Wildly Speculating Over the ‘Breath of the Wild’ Sequel Delay Announcement
The Breath of the Wild sequel delay has us all upset, but the announcement clip shows off a couple exciting things to speculate over.
Maybe not-so-surprising after no mention at the last Nintendo Direct. Fans were drooling for any clues, hints, teases, or drops of new content from the upcoming sequel The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was planned to release later this year.
Obviously, delays are always a bummer. But it’s always important to let games have the full production cycle required in order to make them so great. Can you even imagine Nintendo trying to rush out a main-line Zelda game? What would that even look like?
But the clip isn’t without some perks. We get a shot worth wildly speculating over. And if there’s one way I know how to speculate, it’s wildly. So let’s dive into the saving grace of this Breath of the Wild sequel delay.
Wild Speculations
In the clip, Eiji Aonuma specifically calls out how the sequel’s world will be more expansive than Breath of the Wild was. We’ve known about the sky islands for some time, but Aonuma hints the ground and sky won’t be the only new things.
“As previously announced, the adventure in this sequel will take place not much on the ground as in the previous game, but also in the skies above. However, the expanded world goes beyond that, and there will be an even wider variety of features you can enjoy.
This could very well mean we will be exploring the underground caves and tunnels under Hyrule, as we’ve seen in trailers already. This is a nice (potential) confirmation on that.
But then we get this shot.
Return of a Guide?
Call me crazy, but that’s a fairy, isn’t it? Sure looks like one. While obviously a return to a fairy companion would be a welcome return to form, I think there’s a lot more to glean from their inclusion. Breath of the Wild didn’t really have a guide, it didn’t need one. It was the most open world game that had been released to that point.
Think about the role of Navi, Tatl, and Fi. They guided Link to his next destination and provided tips on defeating the wide array of Ganon’s minions. So, this has me wondering if maybe the return of a fairy means we might see the open-worldiness getting reigned in a little bit, where Link will need some guidance. Or, if we’ll get the wider enemy variety so many of us wanted. We even see a glint of Fi’s blue before Link grabs the Master Sword from his back. And we know Fi still exists within the sword, which we see at the end of the previous game.
Or it’s just a visualization of Zelda’s sacred power or something. Who knows?
But then we get this Dodongo sized bomb dropped on us.
Master Sword’s Corruption
The Master Sword is looking even worse than it did after the Calamity. During the initial trailer, we see Link’s arm getting engulfed in some Malice, and this is almost certainly what caused this damage to the Sword of Evil’s Bane.
This could very well be the main plot of the game, or at least a major quest within it, similar to what we see in Skyward Sword. Perhaps this game will take The Hero of The Wild on a similar journey taken so long ago by the Hero of The Skies. From a story telling perspective, it’s a great angle.
But we also get a closer look at Link’s arm, which as mentioned, get ravaged by Malice. More specifically, the back of his hand. His hand is definitely glowing, but not with the Triforce. Instead, it’s some strange symbol.
The symbol doesn’t look familiar, but it is very reminiscent of the green sigils we see spiraling upwards out of Ganondorf in the initial trailer. My guess is this is just the symbol of whatever that magic is, or of whomever or whatever created it.
But, the Zelda community has a keen eye. They found some similarities in the symbols on the ground in the new clip to those from the initial trailer.
Overall, for a 7 second clip, there is a lot to dig through. But this has given me at least enough sustenance to make it another year with this Breath of the Wild sequel delay.
