks to DYKG obtaining the full 22 page document on the game from former Retro employees.
It would’ve been a Final Fantasy Tactics style game for the DS, originally pitched in 2004 (around the time Retro was finishing up Metroid Prime 2: Echoes). Link wasn’t the main character (relegated instead to surprise cameo), as the story instead focuses on a young boy named Kori who finds a book that sealed Ganon 100 years prior. Not knowing this, he would have searched for various pages of the book, which told the tale of three heroes — Dunar the Goron, Seriph the Rito, and Krel the Zora — who worked together to save Link, who had been captured by Ganon’s forces.
The game was split into two parts: traditional Zelda-style segments where you played as Kori, gathering pages in the present day and doing some side quests, and recollections of the past, which played out as tactical RPG battles, with care put into puzzles and exploration in between battles. The game utilized some RPG features like stats, but eschewed leveling up in favor of more Zelda-like progression (like collecting Pieces of Heart). The past and present would be tied together in terms of progress, and items obtained would have multiple purposes for both field work and combat.
Nintendo shot the idea down pretty much immediately, and as a result no playable prototype exists. All that exists of it is the planning document and the memories of those who worked on it. Still, as always, it’s a fascinating glimpse into what might have been, and you should check out the full video if you have the time.
Via: Nintendo Everything
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
