No matter how monumental a game or series is, there are always ways it could have been different. Developers will play around with different ideas, mechanics, and character traits, tweaking as they go along until they think the title is as perfect as they can make it. Sometimes we can catch glimpses 🍬of these ideas through pre-release trailers. And sometimes we may not find out about them until years later when a company decides to release concept art from their vast vault.
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most respected franchises in video game history. And due to its stature in the industry, there are innumerable ideas and concepts that Nintendo had to change or remove entirely that can provide an interesting look into an alternate video game timeline. The unreleased expansion of Ocarina of Time; the dungeon building aspect and general layout of the original The Legend of Zelda; the human masks of Majora’s Mask. Each classic entry in the celebrated serie﷽s had to be altered in some way for some reason, making for different games upon release. Some of these changes have been small, while others had intriguing impacts on the ways the games would have operated.
This isn’t to say that each Zelda game was negatively affected by these changes. The series is respected so much because of how much effort Nintendo pours into every one. But they certainly would have been different. Here are 25 amazing things deleted from the classic Zelda that would have changed everything.
25 The Legend O𓂃f Zelda: A Choice Between Two Starter Weapons 🌄
By now, it’s hard to imagine Link starting his adventure with 𒊎something other than his trusty💧 sword. But during development, Nintendo planned to give players the option to choose between two different starter weapons.
The options players would have been given would be between the sword and the boomerang.
Switching it to just the sword was probably the simpler move, and the boomerang was j🥂ust made available later in the game. Footage🦩 taken from the promo video for the Famicom Disk System, with the player’s two options, can still be found .
24 Zelda II: The Adventure Of L🎶ink: The Unused Graveyard 𓃲
Many fans consider Zelda II: The Adventure of Link to be one of the weaker entries of the franchise. And it’s pr✱ecisely because the game tried so many new things that h🃏ave given it that reputation. The game is played from a top-down perspective while traversing the overworld but switches to sidescrolling whenever Link enters a town, palace, or battle.
But there is one battle sequence taking place 𝔍in a graveyard that players have been able to find in the game’s code that never made it in. Why it was deleted or where it would have occurred is unknown.
23 ෴ Link's Awakening: Preset Warp Locations 🌳
Link’s Awakening brought many new elements to the Zelda franchise that would become staples of the series, such as t🎀rading sidequests and playing songs on an ocarina.
But there is one element that many future games in the series have that was taken out of the first portable Zelda.
It see🍌ms that there were initially pre-set warp locations planned for the title. Players have been able to hack the game and warp Link to 11 locations in a specific order. But it’s likely this was deleted early on as several of them put Link inside an object.
22 💃 ❀ A Link To The Past: Familiar Items
A Link to the Past quickly became the pinnacle of the series when it was released in 1991, and one of the things that made it the new gold standard were its items. The game introduced incredible new weapons like the Hookshot and the Fire Rod, bu෴t these new items meant getting rid of some old ones.
There are graphics for items from the original game found in the game’s code. These include meat (which resembles bait), a letter, and the useful stopwatch that would freeze any enemy on screen as soon asဣ Link picked it up.
21 O🤪carina꧑ Of Time: A Massive Expansion
The amount of content that was taken out or not implemented in Ocarina of Time could make up its own list (and has). But one of the more fascinating ideas that never saw the light of day was Nintendo’s planned expansion titled Ura Zelda.
This would have added an insane amount of content such as new characters, new sideque🎉sts, new dungeons, and even functionality with the Game Boy Camera that would have let players create masks for Link to wear. This all would have been possible if the Japan-only disk add-on it was planned for, the Nintendo 64DD, hadn’t tanked.
20 🐠 Maj✱ora's Mask: More Familiar Items
Similar to A Link to the Past, Majora’s Mask also had some items deleted that were seen in a previous game. Some from Ocarina of Time were meant to be carried over as they ꧑were seen in pre-release footage or screensho🐈ts.
But including these items would have been entirely unnecessary since there were alternatives.
The fairy ocarina was simply changed to the Ocarina of Time. The Deku shield was taken out in favor of the Hero’s Shield. And the megaton hammer wouldn’t💮 make sense with Goron Link’s abilities just like the boomerang wouldn’t have made sense with the Zora’s fins.
19 Tꦡhe Wind Wa൲ker: A Water Dungeon
It may be hard to believe, but The Wind Waker was released over 15 years ago so we’re still counting it as a classic. And just like many classic Zelda games, it was meant to follꦰow the same first-three-dungeons formula.
Or so it is thought.
It hasn’t been confirmed by Nintendo, but many believe that Greatfish Isle was me🏅ant to house the water dungeon instead of becoming the wreck we see. T𝐆here’s a lot of evidence that points towards this, mainly the fact that director that they had to delete a couple of dungeons.
18 𓆏 🥂 A Link To The Past: Cannon Soldier
The enemies from A Link to the Past (or any older game) are tough as nails and relentless in their pursuit of our 𒐪hero. Just like every foe, they can be avoided and bested, but when there’s a bunch of them on screen it can be enough to overwhelm you.
So it’s probably a good thing that one of them was deleted.
Agahnim’s corrupted Hylian soldiers come in variati𓄧ons. Some use swords while others use a bow and arrow, but one who shot giant cannonballs at Link was deleted. I, for one, am grateful.
17 Ocarina Of Time: The Ocarina Pedesta🍌l 💯
Ocarina of Time sure does love using pedes🅠tals. Most of🐬 them are spots for warp points inscribed with the medallion of the corresponding sage that is meant to watch over that area. But one has been found in the game’s code that has become something of a mystery.
Some players have been able to dig up an unused cutscene with Lord Jabu-Jabu in the Zora’s Fountain. Within this cutscene is a pedestal with the picture of an ocarina on i🎀t. No one knows what it would have done or why it specifically appeared in Zora’s 🎐Fountain.
16 🗹 Oracle Of Ages & Seasons: Human Ganondorf
These dual titles developed by Capcom for the Game Boy Color each feature a different villain. But for players who completed both and linked their save files, they would receive the tr༒ue final boss fight with the revived Ganon.
However, there apparently were plans to have🍰 him play a bigger part initially, just in his human form. There is concept art of a human Ganondorf that was created while the games were in development, but he for some reason was left out of the games.