History WhatCouldHaveBeen / TheLegendOfZelda

** ''Hyrule Historia'' reveals [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:OoS_Ganondorf_Concept_Artwork.png concept artwork of Ganondorf]], meaning he was considered but cut for unknown reasons. In the actual game, he only appears as a mindless Ganon.
** [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:OoSOnoxConcept.png Concept art of Onox]] shows him holding a huge two-headed axe with a flail attached to the handle.

** The game originally had a different theme for the Twilight Realm, being in black and white rather than a washed-out sepia tone with lots of bloom (the final version).

** The game was also supposed to use a magic system similar to the ones used in the previous ''Zelda'' games and many preview screenshots and trailers showed a magic meter. During development, Nintendo scrapped the concept of magic, but forgot to cut out the green Chu. Red ones could be used as a red potion when killed and blue ones used as a blue potion. Green Chus would have been used like a green potion to restore magic, but since magic does not exist in the game, drinking a green Chu Jelly simply does nothing. Likewise, the screenshots shown at the back of the game's box shows the magic meter, despite the fact that the game does not use a magic system.

*** One was called "Hyrule Wars from The Legend of Zelda". It depicted Link traveling in the middle of a battlefield during explosions. From the name, this suggests a war would have been present and Link would have entered areas where ongoing battles were occurring.

** The developers planned for the Hookshot and Beetle to be abilities Link could use with the Sheikah Slate, but these were scrapped.

** During the Tarrey Town sidequest, the player would've originally been able to design and build the houses of new residents after inviting them to move to the burgeoning village. The box-like architecture of Tarry Town's buildings is a holdover from this.

** This game had a few very different ideas preceding it, such as one involving Link fighting against an AlienInvasion, another with a modern-day-style Link with a motorcycle and electric guitar in addition to his Master Sword, and a third with a possessed Link with an artificial arm that could turn into different items. The motorcycle ended up being implemented as part of ''The Champion's Ballad'' DLC as the Master Cycle Zero, whilst the artificial arm was [[RefittedForSequel retooled]] for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom''.

** The Kokiri were originally intended to be in the game and for one of their number to be a Champion; [[https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/File:BotW_Champions_Concept_Art.png early plans also had a Sheikah champion]]. In the final version, their places were taken by the Rito and Gerudo; the Sheikah remained as a "secondary" race, while the Kokiri were replaced by the Koroks.

* Nintendo was in talks with Creator/{{Netflix}} to produce a live-action series based on the games in early 2015. However, the plan fell through when a Netflix employee leaked the news about the proposed show to the internet, which upset Nintendo so badly that they immediately backed out of producing it and a proposed stop-motion ''VideoGame/StarFox'' show that a completely different studio was working on.

*** The Ice Temple was going to be located in an area behind Jabu's Fountain, and would have resulted in Zora's Domain being unfrozen once completed.

** Early on there was no WideOpenSandbox overworld, as they weren't yet sure the N64 could support it. Instead you would travel to different worlds via paintings in the same way you do in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', which it shares the same engine with. Phantom Ganon's boss fight with the paintings is a DevelopmentGag to it.

** This game had a few very different ideas preceding it, such as one involving Link fighting against an AlienInvasion, another with a modern-day-style Link with a motorcycle and electric guitar in addition to his Master Sword, and a third with a possessed Link with an artificial arm that could turn into different items. The motorcycle ended up being implemented as part of ''The Champion's Ballad'' DLC as the Master Cycle Zero, whilst the artificial arm was [[RefittedForSequel retooled]] for''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom''.

** The development team had come up with a lot of DLC ideas for the game. However they decided it would be better to [[RefittedForSequel incorporate them in a direct sequel]] due to the number and nature of these DLC ideas.

** This game had a few very different ideas preceding it, such as one involving Link fighting against an AlienInvasion, another with a modern-day-style Link with a motorcycle and electric guitar in addition to his Master Sword, and a third with a possessed Link with an artificial arm that could turn into different items.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/early_twilight.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The original DeliberatelyMonochrome Twilight Realm from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', with Midna's PrehensileHair colored differently.]]

** Finally, there's the infamous picture of Link finding the Triforce in a cave, which is a pretty good indicator that at one point the player ''could'' find the Triforce but it was eventually removed. [[UrbanLegendOfZelda Not that that's stopped people from still looking]]…

* Nintendo was in talks with Creator/{{Netflix}} to produce a live-action series based on the games in early 2015. However, the plan fell through when a Netflix employee leaked the news about the proposed show to the internet, which upset Nintendo so badly that they immediately backed out of producing it. A proposed stop-motion ''VideoGame/StarFox'' show was also scrapped as a result.

