Zelda Wind Waker 2 was in development but was scrapped for more realistic game

By Sickr on August 1, 2026

Games Radar has been digging through the archives and has come across Eiji Aonuma’s Game Developers Conference 2007 talk during which he revealed that the team were working on a sequel to the beautiful The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Sadly the project was scrapped due to the reception of the original Wind Waker in North America where people wanted a more realistic looking Zelda game. The game turned out to be The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Here’s what was said:

On Wind Waker’s Reception in North America

“At one point, I had heard that even Wind Waker, which had reached the million mark in sales, was quickly losing steam, and that things were sluggish even in North America, where the market was much healthier than in Japan,” Aonuma said. “I asked [Nintendo of America] why this was. What I was told was that the toon-shading technique was in fact giving the impression that this Zelda was for a younger audience, and that for this reason, it alienated the upper-teen audience that had represented the typical Zelda player.”

On Wind Waker 2

“The proposed setting for The Wind Waker 2 was not on sea, but on land,” according to an interview with Twilight Princess art director Satoru Takizawa, printed in the book The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts.

“The desire to depict Toon Link on a horse riding around the great plains was great; however, with his small stature and short arms and legs, it would have been difficult to make him look good on a horse,” Takizawa continued. “It wasn’t like we could create an adult version of Toon Link. And that was about the time we heard that people were waiting on a realistic-looking Zelda game again.”

When Twilight Princess rolled around

“Four months later, development had progressed to a point where Link could swing his sword in battle against enemies while riding on his horse in a realistic-looking world,” Aonuma explained. “When it was announced with a surprise trailer at the 2004 E3, it received a standing ovation by the media audience. This was a very exciting moment for us, but we were still very much in the early stages of converting the game into something more realistic. We knew that we had to create a Zelda game that would live up to the expectations of fans in North America, and that if we didn’t, it could mean the end of the franchise. But I also trusted the ability of the team, which was able to bring the game so far in just four short months.”