With the Switch 2 on the horizon, Nintendo has a serious downside on its palms by way of the way it surpasses Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.
The launch of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild in 2017 modified the Zelda collection perpetually. While some purists weren’t keen on its radical open world overhaul, Nintendo was greater than justified in its resolution due to the sport’s widespread vital success and massively elevated gross sales.
The unparalleled sense of freedom Breath Of The Wild provided – in how gamers may discover the world, progress its story, and clear up puzzles – led to it being broadly acclaimed as one of the best online game ever made, though admittedly that’s not the primary time anybody has mentioned that a couple of Zelda title.
Nintendo even managed to seize lightning in a bottle twice, with the 2023 sequel Tears Of The Kingdom increasing the map additional and including impressively lifelike physics-based gameplay, turning Hyrule into the last word sandbox playground.
Much like with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the issue with the final two Zelda video games is that Nintendo has accomplished too good of a job, setting an impossibly excessive bar for the eventual subsequent recreation on Nintendo Switch 2.
With Nintendo’s plans for its subsequent console, and the Zelda collection as an entire, nonetheless nebulous, we have to talk about the place Nintendo can go subsequent and what we do know thus far of Zelda’s future.
What has Nintendo mentioned concerning the subsequent Legend Of Zelda recreation?
In a 2023 interview, collection producer Eiji Aonuma and Tears Of The Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi confirmed that the inevitable follow-up would nonetheless characteristic an open world setting.
This doesn’t rule out extra 2D video games, as demonstrated by this yr’s Echoes Of Wisdom, but it surely’s secure to say any new 3D recreation would proceed the components established by Breath Of The Wild and never the older one pioneered by Ocarina Of Time.
Aonuma has expressed confusion over why followers would wish to return to the previous 3D components however he’s additionally made it clear that there’ll be no extra sequels to Breath Of The Wild. So whereas future video games can be open world they gained’t essentially resemble the Switch’s video games in another manner.
Even with out official statements from workers, it’s apparent Nintendo will keep on with the present components, or one thing near it, simply by wanting on the gross sales figures. For as prestigious because the Zelda collection is, the video games by no means used to achieve anyplace close to the identical degree of economic success because the Super Mario and Pokémon video games.
What is the best-selling Zelda recreation?
For the longest time, the best-selling Zelda recreation was 2006’s Twilight Princess (satirically, one of many least regarded entries by most followers) which had bought 8.85 million copies by 2015. While nonetheless successful, evaluate that to New Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon Diamond/Pearl, that got here out the identical yr, which bought 30.8 million and 17.67 million, respectively.
Breath Of The Wild got here alongside and totally destroyed Twilight Princess’ report, with a present whole of 32.29 million. This not solely makes it one of many best-selling Switch video games however, in a shocking function reversal, it’s accomplished higher than the Switch entries for Mario and Pokémon (not together with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe).
Nintendo might sound to make illogical selections at occasions however they know after they’ve hit pay dust and, as Aonuma has clearly acknowledged, there’s now no going again to the previous methods, besides through spin-offs and remasters.
Will there be a sequel to Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?
Aonuma appears adamant about transferring onto a brand new Hyrule, and it could make sense once you keep in mind why he dominated out any DLC for Tears Of The Kingdom, when he mentioned: ‘I really feel like I’ve accomplished all the things I can to create video games in that world.’
Although the video games themselves by no means draw consideration to the actual fact, the varied Zelda recreation are set in a fancy collection of separate timelines and also you solely hardly ever play as the identical Link in any of them – it’s typically a special character and sometimes one from a separate, parallel universe.
Aonuma has mentioned his crew may return to the Breath Of The Wild model of Hyrule in the event that they got here up with new concepts for it, but it surely feels like he’s desperate to make one thing else fully. ‘Whether it’s a sequel or a brand new work, I believe it is going to be a very new option to play,’ he mentioned.
Surprisingly, when requested if Tears Of The Kingdom’s success was a ‘hurdle’ for planning the following recreation, Aonuma sounded unconcerned and even inspired followers to ‘hold [their] expectations excessive.’
That suggests he already has one thing clear in thoughts for a Tears Of The Kingdom successor, however what that is likely to be could be very exhausting to guess.
When will the following Legend Of Zelda be out?
One factor Nintendo can’t change is how lengthy it takes to make a contemporary triple-A recreation and although Tears Of The Kingdom used Breath Of The Wild as a basis it nonetheless took six years to develop. That ought to be taken as an absolute minimal for the following recreation, which might make it no sooner than 2029 and fairly probably a number of years greater than that.
Some might assume Nintendo will merely supply broadly the identical recreation, with the identical mechanics, however with higher graphics and an even bigger map. That’s not normally how they do issues although and positively doesn’t appear to be what Aonuma is hinting at.