** There's a particularly infamous minor NPC that is {{Fan Nickname}}d "Aria" (her in-game file is just "object_human"). She is the first NPC shown off for ''Zelda 64'' and was apparently one of the few [=NPCs=] in that incarnation. Little is known about her except that she likely gave Link tips. It also seems she might have been a "generic" model where multiple separate woman used the same design. Surprisingly, her model is in the final game's files despite being from a very old and completely separate build. Fans have managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADVOOW4QMkI restore the model]].

** Originally the game had much larger areas, but they ended up being scaled down, most likely due to memory limitations.[[note]]the game was originally intended to come out for the disc-based 64DD, but it was later moved to the N64, which used cartridges with much less storage capacity, which likely made the original scope impossible[[/note]]

** The 64DD expansion to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime.'' Some commentators wonder if ''Master Quest'' really represents what the original intention was. An expanded overworld? New dungeons? ''Master Quest'' is not the original ''Ura Zelda''. In an old copy of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time_Master_Quest&oldid=162448085 Wikipedia which refers to a dead link]], ''Ura Zelda'' would've had new dungeons (possibly the wind/ice dungeon,) new items, new attacks, magic spells, and custom masks created via ''VideoGame/MarioArtist: Talent Studio'' and the Game Boy Camera.

** Originally, there were two extra dungeons - Wind and Ice - which were scrapped. They were turned into the Forest and Water Temples respectively. In addition, the ice temple was turned into the Ice Caverns and the Wind Temple was reused in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. Remnants of this can be seen in Ganondorf's Castle; the forest segment heavily revolves around wind puzzles, while the water segment involves a FrictionlessIce BlockPuzzle.

** Likewise, the developers planned for the Hookshot and Beetle to be abilities Link could use with the Sheikah Slate, but they were scrapped.

** The idea of the world ending when a giant egg breaks on top of the mountain was originally planned for this game. It later was used instead in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening''.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' was planned to have a two-player mode which would work similarly to the later ''Four Swords'' and ''Tri Force Heroes'' games, including a boss that required one player to throw their partner on top of it, where they could pound a stake with a hammer (another feature not found in the final game). The storyboard (seen in ''Literature/HyruleHistoria'') that illustrated this has a note indicating that they couldn't figure out how this boss would work with only one player, so when the two-player mode was cut, the boss went with it. Another storyboard indicates that the Southern Face Shrine was originally going to include a pillar that the player had to ram with the Pegasus Boots to get the key- the pillar would then collapse, revealing the inscription seen in the final game.

** Link originally had a "Reed Whistle" item that was scrapped in favor of Epona's Song. The item was later introduced in ''Twilight's Princess'' as the "Horse Call".

** ''Hyrule Historia'' reveals [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:OoS_Ganondorf_Concept_Artwork.png]], who only appears as a mindless Ganon, meaning he was considered but cut for unknown reasons.

** The game originally had a different theme for the Twilight Realm, being in black and white rather than overcontrasted (the final version).

** The game went through several ''heavy'' overhauls (for more info see this [[https://tcrf.net/User:GlitterBerri/Prerelease:The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Ocarina_of_Time Cutting-Room Floor]] article). The game's development can be broken up into two main segments: ''Zelda 64'' and ''Ocarina of Time''. The former started off as ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''-like in that it revolved mostly around Ganondorf's castle and was thin on plot. The game had a lot more 3D, including fully 3D buildings. This build barely resembles the final game and almost everything, from the [=NPCs=], to the "beta forest", to Link's model, were scrapped. Eventually, the game transformed into ''Ocarina of Time'' as we know.

* ''VideoGame/CaptainToadTreasureTracker'' was almost a spin-off game starring Link. This was scrapped when they decided to add levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and remembered the character of Captain Toad.

** Originally the game had much larger areas, but they ended up being scaled down, likely due to performance issues[[note]]the early maps were less detailed; adding the final's level of detail while keeping the large maps would likely have been impossible or heavily taxing on the system[[/note]] and memory limitations[[note]]the game was originally intended to come out for the disc-based 64DD, but it was later moved to the N64, which used cartridges with much less storage capacity[[/note]].

** Originally the game had much larger areas, but they ended up being scaled down, likely due to performance issues and memory limitations.

** ''Hyrule Historia'' reveals [[https://zelda.gamepedia.com/File:Ganondorf_OoX_concept.png concept artwork for Ganondorf]], who only appears as a mindless Ganon, meaning he was considered but cut for unknown reasons.

** There is an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSFYGGg04cc unused]] scene of Link meeting Sheik in front of the Medallions.

** When the game was shown at E3 2015, there was a magic meter on the screen. The magic meter was scrapped, probably due to the abilities the devs made for Link's Sheikah Slate.