Whilst we still don’t know the title of the sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, we know a lot more about the game now ahead of its slated 2022 release.
With no news of Breath Of The Wild 2 (BOTW2) since 2019, Nintendo finally released a new trailer for the game. Despite only being one and a half minutes long the trailer is dense with new abilities, enemies, and locations, as well as giving us a better sense of the themes and potential story of BOTW2.
Our last look at BOTW2, courtesy of another E3 trailer, showed Link and Zelda exploring a cave system under Hyrule Castle. In the trailer the two discover what appears to be a mummified Ganondorf (what we’re supposed to call Ganon when he’s staying true to his Gerudo roots) and a magical arm keeping Ganon’s evil isolated within the mummy. We’re not sure how but in the 2019 trailer it seems Link and Zelda interrupt this process leading to Ganon’s influence spreading throughout Hyrule once again.
Given how important exploring the Kingdom of Hyrule was to the gameplay of Breath Of The Wild, some of you may have been questioning how Nintendo will make Hyrule worth exploring all over again. The answer appears to be by increasing the region’s verticality. Whilst the 2019 trailer suggested a whole network of caves beneath Hyrule for us to explore, the newest trailer shows Link soaring through the skies, as sections of the world have taken flight in Skyward Sword-like fashion.
The new trailer shows us a number of new enemies alongside the above-mentioned Ganondorf mummy. We catch a glimpse of a Guardian-like enemy made of green and grey brick, a hanging worm enemy which doesn’t do too well against flames, and most interestingly it seems that the bokoblins have begun fortifying Stone Taluses which appeared in Breath of the Wild as mini-bosses.
BOTW2 also seems to have a distinct Twilight Princess tone to it, with both trailers featuring backward-sounding music reminiscent of the score to that game’s Twilight Realm. In the trailer Link is shown to now have the ability to reverse the flow of time on select objects, with the effect also looking a little like The Twilight Realm. Eagle-eyed fans may also have noticed that the magical hand seen in the first trailer keeping mummified Ganondorf in check looks a lot like Midna’s limbs from Twilight Princess. If BOTW2 is embracing similar themes to Twilight Princess that would mean a much darker tone compared to the first game, with Twilight Princess easily being the bleakest game in the series.
As to Link’s new abilities, his arm appears to be covered with ancient runes and imbued with similar magic to the Sheikah Slate. We also see Link using some sort of flamethrower attached to his arm and whilst it’s worth noting this weapon is attached to his other arm, this does seem to suggest the Sheikah Slate may be replaced in favour of more responsive abilities to be used in battle.
It isn’t clear what the final ability we see Link use in the trailer is exactly, but it again follows the trend of time reversing that can be seen a few times. We see a water droplet falling backward and link flowing up through a floating landmass. This theme could mean that the story of BOTW2 sees the world moving backward to the calamity. The Zelda series famously has an unwieldy timeline with numerous branches, exceptions, and inconsistencies. It seems that following in the footsteps of Breath of the Wild, which itself took place at the end of all the Zelda timelines, BOTW2 may be linking (no pun intended) the Zelda series together in a similar way. We’ll just have to wait for more information to find out.
Words by Jake Abatan
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