[Redlandsman87]

The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage is the once-proposed third title in the Zelda Oracle series.

For those of you unaware, the Zelda Oracle series were two connected titles released on the GBC in 2001. The games were originally proposed as a GBC remake of the original Zelda title, which was quickly scrapped. The GBC series was then planned to consist of six titles, four original games and two remakes (most likely Zelda I&II) but this proved itself to be much too costly and time consuming. After of a year of development time, Shigeru Miyamota (creator of Zelda and Mario, etc) proposed the idea of a trilogy, cutting away the remakes and fourth original title. Each game in the proposed trilogy was to feature unique and different gameplay elements. This trilogy was referred to as the "Triforce Series". The Triforce is composed of three parts: the Triforces of Power, Wisdom, and Courage; each game in the trilogy was to be associated with a piece of the Triforce.

Based upon the earlier GB Zelda title, Link's Awakening, the first game of the three was demonstrated at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show in 1999, under the working title Zelda no Densetsu: Fushigina Kinomi – Chikara no Shō, a very early version of LoZ: Oracle of Seasons. Zelda no Densetsu: Chie no Shō (the precursor of the Oracle of Ages) which focused on color-based puzzles, and Zelda no Densetsu: Yūki no Shō (the unfinished third title,which used the times of day to solve puzzles in a mechanic similar to the use of seasons), were not shown.

In the US, the games became The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Power, Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and Mystical Seed of Courage.

Troubles again began rising once conception on how to connect the three games came into play. The designers wished to allow the player to be able to pick up any of the three titles, regardless of order, and begin playing. Upon completion of a title, the actions of the first game affect the story of the other two. The limitations of this system and the difficulty of coordinating three games proved too complicated (as well as the looming release of the GBA), so the team scaled back to two titles at Miyamoto's suggestion. Staggered releases were abandoned in favor of releasing the two games simultaneously. This made it easier for the team to test the interaction between the games and keep the style consistent amongst the two titles. (Beating the officially released two titles requires a minimum of four play-throughs...each game individually and then the two "Password/Linked" play-throughs.)

Condensing the games into a single cartridge was never considered, as the prospect of multiple endings and the added replay value afforded by the ability to play the titles in either order was very attractive. Oracle of Seasons was adapted from Mystical Seed of Power, Oracle of Ages was adapted from Mystical Seed of Wisdom, and our third title, Mystical Seed of Courage was canceled.

The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed Of Courage is one of the few "lost" Zelda titles. The game would have featured Farore as its oracle, and was originally set to be centered around time travel and puzzles concerning the time of day. The puzzles were all to be focused on time, and some were unable to be solved outside of a specific time of day. Mystical Seed of Wisdom, which eventually became Oracle of Ages, originally had the theme of color, with each event and puzzle relating to color in some way. The developers abandoned this theme, however, and after the cancellation of Mystical Seed of Courage in July 2000, Mystical Seed of Wisdom adopted its time travel theme.

Neither screenshots of this game nor Mystical Seed of Wisdom before its massive storyline change are known to exist.


...So here we are. The two titles were very well received (both of which are my favorite Zelda titles.) and the series moved onto bigger and better things. Zelda games haven't been few or far in between since, but the third proposed Oracle title still intrigues me. Not much in the way of story, screenshots, or well...anything has been released concerning the title and most likely never will be. Several proposed fan titles were made and even a fan game or two have been started and seemingly abandoned. "Oracle of Secrets" (as Farore was named in the other two and was supposed to be the featured Oracle) was one, but "Oracle of Hours" proved itself...more visually apparent.

In 2008, a member of VGmaps named Jon Leung released April Fool's Day screenshots of the "supposed" third Oracle title, named Oracle Of Hours. Though eventually discovered to be a hoax, the maps were of such high quality some still did not believe it.

Featured in the below link are maps to a title screen, the world map, mini-maps featuring obstacles for your animal friends and most surprising of all, eight completed dungeons, AND a final dungeon. (Proodyl...not a bad boss name. Kinda sounds like poodle.)

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE IMAGES CONTAINED ON THIS SITE ARE FAKE

http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/April2008/

Not too shabby, eh? Too bad they ain't real.

So I was just wondering...does anybody have any more info concerning this lost Zelda title? Any obscure Japanese magazine pics, interview snippets, what have you?

[ICEknight]

EDIT: Thanks for the edit.

[Redlandsman87]

I'll edit, I thought they'd re-size or something. My bad

[Greg2600]

Something tells me they probably did nothing worthwhile in development. Nintendo are not known for canceling major Zelda/Mario games that are very far along at all.

[Kiddo]

[KingMike]

Could've been a remake of LoZ using the BSZ graphics.

I know people said BS F-Zero 2 was hinted at Nintendo Power, but after I looked at the article, it seemed just as likely for Nintendo to consider a rerelease of the standard F-Zero with the BS F-Zero cars (and one extra track?).
Though last I heard F-Zero was so common that even sealed copies still aren't worth much.

[MathUser2929]

I remember my local Alco store had F-Zero and TMNT IV just sitting on the shelf, not selling. Eventually they got rid of them and stopped selling games for years. Not until PS2 got popular did they start selling games again. So yeah, F-Zero seemed pretty common if it would just sit on a shelf without anyone needing a copy.

[Nosuch]

I'd believe it. I used to work at a retro gaming store and I remember that being one of the games that was always massively overstocked in our inventory.