With the epic saga of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reaching its climax, fans everywhere already yearn to discover where Link‘s next adventure may lead us across the magical landscapes of Hyrule and beyond. As lifelong Zelda theorist Zeltik recently uncovered, Nintendo‘s all-star development team has now wrapped work on this Breath of the Wild follow-up, shifting focus towards crafting a totally new core title in the storied franchise. While no concrete details have emerged yet, insightful speculation based on over 35 years of history points to an exciting open-air evolution fusing the wildly inventive mechanics of recent games with classic genre-defining elements.
Seamless World Realization
When visionary creator Shigeru Miyamoto originally conceived The Legend of Zelda in 1986, he envisioned an immersive, living world for players to freely explore. Technical limitations of the era forced segmented overworlds and loading transitions between areas. Decades later, 2017‘s culture-shifting Breath of the Wild finally fulfilled Miyamoto‘s dream, delivering a fully interconnected Hyrule without disruption. As Link climbs towers, glides off peaks and parachutes towards shrines, the experience feels organic, not interrupted.
This philosophy reached its apex throughout the floating islands and cloud-tops of Tears of the Kingdom. For the first time, characters comment on Link‘s remarkable ability to travel between realms without loading screens. The days of obvious walls or invisible barriers are long gone. Zelda has mastered open-air design, pioneered by Nintendo EPD‘s inventive developers.
"We created the original Legend of Zelda games with the vision of letting players freely roam and explore a vast world, but we were limited by the technology of the time," reflects longtime producer Eiji Aonuma. "Now we can finally deliver on that initial dream, and allow fans to become Link, adventuring through a fully integrated life-like world."
The Future Beckons Bold New Directions
With Breath of the Wild‘s Hyrule (and Tears of the Kingdom‘s Skyloft expansion) representing the captivating peak of open-air achievement, Nintendo‘s developers are ready to chart bold new territory. The next mainline Zelda entry promises to fuse the limitless freedom of recent games with tradition, bringing back key elements that define the series‘ flavor. We may see the return of iconic tools like hookshots alongside free-climbing cliffsides, or sudden plot twists resurrecting Ganon alongside emergent cooking, combat and physics systems.
Most intriguingly, the setting itself could transport veteran fans to strange new lands compared to Hyrule‘s familiar grassy plains and villages. Nintendo commonly shifts visual style andworld themes between games. The cartoon sailing of Wind Waker gave way to Twilight Princess‘ dark forests before Skyward Sword lifted Link to the clouds. We may voyage to the ocean floor, with subaquatic temples sunk below waves we can freely dive beneath. Perhaps mystical creatures and magic will replace technology in an ancient fantasy realm. Hyrule could undergo an industrial revolution or post-apocalyptic fate.
I envision a personal favorite from concept art: civilizations clinging to tiny islands in the sky, dotted amongst the stars. Link could sail an airship between celestial outposts and gaze down upon mysterious floating continents hovering in the galaxy‘s glow. High-flying transports like the Divine Beasts would become the norm. Such a science-fantasy backdrop filled with charming characters and cultures would represent a captivating twist while retaining the charm and inquisitive heart every Zelda carries.
"We are finished with the story for Breath of the Wild," confirms producer Aonuma. "We look forward now. Our next challenge builds on previous innovations but will transport fans to an even wider world unlike anything they have seen Link encounter."
The Call of 2D Classics
Of course, behind the scenes work on this mysterious Zelda project still likely years from release. In the meantime, Nintendo continues gauging fan interest around potential remakes and compilations revisiting past games. Recent insider chatter and datamines fuel speculation that long-demanded HD upgrades of classics could arrive soon.
The Legend of Zelda essentially created the action-adventure genre back in the mid 1980s. Those early 2D top-down entries enchanted a generation with their mysteries and laid the formula of items unlocking new areas to explore. As the 2000s brought pioneering 3D titles like Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, many felt the essence of classic Zelda became lost amidst cinematic setpieces and complex controls.
Thus the clamor amongst veteran fans for Nintendo to return to a pure 2D experience. This art style also generally allows faster turnarounds between bigger budget blockbusters. 2D experiments like A Link Between Worlds on Nintendo 3DS and Cadence of Hyrule remixing tunes proved successful, earning strong critical and commercial reception. Most promisingly, a new job listing specifically called for planning a future 2D Zelda.
As a fan who‘s gleefully played each entry on launch day since Link‘s NES debut in 1987, I too hope to wield familiar boomerang‘s and bombs amidst charming retro pixels once more. Perhaps a 2D sequel could revisit the same Link from an existing game. Seeing the Wind Waker hero later in life as a seasoned captain, or Twilight Princess‘ courageous farmboy turned knight on new adventures would create nostalgia and continuity.
My dream picks? An overhead perspective Zelda taking quirky inspiration from Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule, with squash-and-stretch cartoon physics, multiplayer arena battles, and rhythmic remixed OSTs. Alternatively, I‘d love to control multiple Links across eras in a spiritual successor to Triforce Heroes. Send the Ocarina child, Twilight teen and Skyward Sword successors together into mind-bending environmental puzzles across time itself!
Beyond This Horison – A Series for the Ages Beckons
What lies beyond the horizon for The Legend of Zelda? If history shows anything, Nintendo will continue surprising fans with revolutionary ideas. Each successive console generation since the 8-bit era brought tangibly breathtaking reinvention in visuals, audio and interactivity. Ocarina and Wind Waker didn‘t just standardize lock-on targeting and action-adventure sailing mechanics; They profoundly impacted gaming language as a whole. Breath of the Wild didn‘t just receive perfect review scores; It redefined a genre from Elder Scrolls to Horizon Zero Dawn.
Core Elements forthcoming title hopes to fuse Skyward Sword‘s 1:1 motion controls, Wind Waker‘s oceanic charm, Ocarina of Time‘s epic narrative and Breath of the Wild‘s freeform concepts into an unprecedented open-air experience.
Early glimpses of in-development tech demos on upcoming Nintendo hardware showcase exponential leaps over Switch visually. When engines eventually catch up with designer creativity, the painterly art direction Zelda pioneered could bloom into life unfettered. Lush wilds could stretch completely seamlessly from horizon to horizon at last.
Additionally, cumulatively the Zelda franchise recently crossed over 100 million total sales. For perspective, only Tetris and Minecraft have sold more amongst single videogame IPs. And in the past decade, Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword scored an average 97 metascore on review aggregation sites like Metacritic and OpenCritic. Fans and newcomers alike clearly crave Link‘s legend.
So while today we eagerly embark on Link‘s return to the cloud-swept Kingdom of Hyrule, peeking through telescope lenses at distant islands floating in the great blue sky, know that the visions in store for tomorrow promise even more magical odysseys we can only begin to imagine. As Miyamoto himself professed, "Zelda always strives to create something new out of something familiar." The future shines bright.