The first proposals for The Legend of Zelda had more futuristic elements

Link could have had a much more futuristic style than many fans imagine

Every day more and more RPG video games come out that add to the great record of history, but few titles have managed to achieve legendary status from The Legend of Zelda. Since its first release in 1986, the saga has captivated millions of players through the decadesalthough what many do not know is that the plot has futuristic roots that house its origins and that They never saw the light of day.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Like any other project of this type, The Legend of Zelda also went through preliminary design sketches and plots that little by little developed until they found the result that we know today. Even though the current story has been a success, fans has caught their attention the previous scoop about The Legend of Zelda and here we tell you everything.

Link would have been a hero of Time if they hadn’t changed the preliminary story of The Legend of Zelda

Link is a character with a lot of potential for incredible stories

The Legend of Zelda series is widely recognized for its fantastical and medieval setting, but the initial vision of its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, was noticeably different. In an interview with Gamekult, Miyamoto revealed that the first The Legend of Zelda game was designed for move between the past and the future. The Triforce, an iconic element of the series, was not originally the well-known magical relicbut three microchips that represented power, wisdom and courage.

“It’s a story that’s not very well known, but at the time, when we started designing The Legend of Zelda, we imagined that the Triforce fragments would actually be microchips! It was supposed to be a video game that would take place both in the past as in the future. As the hero was the link between the two, he was called “Link”. But in the end, Link never went to the future and remained a heroic fantasy game! We can even say that there was absolutely no. nothing futuristic about it!” -Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto conceived Link as the connection between these eras to become the hero destined to unite two different realitieswhich makes sense of its name “Link”, which means “link” in Spanish. Of course, the design of a futuristic Zelda was not merely aesthetic, as it focused on reflect Miyamoto’s vision about technological advancement. Indeed, during the 80s, with the creation of the first game, technology progressed by leaps and bounds and, microchips, the vanguard of electronics, symbolized the promise of a technological future.

Link was going to have a completely different design than the one we know

Later, after analyzing it, Miiyamoto and the illustrator Takashi chose to change the total representation of history to give it a new meaning and a new design that was more coherent so that it would fulfill the other pieces they had in mind.

“Link’s sprite was drawn by Mr. [Takashi] Tezuka. At that time, as you know, the NES was very limited and we were only allowed three different colors. And yet, we wanted a recognizable character. What I wanted above all was for him to use his sword or his shield, and for it to be visible. So we made big guns for him so we could recognize them on screen. Then you had to create a hero who could distinguish these weapons, despite his small size. So we thought about a long hat and big ears. He reminded us of a fairy character, so we headed in the direction of an elf. At that time, whoever said character with pointy ears also said Peter Pan, and since I really like Disney, we began to be inspired by him. Not quite, obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t have been cool… From then on, I thought Peter Pan’s green suited him perfectly. But since we were limited to three colors, and there were a lot of forest environments in the game, green on green was quite suitable, so we went this route.

Although the concept of a futuristic Zelda did not materialize entirely because they took Peter Pan as a reference, its elements have had an echo in later installments of the series. For example, Ocarina of Time incorporates time travel that allows Link to explore Hyrule in different eras. Be that as it may, the representation of Link as a hero who connects worlds has endured, becoming a fundamental element of the identity of the franchise and in a character that is part of the best video games of all time.

You can follow Alpha Beta on Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter (X) to stay up to date with the latest video game news.