CODE:Inferno is a cancelled action RPG that was in development for the Playstation 2. In mid 2001 From Software announced its software lineup for all the major consoles of the time. Among the titles cited there were some that never seen a commercial release like Gold Star Mountain and Gaia Blade.
Another game that would be cancelled soon was CODE:Inferno for PS2, an action-RPG where players assume the role of a masked warrior named White Demon, who wields a giant cross called the Holy Key as his weapon. Little else is known about this mysterious project but you can see some artworks that appeared back then in a japanese magazine.
Thanks to Susumu for the translation of a Famitsu article.
At E3 2003, Nintendo showcased two Zelda games that would make use of the Game Boy Advance connectivity, Four Swords and Tetra’s Trackers. In December of the same year, it was announced that the two games would be sold together on a single disc, Four Swords +, along with a third game, Shadow Battle. Four Swords Adventures was released in Japan with Hyrule Adventure, Shadow Battle, and Navi’s Trackers as three individual games bundled together.
In Navi’s Tracker (formerly planned as Tetra’s Trackers) multiple players use a combination of the television screen and Game Boy Advances to search for members of Tetra’s pirate gang in an attempt to gain as many stamps as possible within a given time limit. Action takes place on a Game Boy Advance used by each player, while the television screen shows a basic map and Tetra narrating the action. Unlike most other Zelda games, players can enter their name and choose their gender; however, they play as one of the Links regardless. A single-player mode is also available, which allows players to either collect alone or compete against Tingle, the aspiring fairy found in other titles in the series such as Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker.
It was later announced on June 7, 2004 that Hyrule Adventures and Navi’s Trackers would be sold as two separate titles in the United States, while the retail status of Shadow Battle was still unknown. This decision was later changed – Hyrule Adventure and Shadow Battle would be bundled, while Navi’s Trackers would not be released in the United States. [Info from Wikipedia]
In the beta version of “Four Swords Adventures” it appears that Nintendo had planned on using the Link sprite from “Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”, but later changed it to the new “Toon Link” character design, as seen in the GBA version of Four Swords. The sprite was less detailed in the early build and looked like it was from an SNES game, but the final version’s Link sprite was improved.
Gabrielwoj have found an unused sprite of the Old Styled from the SNES game. Let’s see it:
Located at: GC4Sword/result.arc -> timg/link_dot_01_test.bti
At Nintendo’s Space World event in 2000, various videos were shown promoting Nintendo’s upcoming console, the Gamecube. One of the videos Nintendo presented was a short clip of a swordfight between Link and Ganondorf.
This clip led many fans to believe there would be a darker, more realistic Zelda on the horizon. Many other clips shown later became announced as full games (such as Metroid Prime), so it was fair to assume that this was the direction Nintendo was taking for their next Zelda project.
However, at E3 2001, Nintendo’s formal debut of the next Zelda surprised many players. Shown for the first time was a trailer that showcased a cel-shaded Link and much more cartoon-inspired art direction.
At this point, it’s likely the game had little content beyond essential gameplay mechanics and graphics. There was most likely little to no story in place at this time. The bulk of development would have occurred after this point.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Beta
The development process of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was heavily influenced by the last two console Zelda projects: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. In a sense, Wind Waker widely acted in part as a tech demo for everything the Zelda team could not accomplish on the Nintendo 64. Things such as weather and a lack of loading screens in the overworld were all planned from the beginning.
Much of Wind Waker remained unchanged from initial concept to final release, largely due to the game being so concretely planned beforehand and not facing any major developmental issues, unlike its predecessors. What the game essentially started as was a technical showcase of everything the development team wanted in their last two titles. If anything, the largest changes pertained to the game’s storyline.
Wind Waker’s original story was much more related to the original story of Ocarina of Time (seen above), which initially followed Link undergoing his coming-of-age ceremony. While Wind Waker’s final story was quite different, many thematic elements of the game’s story relate to the concept of coming-of-age.
This method of storytelling was originally going to be something visually apparent in the game, where Link would visibly grow older as the game progressed. Many pieces of unused game elements have been recovered from the Wind Waker game data. While many of them are merely alternate versions of things that made it into the final game, there are still many oddities worth examining.
Unused Wind Waker Assets
Development Screenshot
Perhaps the game’s most discussed element is its cel-shaded art style. The Zelda team explained that they believed this approach allowed for much more emotion to be communicated by the game’s characters, as a realistic art style makes it much harder to convince a player of emotion. Resulting from this was a large amount of highly detailed and expressive characters throughout the game, as well as a very emotionally-driven story.
On this page you can see images taken from the various beta builds of Zelda: the Wind Waker, as well as old art of the characters that would later populate the world. As you can see, the differences are clear: in the first video from Space World 2001, which aroused so much buzz because of its original style, the Link design was even more minimalist than the final version’s design.
Another interesting detail is the color of Link’s shirt; it changed from brown, the color he wore in the first game of the series, to light green. The HUD and button layout were changed over time for many times. The old character concept art clearly shows a different Link design from the released version of the game. It’s interesting that Nintendo originally planned to use an “older” Link design for the story, even if he was always in cartoon-style.
