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Nintendo is looking to offer ‘new gaming experiences’ with the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as revealed in an interview with three designers who worked on the first game (via Segment Next).
A sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a surprise announcement at E3 this year, sneakily slotted into the end of Nintendo’s showcase. It was originally planned to be a DLC addition to the critically acclaimed entry to the series, but it became clear that the team had bigger ideas. Producer Eiji Aonuma said, ‘DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit. Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas, but then we had a lot of ideas and we said, “This is too many ideas, let's just make one new game and start from scratch.”
‘One of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story,’ he explained. A little light has been shed on the new gameplay coming to the sequel, sourced from a Nintendo interview with three Breath of the Wild designers. They discussed the development journey of the first game, and chatted about job openings at the studio.
‘The continuation is in development at the moment. For now we can not comment much about the game, but our goal is to offer new gaming experiences that exceed those of the previous game, so we will need the skills of many people to create this new game. That’s the reason we are looking for new terrain designers at Nintendo,’ the interview read. The Breath of the Wild sequel will use the same map as its predecessor, but with a possible twist, to explore Hyrule to its fullest extent.
New terrain designers insinuates a new look or new features coming to the familiar locales of the world, which adds to rumours that Ganondorf will make an appearance in the next game. His resurrection could alter the environment and could cause Link and Zelda to be separated, allowing Zelda to become the playable protagonist. When asked about that particular prospect, Aonuma simply said, ‘I can’t tell you.’ Fans fell in love with Zelda’s new bob, but eagle-eyed developers theorised that the chop is for a different reason than a new style. Taking her hair to this length mimics Link’s hair, and so it would conceivably make it a lot easier to animate Zelda by copying Link’s animations to her new model. But that’s just a shot in the dark. Unless?
For now, we will just have to sit tight and see what Nintendo has in store for the sequel. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening will be heading to Switch on September 20, so if you’re chomping at the bit for more Zelda, you won’t have to wait much longer.
