Before its release – and especially before a few presentations gave us a better idea of what to expect in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – there were doubts about exactly how different it would be from its immediate predecessor.
Repurposing Breath of the Wild’s open-world Hyrule didn’t exactly sound like a ‘Nintendo’ move, and while that kingdom provided a vast canvas to explore, many of us spent years uncovering its every secret. What could a new game based on this template offer us besides a few new tools and a handful of sky islands to jump between? Why define and limit this new game by what came before?
Well, Nintendo answered our questions decisively and presented a vision of the famous Hyrule that draws on the old, but brings so much new that it feels completely fresh and massively expanded. TOTK’s Hyrule truly feels unfathomably vast, stretching above and below the l and we explored over six years ago.
We’re still deep into Tears of the Kingdom, but our thoughts are starting to turn to the future. Can Nintendo feasibly mine more game outside of this version of Hyrule? Would we even want that? And what might that look like?
Let’s see what Team NL thinks. Have your say in the poll below and feel free to leave a comment…
Ollie Reynolds
When it was confirmed that Tears of the Kingdom would feature the same world as Breath of the Wild, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. When it comes to Zelda games, I want something completely new and yet here w as a direct sequel that basically just reused the same setting. Pooey!
Oh, how wrong I was. The changes made to Tears of the Kingdom are frankly stunning and make the idea of a third game set in the same Hyrule infinitely more palatable. Now we’ve seen what the game can do with increased verticality; Namely, the Sky Islands and the Deeps, so I would like to see this explored even more. How about some underwater segments in lakes and seas? Why not go even higher in the sky? Can you imagine a Zelda game with physics and gameplay inspired by Super Mario Galaxy?
Failing that, I’d love to see another area within the Zelda universe given the open world treatment, since TotK’s version of Hyrule is probably the best we’ll ever get. How about Termina or the extended island of Koholint? Just imagine seeing Tamaranch Mountain in the distance with a Wind Fish egg on top – so cool!
Jim Norman
Did I want another Zelda game with the same Hyrule? No I did not. Now do I want a third game with the same Hyrule? You can bet your Bokoblin Guts that I did.
There are many different ways I’d like to see Nintendo implement the new factor into the old world. Of course, he could make it larger, deeper or denserbut the Zelda fan in me would really love to see a third game that goes the route we’ve seen in so many before and jumps around the world a bit for me.
Think of the Dark World from A Link to the Past or Lorule from A Link of Worlds. These games take ‘Hyrule with a twist’ and keep it on top the map we know so well. Who says ‘Breath of the Wild 3’ (working title) can’t do the same? Perhaps there would be certain cracks in this vast Hyrule, which, passing through it, reveals a world like the original, only different. How cool!
Yeah, I’m actually saying that I’d love to see those poor developers build a whole new world modeled after the one we already have and somehow seamlessly implement it into the current environment. Is that really too much to ask??
Alana Hagues
I think there are tons of ways the Tears of the Kingdom sequel can build on Hyrule, but I can’t lie and say I don’t want something a little different for everything that follows. We know this open-world gameplay will be the standard for the series going forward, so it’s time to explore Zelda’s history and expand on some of our favorite Zelda worlds.
So the correct answer is Termina from Majora’s Mask, right? With the abundance of side quests in Tears of the Kingdom, it’s time to return to one of the strangest Zelda games and the best city in the series and let all those unusual stories, characters and events unfold in the larger world.
I’m not saying a remake of Majora’s Mask at all, but there is so much potential in Termina that surely Nintendo could come up with a really disturbing open world adventure? We saw what she was capable of with one of the maps in TOTK, so why not just amp up the fear throughout the game? Plus, there’s Tingle. We need more Tingles in our lives.
Alternatively, why not take what Four Swords and Four Swords Adventure did, but improve upon it? Yes, I’m talking about multiplayer. Maybe not co-op, but I absolutely would love to play a Breath of the Wild style game with my friends and chatter away doing nothing of any meaningful value. I can’t imagine this is easy to do at all, but I can dream, right?
Gavin Lane
I’m definitely leaning towards a Termina style twist on the template, as Alana mentioned above. I’m a sucker for doubles and double characters and how they can deepen our impressions of people we thought we knew. While my memories of BOTW are dominated by exploration and moments of discovery, returning to the same place in TOTK also highlighted how much I enjoyed the people and interactions in that world.
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