The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 2 was in the very early stages of development at Nintendo before getting cancelled. This news comes from an interview in The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts, courtesy Nintendo Everything.
In an interview with Zelda artist Satoru Takizawa, the Nintendo employee officially confirmed there was work on a Wind Waker 2 before production shifted to Twilight Princess. The game would have taken place in an area with more land than water, similar to Hyrule in Ocarina of Time.
“To tell you the truth, we had begun the initial steps towards creating Wind Waker 2 around that time. However, demand for a more Ocarina-like game was growing by the day,” Takizawa said. “We did our very best with Wind Waker, and put everything we had into it, however, Wind Waker 2 would have taken place in a more land-based setting, rather than on the sea, so that we could have Link gallop across the land on a horse.”
From the sounds of it, the major shift in art change seemed to be because of the prominence of horse riding. As we know from Twilight Princess, this idea obviously stuck around. Movies like Lord of the Rings also had Nintendo thinking people would want a more realistic approach for the next Zelda.
“Link’s proportions in Wind Waker weren’t very well suited for riding on horseback, he was too short, and an adult version of Toon Link did not seem appropriate either. So, while we were stuck on those problems, we became aware of the greater demand for a more realistic, taller Link,” Takizawa said. “High-budget live-action fantasy movies were also huge at the time, so with all things considered, we decided to have at it. I was on board with the project as art director, and started off by bringing [Yusuke] Nakano on to do the design for Link.”
Twilight Princess would go on to use Nakano’s Link design and Wind Waker would end up getting sequels of sorts with Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, games released for the Nintendo DS. Phantom Hourglass would even feature the sailing of Wind Waker as well.
So what do you think? Would you like to see a return to the cel-shaded art style of Wind Waker? Are you looking forward to the latest iteration with Breath of the Wild? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
