A Breath of the Wild Sequel Was Inevitable

This year’s E3 was short on surprises, thanks to the end of the line being near for current-generation consoles, leaks before the convention, and Sony’s absence. But the unexpected announcements stuck out because of that. One of the biggest was Nintendo’s announcement that a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development.

The teaser shown at the end of the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct showed Link and Zelda in BotW-centric outfits searching a mysterious cave, when a mysterious force revives a mummy that might be Ganondorf, the awakening of which erupts a monument along with it. The awakening is large enough that it can be seen outside the cave. The ground crumbles beneath Zelda in another scene, though Link fortunately manages to catch her. The teaser unsurprisingly raised more questions than answers, since the sequence of events might be out of order. Nintendo wants fans to think about what all this could mean between now and the next tease, however long that may be.

Nintendo knew this announcement would be worth celebrating, which is why it closed the Direct. They also did their damnedest to keep it secret by leaving it out of the version shown to the press a couple of days before the official airing, since not all of them can remain tight-lipped all the time. (Notably, most did this year.)

To be honest, though: A Breath of the Wild sequel is not a surprise. It was, in fact, bound to happen for several reasons.

There was uncertainty about how well BotW would sell before its release, thanks to the potential quality of Nintendo’s first big open world game, and how good Wii U and especially Switch software sales would be in March 2017. BotW is now the best-selling game in the franchise, topping Twilight Princess. That includes Japan, where Legend of Zelda franchise sales had been on a downward slope for a while– especially on consoles. But BotW is still in the country’s weekly sales charts, where it’s sold over 1.3 million on Switch alone. The game itself was also incredibly well received, even though the change involved in going open world instead of presenting a mostly linear quest wasn’t to everyone’s liking. For this reason alone, a sequel was absolutely happening.

Nintendo doesn’t often make sequels to Zelda games, but this will be far from the first occurrence. Majora’s Mask took place right after Ocarina of Time’s ending, used the same graphics system, and released less than two years after its predecessor. The game included so many gameplay and tonal changes that some fans don’t like referring to it as a direct follow-up, but it still counts. A Link Between Worlds was also a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, though it arrived 22 years after the original released, and with a vastly different graphical style.

The BotW sequel will likely have more in common with MM, especially given hints from Zelda franchise producer Eiji Aonuma. The game itself won’t be related to MM, a farfetched assumption to begin with, but Aonuma confirmed the teaser is darker in tone compared to its predecessor. Note how he didn’t say the overall game will be darker, though that could be the case. It will take place in the same world, shown through the quick glimpse at the environment in the teaser, but there are hints at some changes.

The surprise could come in how big those changes are, to the game’s world, themes, and possibly the core gameplay. Some fans and press members noticed how towns that could be seen from the angle shown in the trailer are gone from where they would be, indicating that the world could have new or altered towns. An entrance to what appears to be a dungeon is also briefly shown, which could hint at this game having more of them — to address a key criticism from vocal fans. The new gameplay feature could be hinted through Link’s glowing and potentially demonic (and Devil Bringer-esque) hand.

There also might — might! — be a hint that Zelda will be playable this time around, speculation based around her shorter haircut. Fans believe it’s shorter so it won’t clip through multiple outfits, enough to think that the player could change her outfit at will, like Link in the previous game. While Aonuma won’t confirm nor deny whether this will be the case, be careful with expecting this. Some fans got their hopes up for the option to choose a male or female Link for BotW, and were disappointed with the final result. No one wants to go through that again, right? The option would be nice, but keep the expectations measured. Besides, the chances of this could diminish if Link really has a Devil Bringer-looking arm.

It could be a long wait before Nintendo even shows this game again, let alone when it releases. But it’s clear the game is making good progress, so it shouldn’t languish as long in development as BotW. Either way, the game is over a year off at the earliest.

No worries, though. Fans can get their Zelda fix sooner with the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Don’t think of this as a game intended to hold fans off for the next big installment, as the original Link’s Awakening is held in reverence for good reason, and should be treated with equal importance to a 3D game. It’s one of the most unique installments in the franchise thanks to its environmental choices, characters, and overarching story. Based on the demo from the Treehouse at E3 2019, the remake will be remarkably faithful to the original game, with several good additions, all done with a beautiful (and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) art style. The game will release on September 20th. If you want to see what the original game is like, check out a playthrough from our own Drew Young.