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Miyamoto had originally planned for "A Link to the Past" to have a party system where you could switch between three characters and utilize their individual abilities. The characters would have been a mix between an elf and a fighter, a magic user, and a girl.
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Attachment There is an unused item called "The Letter" that occupies the same inventory space as the Magic Mirror. It uses the same sprite as the map, similar to the letter item from the original Legend of Zelda.
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Attachment There is a secret room, called the Chris Houlihan room, that is not accessible via normal means. It contains a telepathy tile and 225 Rupees and is used as an error handler if you fall into a hole but the game can't find a proper destination.

This room appeared as a result of Chris Houlihan winning a Nintendo Power contest and being promised an appearance in a Zelda game. Many of the glitches used to access the room were removed in the GBA port though, along with any mention of Chris.
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Attachment There are several portraits of Mario hanging in houses of Kakiriko Village, pulling on the portraits causes Rupees to come out.
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Attachment Concept Art for A Link to the Past shows Zelda in futuristic attire. The original Legend of Zelda was planned to be set in both the past and the future. This art could be an indication that Nintendo considered reusing the concept for A Link to the Past.
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Attachment An unused enemy soldier with a cannon is fully programmed in the game, but never used. He includes full AI, graphics and animations.
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Attachment The Master Sword being a sword that would get pulled out from its pedestal by those chosen appears to be derived from the Arthurian Legend of Excalibur, also known as the "sword in the stone". Similar to how King Arthur was divinely chosen to be able to pull out Excalibur, Link was given the power by the Goddesses to pull out the Master Sword. Because of these similarities, the Master Sword was renamed to "Excalibur" in the French localizations of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
person Twilight Sparkle calendar_month December 16, 2023
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - "Excalibur retrouvera, préservant la pureté de la lignée des Chevaliers.":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5saXnUkPzMY

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - "Vous obtenez Excalibur! Excalibur est l'Epée Légendaire du Héros du Temps, qui a le pouvoir de repousser le mal.":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2ArNpV6Ag#t=2146

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - "En cet endroit secret repose Excalibur, l'épée pourfendeuse du mal forgée par les sages des temps anciens.":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgXIupUStTo#t=1483

[Below sources and attachment provided by CuriousUserX90, revision by VinchVolt.]

Zelda Dungeon article:
https://www.zeldadungeon.net/zelda-and-mythology-arthurian-legend/

Master Sword being pulled from pedestal evolution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNDDlCKP6gY

The sword being pulled from the stone:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Excalibur-Arthurian-legend

The Mabinogion:
http://www.mabinogion.info/index.html
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In a 2020 interview about Luigi's Mansion 3, the game's lead producer Kensuke Tanabe (who was also the scenario writer for A Link to the Past) compared a shift during the game's development to an early idea that was scrapped during A Link to the Past's development, revealing that the game originally had multiple parallel worlds but it had to be cut down to just two—those being the worlds of Light and Dark.

"When that happens, I try not to cling to that initial idea too much. For example, this is when I was working on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. At first, we were thinking about structuring the game with numerous parallel worlds. However, in order to establish the gameplay in the end, we decided that it would be better to narrow it down to two worlds: Light and Dark. I think game development involves much work where you never know unless you actually test it out."
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