Personally, I like Revali’s “old” design better than the discount Falco we got in the end. Seems like they had a general fighter/musician theme going on with the Rito in general instead of just Kass in particular, and a cello bow (cellow?) would have been an interesting, unique weapon.
Also, the “eaven earlier” Champion designs included a Kokiri Champion and a Sheikah Champion that were ultimately scrapped from the game, along with whips and hookshots.
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Original Source: Creating a Champion Artbook © Nintendo
The hat and the poncho give me Darkwing Duck vibes. And I would just like to say that I’m really glad we got the final Mipha and not the anime pigtail looking one from the early sketches. Yeesh.
I’m also on team good thing they changed mipha. The animations are already very japanese (gestures, mannerisms, and reactions the rest of the world doesn’t do) and making the characters too much like typical anime designs it would make everything too generic and weeby.