Stunning Concept Art for Canceled Zelda Project Emerges

Well, here's something you definitely don't see every day. Concept art for what's claimed to be a "canceled Zelda project" has emerged online, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

Shinesparkers.net, a fan community dedicated to the Metroid series, claims they've received concept art that belongs to Sammy Hall, who worked as a concept artist for Retro Studios, developers of Metroid Prime. This artwork details a "canceled Zelda project from 2005 to 2008," and you can take a look at a sample of the artwork below.

This art depicts a Zelda project that, according to Shinesparkers, would have followed on from the "bad" ending of Ocarina of Time, where Link fails to defeat Ganon. Described as an "action/JRPG" in the concept art obtained by the website, the project would have followed not Link, but the last Sheik instead.

Aside from this Zelda project, Shinesparkers also obtained concept art for a canceled "Boo project," also produced by Hall. There's not nearly as much detail to go on with this project as there is with the Zelda title, but there's a potential world map included within the sketches.

It actually sounds like Hall isn't too fond of working in the games industry after several decades. "Have always worked full-time at developer studios. Sometimes random freelance for fun projects outside of games," he wrote in a recent post on his Artstation profile. "But I'm completely pulling out of that game career until there can be some real solutions to the exploitation, criminality, and abuse that I see my peers put through... Things have been messy for way way too many decades."

Header image credit: Sammy Hall on Artstation.