A Postponed Nintendo Game Would Have Combined Zelda With Final Fantasy Tactics

Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios wished to make a Zelda recreation within the type of Closing Fantasy Ways, however, the concept was shot down by Nintendo earlier than growth may start in earnest.

Developed in 2004, Heroes of Hyrule was described by Retro Studios in an inner pitch doc as “a story-driven recreation of exploration, puzzle-solving, and strategic fight within the Zelda universe.” Designed for the Nintendo DS, it was meant to “attraction to followers of video games akin to earlier Zelda titles and Closing Fantasy Ways”.

Gameplay and story particulars in regards to the cancelled recreation have been lately revealed by the YouTube channel Did You Know Gaming?, which acquired the sport’s full 22-page pitch doc from former Retro staff.

Misplaced in time, misplaced in area

Heroes of Hyrule would have combined the turn-based fight of Closing Fantasy Ways with the normal journey gameplay of the Zelda sequence. Gamers would have fought teams of enemies in discrete tactical fight encounters, in between fixing puzzles throughout an open world.

A lot of the Heroes of Hyrule would have taken place 100 years in the past, and adopted Hyperlink as he teamed up with three authentic characters – Dunar the Goron, Seriph the Rito, and Krel the Zora – to cease Ganon. Aping the strategic RPG gameplay of Closing Fantasy Ways, the 4 heroes would have boasted distinct weapons, fight talents and playstyles. Whereas there could be no XP or levelling system, you’d amass armour, weapons, and coronary heart items to enhance your character’s stats.

Puzzle-solving would have been given a big focus, too. Progressing using the hunt, you’d progressively purchase new objects with which to resolve puzzles and reveal new, beforehand locked areas, a lot in an identical manner Samus acquires new objects to unlock areas in Metroid.

In between adventuring with Hyperlink and friends, gamers would additionally play as Kori, a boy dwelling in present-day Hyrule. Following the normal Zelda-style RPG formulation, you’d discover an open world, communicate with NPCs, and have full quests to progressively gather pages of a mysterious previous ebook. These segments would have been more full of minigames slightly than fights.

Every web page of the ebook would inform a portion of Hyperlink’s quest to cease Ganon and transport you into the previous to play using the story yourself. The 2-time durations would finally intersect because it’s revealed the ebook is a vessel that was used to entice Ganon. The villain returns within the remaining scene, just for the three heroes of the story to burst out of the ebook’s pages, and the participant to finest him in a remaining battle.

Retro laboured on Heroes of Hyrule in 2004 whereas ending the event of Metroid Prime 2. It pitched the sport following the discharge of Closing Fantasy Ways Advance, which launched on the Sport Boy Advance to vital and business success the earlier yr. However, Nintendo handed on the venture, asking Retro to manoeuvre straight onto Metroid Prime 3. In response to Retro Studio’s programmer Paul Tozour, Nintendo was eager for the studio to create an acclaimed FPS to indicate the capabilities of the Nintendo Wii.

Work on Heroes of Hyrule stopped after the pitch was turned down by Nintendo and no early construct of the sport was ever developed. Retro Studios is presently at work on Metroid Prime 4.