If there’s a clue as to what they could possibly be doing subsequent, maybe it may be gleaned by taking a look at these weaker facets of Breath Of The Wild, which Nintendo would possibly really feel are price additional consideration in a brand new recreation.
Zelda’s fight modified little between Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom and was starting to appear a bit of simplistic by the tip, so one apparent thought is likely to be to focus extra on motion – with a extra sturdy and complicated fight system, maybe one which provides magic in addition to simply weapons.
Or perhaps it may flesh out Link’s stock and provides him everlasting objects and instruments, equivalent to previous favourites just like the hookshot. There could also be no going again to Ocarina Of Time however Nintendo shouldn’t be past throwing followers a bone and it’s simple to think about the following recreation would possibly see extra conventional use of things and extra integral dungeons – given those in Tears Of The Kingdom nonetheless weren’t fairly as much as par.
Nintendo clearly heard fan demand for a playable Zelda, so that they’ll additionally know that many have been initially speculating she is likely to be playable in Tears Of The Kingdom, maybe even through a co-op mode. That by no means occurred but it surely wouldn’t have been the primary, and even the second, time Zelda featured co-op multiplayer.
We know Nintendo’s been experimenting with on-line multiplayer recently, working a personal take a look at for one thing involving a shared world. What if it did one thing comparable for Zelda, making a model of Hyrule populated by gamers who may assist each other à la Elden Ring?
We may speculate until the cuccos come house, however maybe the explanation why Aonuma appears unintimidated by the long run is as a result of he, and by extension Nintendo, aren’t essentially concerned about surpassing Tears Of The Kingdom.
Nintendo’s precedence has at all times been gameplay over the rest; it’s why it took so lengthy for Zelda to be playable. So, whereas the following 3D Zelda most likely gained’t be as a lot of a dramatic gameplay reset as Breath Of The Wild was, we additionally shouldn’t count on it to hit the very same beats.
But with such a challenge a few years away from popping out, and with the Switch 2 anticipated to launch in 2025, Nintendo’s going to need one thing Zelda associated for no less than the console’s first yr available on the market, if not its launch interval.
So, what can the corporate do within the meantime? The reply to that query is fortunately far simpler to guess: extra remakes and/or remasters.
What is the following Zelda remaster going to be?
Considering Nintendo usually tries to have a brand new Zelda recreation out yearly or two, and 2025 is way too quickly for the brand new mainline entry, it’s not unreasonable to imagine it’ll have a remaster or remake prepared for the Switch 2.
After all, it’s plugged its launch schedule earlier than with Wii U remasters of Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker, plus Skyward Sword for Switch, as followers waited for model new entries.
While no such tasks have been thus far annouced, rumours of Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker coming to Switch have endured since no less than 2021.
The Switch’s 2025 line-up is nothing however remasters in the intervening time, so we may simply see these two video games being added to the schedule. Either to pad issues out until the Switch 2’s launch or to advertise its backwards compatibility characteristic. Especially since Nintendo is thought for sitting on accomplished video games till it has a gap for them.
Remasters, although, wouldn’t be fairly as thrilling as a full-fledged remake. One dream challenge for followers is a full remake of Ocarina Of Time, which many nonetheless contemplate one of the best entry within the collection.
If Nintendo handed one thing like that off to Grezzo (its go-to developer for Zelda remakes) or one other exterior studio (Capcom’s remake crew, anybody?) to get it prepared for Switch 2, that would definitely assist push the brand new {hardware} and so they may’ve already been engaged on that for years in secret.
If not that, there’s been loads of rumours of a Breath Of The Wild remaster for the Switch 2 launch, to point out off its new technical skills. But that will have resulted from confusion over a supposed technical demo that Nintendo has been exhibiting builders – and never one thing they really intend to launch to the general public.
There’s additionally the opportunity of Nintendo providing a non-traditional spin-off. Another Hyrule Warriors? A sequel to Link’s Crossbow Training? A administration sim the place you play as Beedle and promote bugs to clients?
Whatever the case, Nintendo has a number of avenues to pursue for the way forward for the Zelda collection. The fruits of Aonuma and his crew’s labour gained’t be seen for a while, however there’s loads Nintendo can do to maintain curiosity in Zelda excessive till then.
Not to say there’s a dwell motion film on the way in which. Admittedly, there’s no trace at when that’ll launch both but when it’s anyplace close to as profitable as The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo can safely depend on that to prop up gross sales of at the moment out there Zelda titles.
For now, it appears we shouldn’t be pondering whether or not Nintendo can surpass Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom, however slightly what the following Zelda can do in a different way whereas adhering to the components that made hundreds of thousands of individuals fall in love with the collection within the first place.
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