The Guardians are probably the most intimidating enemy that players can come across in
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Some would even dare say that, next to the fearsome Lynels, Guardians are even more intimidating than the game's final boss.
Guardians are even the very first enemy that players were introduced to in the official reveal of
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, during the E3 in 2014 and way before the game even had a name; back when it was a Nintendo Wii U title and the Nintendo Switch didn't even exist.
According to Takafumi Kiuchi, lead artist for
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Guardian's design was required to have two things: one of them was that they should have many legs, and the other was that they needed to look ancient.
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The art director gave me two directives in regard to the design of the Guardians. The first was that they should have many legs that move fluidly, and the second was that they are from an ancient culture. From there, I started sketching. At the beginning of development, it wasn’t yet decided whether the Guardians would be your allies or enemies, so I tried to design them to look neutral. That way, later, they could be used either way".
Kiuchi also mentions that the Guardians' legs also needed to adjust seamlessly to any kind of terrain; especially because the game is an open-world title and Guardians should be able to move freely around the field.
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As far as the legs moving fluidly, I designed legs that could bend freely like an accordion and would allow them to move quickly over variable natural terrain. I used Jomon-era flame-shaped pottery as inspiration for its body. If you look at a Guardian upside down, you should be able to see the form of that pottery. In addition to the Guardians that ended up in the game, there was a design for a giant, fortress-like Guardian that was equipped with multiple beam cannons, but we were ultimately unable to implement it".
It's really interesting to know that the developers even thought about making a fortress-like Guardian that players would come across while they're out exploring the world; It would've made for a great boss fight or ally. Hopefully we'll get to see something like this in a future
The Legend of Zelda title.
No kingdom. No memories. After a 100-year slumber, Link wakes up alone in a world he no longer remembers. Now the legendary hero must explore a vast and dangerous land and regain his memories before Hyrule is lost forever.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently available for the Nintendo Switch.