More information about the scrapped Legend of Zelda game, Heroes of Hyrule, has come to light.
While researching another mysterious Zelda title from Retro Studios that was lost to time, YouTuber Did You Know Gaming got their hands on a 20-plus page document on another Zelda game the developer ended up never completing.
Heroes of Hyrule was set to take place decades in the past, featuring three playable characters: Dunar the Goron, Seriph the Rito, and Krel the Zora. It was said to be a Final Fantasy Tactics-style game for the Nintendo DS. But the recently acquired document has revealed even more about the never-before-seen game.
The story behind the game saw the three heroes defeat an ancient evil, Ganon, and hide him away in a magical book. The three heroes tried to burn the book but it wouldn’t catch fire, so they scattered the pages all over Hyrule. Everyone lived in peace and freedom for 100 years until the book came into the hands of a young boy.
That’s when the story of Heroes of Hyrule begins. Players take on the role of Kori, a young boy who is exploring and doing tasks and favors for the town’s residents, like searching for hidden objects. There were also mini-games like fishing.
Kori earned a page each time he completed a task. He didn’t realize, though, that the book is evil and was just curious about hearing more about the legends of the three heroes. As he collects pages, the stories come to life and he can relive their quests one by one.
The game also had a second part where you’d take on the role of the three heroes. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, you’d use each character’s abilities and skills to solve puzzles that help you traverse various areas, beat enemies, and find hidden objects.
What happened to Heroes of Hyrule?
The plot and gameplay behind Heroes of Hyrule have been met with curiosity and praise from the Zelda fan base. The concept seemed fun, unlike Retro Studios’ other scrapped Zelda game.
Retro Studios’ programmer Paul Tozour said that he wanted to open up about the unfinished project with Did You Know Gaming. He explained that the studio had just finished Metroid Prime 2 and was feeling a bit burned out on the series. They didn’t want to be a studio that only made one series but were unsure what their side project for the DS would be.
Tozour is a Tactics fan who had a lot of experience designing strategy games. He took the idea to Retro Studios’ upper management but was turned down. Mark Pacini, a lead designer, said he should make it into a “different kind of Tactics game in the Zelda universe.” The game started to take shape, becoming less of an RPG and more of a puzzle game.
But when Retro Studios presented the idea to Nintendo, it was immediately turned down. Tozour said nobody knows why to this day.
“They just didn’t have an interest in that concept. It’s too bad, it could have been something great,” Tozour said.
