Four Things We Want From Breath of the Wild 2
It’s been more than three years since we first wandered the abandoned fields of Hyrule, swam up the waterfalls of the Zora, and had panic attacks at the sound of an approaching guardian, so fans of the Legend of Zelda series are waiting in eager anticipation for the chance to dive back into the world created in Breath of the Wild. In June last year, Nintendo announced we’d be getting the chance to do exactly that in Breath of the Wild 2, causing a burst of excitement within the fandom.
With the 35th Anniversary of the very first Zelda game coming up in 2021 (where does the time go?) I imagine we’re not going to see the game released until then, leaving the internet with plenty of time to do what we best.
That’s right, friends: it’s time to wildly speculate!
Breath of the Wild was my favourite game in a series I have been playing for almost three decades, so I have spent an unhealthy about of time fanaticising about what I’d like to see when we finally get the sequel in our hands.
Darker Tone
The lone bit of information we have about Breath of the Wild 2 is the trailer released during E3 2019, and even that was a bit light on details. It was a bit light on, well, light as well, taking place almost exclusively in an underground cavern system that looks suspiciously like the depths of Hyrule Castle. Backwards music plays, a desiccated corpse snaps its head creepily toward the camera, and something appears to stir beneath the castle, threatening to raise it into the air.
Assuming that Nintendo isn’t pulling our legs or making the whole thing up as they go, this shows that they are looking to take a far darker tone with this game, making this the Majora’s Mask to the original’s Ocarina of Time. The Legend of Zelda has few direct sequels (preferring the Final Fantasy approach to continuing the series) but Majora’s Mask is certainly a good one to take a lead from. I am looking forward to a spooky, haunting feel to this new game. Something to rival the tension in the air as the moon threatened to crash into the world in Majora’s Mask.
Better Cooking System
Crafting foods and elixirs was key to survival in Breath of the Wild, providing not just health recovery but defensive, offensive, and environmental buffs that vastly improved the odds of survival in the harsh wilderness that had reclaimed Hyrule. Creating individual items was straightforward and easy, but repeating the process for those of us who waited till we needed twenty different potions was time consuming and, honestly, the one boring part of the game for me. The one gameplay improvement I would like to see is the ability to craft multiple items faster in Breath of the Wild 2. It would be significant quality of life improvement to an already fantastic gameplay experience.
New Champions
Breath of the Wild gave us some of the best new characters in the series in the form of the Champions. Between the gentle giant Daruk, the cocky Rivali, the imposing Urbosa, and the top tier shark-waifu Mipha, these characters gave us much-needed heart to the plot opposite the silent protagonist. Pilots of the Divine Beasts, these Champions lost their lives in the previous assault on Calamity Ganon and returned in the form of spirits to aid Link one hundred years later. But each had a living counterpart that contributed to getting Link onto their respective Divine Beast, someone who felt just on the cusp of becoming a Champion themselves, and I want them to also have the chance to pilot a giant magic mecha-beast.
Playing through Breath of the Wild, this felt like the biggest narrative misstep in the game. As much as I loved seeing these Champions come to life within Link’s memories and see how their people have had to move on since their passing, I also wanted to see someone new recruited into the role. Making this happen in Breath of the Wild 2 would give us the chance to see Hyrule moving forward, finding new heroes in the world rather than rely on the past to save them.
Playable Zelda
Breath of the Wild gave us my all-time favourite version of Zelda. Haunted by her failures and burdened by her responsibilities, but determined to succeed all the same. All she really wanted was to be an archaeologist and learn to use the scary death robots that were buried for 10,000 years, not save the world from the giant pig monster. Even before the sequel was announced, I was hoping for a spin off where Zelda went off to explore tombs and ruins on her own and I still hope we get something similar to this whenever the game finally comes out.
A split in adventuring labour between the two heroes would be really interesting to see, with Zelda potentially taking more of the puzzle solving duties while Link handles the combat side of things. The fact that the trailer sees them doing a bit of dungeon delving and features Zelda getting just as much screen time as Link gives me hope that the Princess might get to do a bit of the saving this time around.
I mean, come on. It’s not called The Legend of Link, is it?
So what are you looking forward to from Breath of the Wild 2? What wild speculations do you have? Throw your best, craziest, most absurd fan-theory at us in the comments below or catch us on social media!
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