What could have been?
Written by TheSoundDefense
It's no secret that Twilight Princess is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year, and possibly this entire generation. Heck, it was probably the most anticipated game of LAST year, before the delay. And for good reason; the battles, puzzles, horseback, etc. all are adding up to something supremely awesome. Every once in a while, though, my mind wanders back to the original promise of the game, and what it could have been…
Back in 2004, Nintendo was publicizing that their next game would be a direct sequel to the Wind Waker, with the same graphical style as its predecessor, as well as similar themes. So you can imagine the general attitude going into E3 2004, pretty much knowing what to expect.
Finally it came to Nintendo’s press conference, and throughout the entire thing, any mention of the next Zelda game was curiously absent. Finally, as things were wrapping up, the speaker mentions one last trailer they put on the end. It showed a nicely rendered, attractive world, a small river, a forest. Then, a small army of enemies rode over the hill in sunset, and a horse left a castle. As the army advanced, and the horse traveled, we saw the horse was ridden by a blond teenaged boy in green.
The room quite literally exploded. The cheering was loud and incessant (as was the guy cursing loudly with amazement) as Link proceeded to push blocks, pwn enemies, block arrows, and fight a gigantic magma monster. When the excitement was over, Miyamoto delivered his message. Thus was the framework for a truly epic Zelda game.
I didn’t actually see any of this myself, I wasn’t at E3, I just saw that one video online. I didn’t actually hear about this game for a little while later, couple months, I think. I was equally blown away, though, and very excited. The trailer encompassed pretty much what was my ultimate, ideal vision of the Legend of Zelda. It’s as if they had read my mind and utilized this knowledge to create the ultimate, perfect game. And so the waiting game began.
After many moons of waiting, we got to see another trailer, which was also awesome, and this was around the time the Spanish gaming magazine released screens of Link being a ranch hand in a farming village, which was working perfectly with what I had had in mind. Then rumors started floating about that Link was perhaps going to be a wolf, perpetuated by IGN magazine and fought fiercely by many members of the Zelda community (including myself). Soon after, GameInformer revealed that this new game would be subtitled “Twilight Princess” which was also debated fiercely. I would defend such a position to the death, because I was GOING to get that perfect Zelda game. It grew frustrating, really.
And then E3 2005. The new trailer proved these rumors to be true, and thus many people started forcing their words into their mouths via fork. As I did so, I kinda pondered these new developments. I wasn’t too fond of the name (though I got over that) and the wolf theme had completely dashed my hopes for the game I had wanted. Thus, I was left at the brink of a new, huge open space of Zelda pondering. Really, in the end, it helped to get me excited all over again, for this brand new idea, and right now my excitement’s closing in on fever pitch. Still, though, every once in a while my mind wanders backward to “The Legend of Zelda (working title)”, and I have a tiny daydream of what could have been.
