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Early concept art for The Legend of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild shows an emo Link

Early concept art for The Legend of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild shows an emo Link

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Photo: Nintendo

Have you ever wondered what Link from The Legend of Zelda would look like if he shopped at Hot Topic and played guitar in a crappy metal band? Well, so did Nintendo’s Satoru Takizawa, who oversaw art direction for the latest entry in the series, The Breath of the Wild. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Takizawa revealed some early concept art for Link that showed a more... modern look, shall we say. He also showed some bizarre early versions of BoTW that indicate it could have been about an alien invasion or a full-scale war.

But in this alternative universe known as “tracksuit Link,” our hero is an angsty teenager who wears jeans, a Hyrulian track jacket, and thumb-less leather gloves. He also rides a motorcycle and plays an impractical and showy Flying V guitar. From the looks of it, he probably gets up to no good and has a blatant disregard for authority. The way he tells it, though, you’re just out of touch and too old to ever understand what he’s going through, which involves battling an ancient manifestation of pure evil to prevent the world from falling into endless chaos (coincidentally also the name of Link’s first album).