Details Of Lost Zelda Spinoff Finally Uncovered

[Peter Paltridge]

For several years now it’s been a traded factoid that Texas-based Retro Studios, most famous for the Metroid Prime trilogy and a pair of Donkey Kong Country sequels, once made an attempt at a different franchise. There’s been scattered evidence that at one point, they were developing a spinoff game for the Zelda series starring Sheik from Ocarina of Time. All that remained of that project was a series of lavish, gothic illustrations carelessly left on somebody’s Artstation profile (before getting hastily yanked).
The illustrations looked amazing, and unlike any other Zelda game in existence. Everyone’s curiosity was piqued, including the fellows behind the Youtube series Did You Know Gaming. They spent several months trying to track down every lead they could on the Sheik game, contacting every member of Retro Studios that might have come into contact with it. Most were fearful of breaking NDA even though it had been 15 years since the project was killed by Nintendo.
But they...

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[Amy Rose]

Even if the game's premise or concept art is intriguing, we can draw a vital lesson from the fact that many cancelled games got shelved for a reason. Although the artwork and concept were stunning, it seems that the choice to scrap the project was the right one because the gameplay and overall direction of the game just weren't apparent.

 

[Leon_Wong]

I am not a Zelda fan but this moment gave me memories when Resident evil 1.5 got released. So is there a playable copy of this?

 

[LightSlayer]

I don't see how they could have imagined making an epic and unique game from the viewpoint of the Shiekah to have the result be a strange turn-based role-playing game whack-a-mole thing. Instead, I had anticipated it to be more of an action/stealth game. This explanation is considerably more fitting given that the Shiekah are Ninjas.

 

[Ikusa]

Okami-style combat, in which players draw and cast spells with the Wii Remote, should have been implemented. In the event that they intend to have horde engagements and massive bouts against a single boss, it makes sense to equip their characters with spells that deal area-of-effect damage and other attacks that function as a "coup de grace." Why are so many previously thought to be lost artworks suddenly turning up?

 

[Haider]

~How many percent is this game finished? Some canceled games are heart breaking because they are like 98% finished before they got shelved.