During Nintendo’s GDC 2017 panel on the big changes seen in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild we’ve already seen how the game began as a 2D prototype, but the latest revelation is even stranger. Apparently during early concept work for the game it almost featured a massive alien invasion.
The info came from Art Director Satoru Takizawa, who took the stage to give some glimpses at early concepts for what eventually became The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In a section called “Trial and Error?”, he broke down a few of the ideas they had that simply didn’t pan out. These include a version called Hyrule Wars, which looks more like a spinoff than a new main series game, as well as “The Legend of Zelda: Invasion”, which would have been about an alien assault on Hyrule.
Not much more was shared about what the games would have ended up being, as it seems like the team moved beyond them rather quickly, but the screenshots from them are definitely interesting, especially for longtime fans of the series.
This actually wouldn’t be the first time The Legend of Zelda series went into the territory of science fiction. Majora’s Mask had a rather memorable mission in which you fought off what was by many accounts an alien invasion. The foes were more like ghosts than actual alien creatures, but the parallels were definitely there.
Skyward Sword also got pretty SciFi, with a section that was based around extremely advanced technology. And Breath of the Wild’s Guardians are definitely high tech, though aliens haven’t been shown in any of the promo material.
How different could the series have been had it went down this road? We’ll never truly know, but with how good Breath of the Wild is looking, it’s probably good we ended up where we have.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild hits Wii U and Nintendo Switch on March 3rd.
