Swords at the ready

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is arguably one of the best entries in the entire series, but it might surprise you to learn that it has its origins in a remake of one of the franchise's least popular instalments: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Nintendo worked on bringing the game to the Super NES via the power of the Super FX chip — the same tech that powered Star Fox — and it apparently had a particular emphasis on swordplay inspired by "chanbara" — a Japanese name for the cinematic samurai sword fighting seen in movies.

While that project seemingly didn't get beyond the prototype stage, it would go on to influence the development of Ocarina of Time on the N64, which would retain the focus on sword fighting. You can find out more about this — and plenty of other Zelda trivia — but watching the excellent video below.

[source destructoid.com]