Recently it has been published in Japan the book of The Legend of Zelda Art & Artifacts that includes not only images, but sketches and artwork, as well as some background on the series. We thus discover that a sequel to The Wind Waker was in pre-production, only to be cancelled to make room for The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker 2 would be set mainly on land rather than at sea, and would have introduced the possibility of travelling on horseback. The development of this project seems to have lasted only a few weeks, the house of Kyoto is in fact disappointed by reception accorded to The Wind Waker, hence the decision was taken to suspend work on the sequel, also undermined by some unspecified technical problems:
“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. But 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. 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,” were words by the artist Satoru Takizawa.
What do you think of the choice of Nintendo? Do let us know in the comment section below.
