There is no shortage of interesting ways to navigate Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Whether it's paragliding, sailing, using bombs to push mine-carts, or launching Link from rocks and trees using Stasis, the only limitations seem to lie in how creative the player can be with what's available to them. Sadly, one method of travel was withheld from the game that could have created even greater possibilities for creativity in Link's movement: the double-hookshot.
While developing Breath of the Wild, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and his team tried to include as wide an arsenal as they could. There were ideas of implementing around 120 items into the game, blending together new ideas and bringing back items from older Legend of Zelda titles. This proved to be a little too ambitious however, so while items like Link's bombs and the Master Sword made the cut, many others had to be left out.
According to DidYouKnowGaming?, Breath of the Wild's double-hookshot was one of those cut ideas. The double-hookshot was a staple item in titles like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, as they allowed Link to access areas or items he otherwise couldn't reach. Previous games in the series didn't have a climbing mechanic, at least not on par with Breath of the Wild, so it was necessary to give Link a unique way to explore Hyrule and led to some of The Legend of Zelda's best dungeons.
Why The Double-HookShot Was Cut From BOTW
Link's hookshots in The Legend of Zelda games would target specific things like grids, vines, and enemy armor, which would allow Link to quickly pull himself toward the connection point. When navigating environments, this meant that Link would zip up to wherever the hookshot grabbed, stop, then take aim with the other hookshot. The stop and start nature of this item evokes the feeling of lackluster Spider-Man web swinging, because Link can zip from place to place but lacks any amount of fluidity.
Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma spoke about testing the double-hookshot in Breath of the Wild in an interview with IGN. Aonuma revealed that the original idea for the double-hookshot was to allow Link to quickly climb something and parasail down. During Breath of the Wild's development, the team decided to do some tests to see how it would impact the game's mobility, the outcome of which seemed to be a bit surprising. In discussing what the double-hookshot felt like, Fujibayashi said that "Your mobility and your speed was just kind of incredible."
Link was seemingly now able to navigate BOTW's Hyrule like Spider-Man, without the previous limitations of past double-hookshots. It was that fluidity that made Fujibayashi deny including the double-hookshot in the final game, as he felt the level of speed and mobility offered broke the climbing mechanic in a way some other fun BOTW glitches didn't. Fujibayashi felt strongly that this title was about "doing new things" and that the double-hookshot would have only taken away from the new direction the series was going. So while it may have been cut from the first game, hopefully the team will find a way to make it work in the upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild.
Sources: DidYouKnowGaming?/YouTube, IGN