Biker Link, UFOs and more
This year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is happening in San Francisco right now, and the team behind the upcomingThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildgave a talk where they showed off some of the work that went into making the game. Three of the title’s developers spoke for an hour about the concepts and tools they used to buildBreath of the Wild, and it looks like nothing was off the table when ideas were first being discussed.
Zeldagames tend to tell a similar story: a hero explores dungeons and faces monsters to collect equipment so that he can defeat a greater evil that is threatening his homeland. We’ve seen the formula refined in the 30 years sinceThe Legend of Zeldafirst released on the NES. And as much fun as the formula is, eventually it can’t help but feel, well, formulaic.
ForBreath of the Wild,the developers wanted to break away from the conventions theZeldaseries had become known for. In their GDC talk, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Takuhiro Dohta, and Satoru Takizawa spoke about some of the ways they tried to move away fromZeldatraditions, and showed off some concept art from the early days ofBreath of the Wild‘s development.
As you can see, some of the concepts the team came up with would have put Link into a more modern setting. I suspect that the motorcycle Link is riding may have been seen by theDLC team forMario Kart 8.You can also see a version of Link wearing a windbreaker, and another holding a flying V guitar. Alater photo taken by USGamershows concept art of Link in a spacesuit, facing off with a Metroid.
We’ve already seenZeldacross over with another type of game inHyrule Warriors, but it looks like the team was exploring this avenue on their own before being approached by Koei.
This is perhaps the most interesting slide shown at the conference. The art style looks similar to what we’ve seen ofBreath of the Wild, but there’s an alien mothership launching dozens of smaller craft over a smoking landscape as a hooded Link looks on. The title card readsThe Legend of Zelda: Invasion, and brings to mind the scene inMajora’s Maskwhere young Link has to help keep a similar ship from stealing cows from the Romani farm. It’s harder to see, but on the right of this slide you can see artwork of what looks like an alien autopsy about to begin, with someone who looks an awful lot like Ganon in a Metallica T-shirt arguing with a coroner about how to proceed.
It sounds like the talk was well-received by everyone who attended, so hopefully it’ll be archived and posted online soon. I’ve always enjoyed theZeldaseries’ high fantasy setting, but I can’t help but wonder what some of these other ideas might have played like. That final slide’s alien ship is just begging for aStar Foxcrossover.
