Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 – Seven things we’d like to see

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 still doesn’t have an official name yet, but it’s definitely on the way. Fans can’t wait for a new instalment in Link’s adventures in Hyrule.

However, while there’s some things we do know about the upcoming sequel, there’s still quite a bit more that we don’t. Nintendo like to keep things close to their chest, leaving fans salivating with even the promise of new info.

So, with that in mind, here’s our wishlist of features and new things we’d like to see in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2.

More & more varied Shrines

Arguably one of the major highlights of the first game were the Shrines. These were self-contained puzzles that challenged you on your skills, and rewarded you with Chests and Orbs.

It’s a no brainer to assume these will come back for the sequel. The first game had a whopping 120 of them, but in the spirit of going bigger for the follow up, we’d not be opposed to more, at least a nice round 200 sounds good.

We also wouldn’t mind a little more variety in how they look. Though the first game’s shrines feature a lot of different challenges, the aesthetics tended to get a bit samey after the first 100. Hopefully, with some of the game taking place above the clouds of Hyrule, we might get some welcome oddities among the more traditional ones.

Playing as Zelda

The first Breath of the Wild introduced us to the Champions. These were four characters led by Zelda to seal away Ganondorf by harnessing the power of the Divine Beasts.

However, Zelda herself took more of a backseat role. While she helped direct them, and recruit Link himself, she didn’t see a huge amount of action outside of cutscenes.

That needs to change in the sequel We’d be well up for being able to play as Zelda herself for the first time in the main series. We already know she’s more than capable – and if she has a slightly different moveset to link could introduce some new gameplay opportunities.

And the Champions too…

If the potential to switch characters is on the table, we’d love to play as the Champions too. Now, there’s a couple of story-related caveats, of course. Without going into too much detail, the Champions perish, with their spirits posthumously helping out Link by granting them their Divine Beast powers.

Interestingly enough, spin-off title Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity introduced a wrinkle. See, that game used some timey-wimey shenanigans to create an alt-universe timeline where the Champions were actually saved by their future descendants.

Now we’re not saying we should switch to the spin-off’s timeline. But we do know that the Champions descendants exist in the main timeline. So what if their powers are passed down to them. It’d be quite a departure for a Zelda game to be about more than just Link solo, but a team effort would be a great shake-up to the formula.

Bring back the Master Cycle Zero

One of the best things in the Breath of the Wild Champions Ballard DLC, Link was able to obtain the Master Cycle Zero.

Putting plot contrivances aside, this was basically a badass bike you could use to traverse Hyrule. Acting as a sort of replacement for your horse, Link could even engage in mounted combat while riding it. It was great fun.

So OK, it might be a bit overpowered to let you have this from the off. That being said, the floating islands conceit might mean it can be used sparingly. Either way, we would quite like to see it return.

Revamped weapon degradation system & weapon repair

We get it, weapon degradation was an fairly key feature of Breath of the Wild. If you’re not aware, every weapon in the game had a sort of health bar, and after so much use – that weapon would break. To use it again, you’d have to make a new one from scratch.

Don’t get us wrong, it was cool to force you to try new weapons on the fly. And it stopped you cheesing the game with one superweapon. But I think most people would agree, it could be a little overzealous and left you with a tree branch to your name a little too often.

There’s not too much to change here, but certainly some rebalancing wouldn’t go amiss. And an incredibly obvious-in-hindsight fix: give us the option of repairing our weapons when they’re damaged!

Bring back more traditional dungeons

OK, bear with us here. We know earlier we said we’d like more Shrines – and they were a highlight. However, we’d also like to see the return of more traditional dungeons too. Yes, we’re quite demanding.

You see, the recent HD release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on the Switch reminded us how much we enjoyed those traditional dungeons too. More than just puzzle rooms, they were great for introducing concepts, and then layering them in a challenge to prove what you’d learned.

And sure, they can be far fewer than the Shrines. But we’d like to see a little more than the paltry few we got in the form of the Divine Beasts levels. So surely we can have a couple more, pretty please?

Give us some cool BOTW2 Amiibo too

We get it, amiibo aren’t quite as all-encompassing as they were before. That being said, they are still cool trinkets, and it still gives us a spark of joy when we can use them to get bonuses in game.

The Legend of Zelda amiibos are, often, some of the most sought-after ones available. For the previous game, we got some cool designs based on Archer Link, a Guardian and more. A second wave came out a few years later, based on the Champions.

We’re sure there’ll be some potentially great designs in the works for the new game. And given even Splatoon 3 is getting them, we at least know Nintendo are still making them. We’ll be happy to have them on our mantlepiece, at any rate.

What would you like to see from The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2? Let us know in the comments below. Hopefully we don’t have too long to wait to see, as it’s due to release in Spring 2023.