It's no secret that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, arguably Nintendo's biggest game yet, has suffered a tumultuous bout of delays since its announcement as a Wii U tech demo in 2011. The delay, however, almost seems negligible now considering it'll be out in just a few days on the Switch and the Wii U.
Interestingly, the finished version Breath of the Wild, like any game in history, looks so far from its early stages — it looks nothing like it, in fact, because it looks like it was made several generations ago. That's right — during a Game Developers Conference panel on Wednesday, Nintendo developers revealed that the long-awaited game with a massive open world started out as an 8-bit prototype, harking back aesthetically to Zelda's NES days.
An 8-Bit 'Breath Of The Wild'
The prototype, a fully playable 8-bit Zelda game, was used as a proof of concept, according to The Verge. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Breath of the Wild's director, desired to build "a game where the user can think and decide on their own where they want to go and what they want to do," which is why we now have an open world Zelda where the environment responds to actions the player take, such as chopping down trees, lighting up grass in flames, pushing boulders, and more.
Testing Physics And Open World Elements
Along with Fujibayashi, the other two key developers for the game were Satoru Takizawa and Takuhiro Dohta, the three of whom took the stage to show an apparently alternate version of Breath of the Wild, asking the audience to observe the image, which would then later explain the core elements of its first session, "Change and Constant: Breaking Conventions with Breath of the Wild."
To put the elements into action — that of a responsive environment — Fujibayashi and Dohta created the prototype where Link could perform such actions, but in a 2D environment initially. In the proof of concept, a 2D version of Link was able to chop down a tree, and use that log as a bridge to cross the river with. He was also able to use a campfire to set a forest in flames.
The goal with Breath of the Wild was to rediscover the essence and break the conventions of what a Zelda game is, according to Fujibayashi. This prompted him to think about the original NES Zelda. Returning to that simple 2D style became the quickest and most economical way to lay down the groundwork for the open world ideas.
Legend Of 'Zelda' Maker
The prototype, unfortunately, is just that, a prototype — lacking any real puzzles or formidable content. Sorry, 8-bit Zelda fans for getting your hopes up. But for what it's worth, the prototype looks awfully like it could be packaged as a modern game to allow players to tinker around with, a la Super Mario Maker, as pointed out by Ars Technica. Perhaps time will tell, or perhaps we all need to calm down lest our love for Zelda further fogs our vantage points.
But a "Legend of Zelda Maker" would be fun, wouldn't it?
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrives March 3 on the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U.
