Hyrule Warriors Concept Art Suggests Different Companion

The Hyrule Warriors strategy guide released by Prima Games is an absolute must have item for any Legend of Zelda fan. Not only does it come with a well-written walkthrough that’ll allow anyone to beat and unlock everything, it also comes with a full translation of the art book that was bundled with both the Japanese Treasure and Premium Box editions of the game. Within this bonus art section of the guide — titled “Behind the Scenes” — there are two particularly interesting pieces of concept art that not many people have actually spoken about.

The fully colored image you see above can be found on page 246 of the guide. With a header that reads “A Vision of Discarded Characters”, this page focuses on some of the characters that were planned to be in the game but just didn’t make the cut. The image features Link with sword in hand holding a vine-covered shining shield out in front of him. The light that envelops the shield seems to take the form of a mostly nude woman behind him. What’s odd about this woman in this piece is that she heavily resembles Princess Zelda. The concept of a being residing in one of Link’s iconic items has already been touched on in Skyward Sword with the character Fi, so it’s very interesting that the development team had thought of something similar for Hyrule Warriors.

The second piece of concept art can be found right to the left of the one we just spoke about, though this one has a lot more going in it. The drawing shows Link cutting off a Bublin‘s arm, resulting in what we can assume is its blood to come pouring out. Rather than just fall onto the floor, however, the “blood” flies over its head in an arch and reaches the mysterious half-naked woman that comes out of Link’s shield, who then seemingly either absorbs the “blood” or transforms it into some form of energy. As if this wasn’t confusing enough, right above the image we see the words “What would be the true character of a woman who supports Link?”.

This second piece is definitely a lot more bizarre. It shows us that the game was going to have some form of blood or liquid come out of enemies when being attacked. Not only that, but this unknown, Zelda-esque woman seems to have had more of a use as a companion to Link. Unlike Proxi, she is shown to actually be doing something other than just work as a means to provide him with a voice.

With Hyrule Warriors and its strategy guide both out for about three months now, it’s a bit odd to see that, outside of a recent post made by Destructoid, not many people have spoken about these two drawings. With such little information provided for them, I can’t help but wonder just how deep into development this character got to before it was scrapped. Having some form of spirit embody Link’s shield is definitely a cool idea, though I do think it would have come off as rather unoriginal. I do wonder what that message means, though, and why this woman has such a striking resemblance to Zelda. Here’s hoping we might hear more on her from Nintendo at some point later on. In the mean time, why don’t you let us know what you think of these two concept pieces the comments?