Thanks to Jayand 8PM for the english corrections! Thanks to Bryan for the updated description!
You can find more info about The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker in the Zelda Wiki!
Twilight Princess is the second Zelda released for GameCube (and the first for Wii), it had a long development cycle of nearly four years and the final game turned out to be a lot different from what was first revealed in 2004. Some areas and dungeons were removed, while the surviving sections were heavily modified.
The game was developed by the same team that created the cel-shaded Wind Waker, and as a result some things were re-used, such as the games battle and movement systems. It’s possible to find some unused items in the game-code, like the original Wind Waker baton and the Spoils Bag from WW.
As we can read from an interview with Aonuma on GameInformer:
I should point out that this is something we actually considered during the development of Twilight Princess. We had an early iteration of the wolf transformation where you couldn’t transform when in front of other characters that could see you. We thought this would be an interesting way to address exactly the thing you’re bringing up here, but what we found in practice was that it was simply too troublesome. So for purely practical game reasons we decided to avoid that.
Gabrielwoj discovered that probably all the WindWaker items were to be used in the game, but only the models have been found. (see them below).
Thanks to Jay for the english corrections! Thanks to KEK8, Jamie, Z3LER, gabrielwoj and Shadowdorothy for the contributions!
You can find more info about The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess in the Zelda Wiki!
Images:
Update Images: Wind Waker Items (click on them to open on a new tab) (there actually some 4 copies of the same bottles) It’s possible to see some of them on the videos on below, example? The Bomb Plants, it uses the same model…
The unused items:
The Hookshot (The only 3D Zelda that don’t have Hookshot [there is only a Clawshot, similar to Hookshot, but not the same)]
Elixer Soup from the Wind Waker
The Mirror Shield (the Only 3D Zelda that doesn’t have Mirror Shield)
This game developed by Silicon Knights was released in June 2002, only after a long and troubled development. Full of unseen like few other games, Eternal Darkness was first announced for the Nintendo 64 at E3 1999, then moved to the GameCube. The project was changed many times during its development: in addition to the transition from one console to another, at least a couple of chapters were removed and the story was distilled when Silicon Knights realized that it would not be possible to finish the game before the release date.
At that time, the developers announced that Eternal Darkness would have been a trilogy, so that it could have been possible to explore the complete story, mitigating the impact of cuts to the game’s plot. The game’s subtitle, “Sanity’s Requiem”, was added for this exact reason, to distinguish it from the (unreleased) sequels.
Karim was not in the early builds of the game. Silicon Knights had originally placed a Templar Knight fighting against Muslims in the scenario, but later changed this in 2001. The only remnants of this character in the finished game is a cutscene before Roberto’s story showing him being taken by Pious in disguise as the “foundation” for the Pillar of Flesh, since he is able to see Pious in his true form.
Silicon Knights stated in an interview with Nintendo Power (volume 164): “At one point, the story even included one of the other, stronger characters (note: presumably Michael) taking his own life in Edward’s presence rather than face the Ancients. This scene was eventually removed because it was considered far too grim.”
The game originally included a United States Special Ops commando who falls into the pit near the pillar of flesh. Presumably this chapter was an early version of the Michael one, whose finalized intro scenes and character model show him as a Canadian firefighter who was fighting an oil well fire in Iraq. His original equipment, such as the rifle and uniform, was placed a small ways off in the same chamber, on the body of a Marine. [Info from Wikipedia]
In a couple of screens from a cinematic removed from the final game, we can see an MC-130 cargo, a real-life plane that was developed in the early 1960s and was heavily used in “Operation Desert Storm”. This plane was probably used in the early version of the Gulf War chapter in the game – likely it was the airplane that the removed Special Ops commando would have used to land.
From a series of concept art we can even notice some unused ideas for different game endings, with a zombie apocalypse after the Ulyaoth god takes over the world, a flood of people that follow Chattur’gha’s orders and a city with trees under Xel’lotath influence.
Other smaller differences in the beta version are Alexa’s shirt color (red instead of black), the removed “real time shadows” and Maximillian Roivas had still his “hairs” in the cell cutscene.
[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Il gioco Silicon Knights uscì nel Giugno del 2002 dopo uno sviluppo che definire travagliato sarebbe un eufemismo. Ricco di unseen come pochi altri, questo titolo venne annunciato su Nintendo 64 all’E3 del 1999, per poi essere spostato su GameCube. Il risultato fu buono, tanti lo odiano, altrettanti lo amano, certo è che il gioco venne modificato tante volte durante lo sviluppo: oltre al passaggio da una console all’altra vennero eliminati interi capitoli, la storia venne distillata, tutto faceva presagire che sarebbero arrivati dei seguiti a completare l’idea del progetto originario. Finora comunque non se ne sa nulla (escluse le vacue speculazioni), il tutto a favore degli appassionati degli beta.
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