Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a revolutionary approach to the classic Zelda series. By moving the game to an open-world experience, Nintendo was able to pack The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with new dungeons, characters, and environments to explore. During its more-than-5-year development period, plenty of features and content were created but not used. Getting a chance to see what didn't make it into the game can be just as interesting as what did, especially when that cut content include a micro-village which seems to be a throwback to an older Zelda game.
Zelda fans might recognize the shrinking mechanic and the tiny people from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. In The Minish Cap, Link gains the ability to shrink and grow thanks to a mysterious bird-like hat called Elzo. Elzo is a member of the Minish, a race of tiny beings who have access to mystical powers. While Fujibayashi doesn’t specifically mention the Minish during the video, it does display gameplay footage from The Minish Cap.
Early in development for Breath of the Wild, Nintendo toyed with the idea of adding a shrinking mechanic to the game. In a mini "behind the scenes" series from Nintendo, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi detailed the feature that, sadly, was not included in the final version of the game. Link would be able to shrink down to the size of just a few inches and explore tiny villages. These unnamed tiny people and their villages would be scattered all over Hyrule for players to discover.
Why BOTW's Shrinking Mechanics Were Cut
While the idea of a bunch of little villages in Breath of the Wild's Hyrule filled with tiny people was appealing to the development team, it was ultimately cut. “With all these other characters that stand out, we thought it would be difficult for these little guys to be able to live out their own place in the game,” said Fujibayashi in the interview. “So we really wanted to have them in there for the gameplay, but sadly had to give up on the idea.”
Nintendo and the team seems to have taken the idea of scattered tiny people and used it for the Koroks instead. Koroks are also scattered across Hyrule, hidden in secret groves and sometimes just under rocks. Had the developers been able to keep the tiny villages in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild it would have been a great way to connect the lore of The Minish Cap to a modern Zelda game.
Source: Nintendo/YouTube
