Canned Zelda RPG by Metroid Prime devs could've been Breath of the Wild as a Final Fantasy Tactics game

gamesradar.com:

Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios once pitched Nintendo on a Zelda tactics RPG called Heroes of Hyrule, according to a new report.

Heroes of Hyrule would've been a Nintendo DS game, blending the strategy elements of the then-recent hit Final Fantasy Tactics Advance with the exploration and puzzle solving of a traditional Zelda game. According to an extensive breakdown from DidYouKnowGaming on YouTube (opens in new tab), Retro Studios pitched Nintendo on the project shortly before the release of Metroid Prime 2, partly because some members of the development team were getting burned out on Metroid, and the studio wanted to expand its portfolio beyond that single series.

Retro Studios never even built a gameplay prototype, as Nintendo turned down the project after the initial pitch, though the setup will sound pretty familiar to Breath of the Wild fans. 100 years ago, Link teamed up with three heroes to defeat Ganon and seal him away. Those three heroes were a Goron named Dunar, a Rito named Seriph, and a Zora named Krel. All you'd need is a Gerudo hero for a full set of equivalents to BotW's Daruk, Revali, Mipha, and Urbosa.

But instead of playing as an amnesiac Link, you'd take control of a boy named Kori, who's picked up a mysterious book from an old antiques dealer. As Kori, you'd play from a traditional, top-down Zelda perspective, though there'd be no actual combat in this mode. Instead, you'd get into minigames like fishing, scavenger hunts, or kite flying which would reward you with the book's missing pages.

Each of the book's pages would represent an adventure featuring the three heroes, and these quests would play out in the same format as a turn-based strategy RPG, though there would be a much bigger focus