We could be on the cusp of an update from Nintendo themselves about Breath of the Wild 2. It’s been a while, and we sure are hungry for new information. With that in mind, I thought it was a good time to round up everything Nintendo has said about Breath of the Wild 2. Today I am going to be checking out interviews with key Nintendo Staff and going over all the details with you.
Without further delay let’s dive into everything Nintendo has said about Breath of the Wild 2.
Brian Shea interviews Eiji Aonuma
June 11th 2019, Game Informer
Direct sequels are rare in Zelda titles, but Aonuma saw something special about Breath of the Wild and wanted to create a new experience. “One of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again while incorporating new gameplay and a new story,” he says.
During the conversation, Aonuma confirmed that Hidemaro Fujibayashi will be returning to the directorial role for the sequel of Breath of the Wild. “We’re working together really hard on this game,” he says.
When asked if he’s giving himself more time to complete this Breath of the Wild sequel than he was given for Majora’s Mask (which was famously created in less than a year), Aonuma laughs. “When I was making Majora’s Mask, the timeline was in a year,” he says. “I was a little stubborn and I was going to make it from scratch and was really gung ho, but it turns out the staff was a little tired from that process. I’ve learned to give myself plenty of time. You don’t want to do it that way or else you’ll get white hair like me.”
Aonuma also confirmed that players will not need an expansion pack to play the game, as they did for Majora’s Mask on the Nintendo 64 saying, “It will be a continuation, and it will come in full form as it is. [laughs]”
Here Eiji Aonuma confirms the fact it’s a sequel, continuing after the events of the original Breath of the Wild. Not many Zelda games get direct sequels, and I think it’s a good thing Nintendo didn’t take the same approach as Majora’s Mask. Although we would have got the game quicker, Majora’s Mask was such a specific style of game. Given the Zelda team has been working on this now for a number of years, that gives me confidence it’s going to live up to the original Breath of the Wild
Jason Schreier interviews Eiji Aonuma
18th June 2019, Kotaku
Schreier: What made you and the team decide to make a sequel to Breath of the Wild as opposed to a new Zelda game?
Aonuma: When we released the DLC for Breath of the Wild, we realized that this is a great way to add more elements to the same world. But when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data—you’re adding data to a preexisting title. And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit.
Schreier: Was this sequel originally planned as DLC?
Aonuma: Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas, but then we had a lot of ideas and we said, “This is too many ideas, let’s just make one new game and start from scratch.”
Eiji Aonuma goes into some detail here about why they are making the sequel, given the new gameplay mechanics. The fact Nintendo want to add bigger changes to the game makes me excited about the gameplay elements they are going to add. We have already seen some of these through the patents, with the Time Reversal, Traveling through solid matter and also hints at Aerial Combat. Check out the video I made on that here.
Sam Claiborn interviews Eiji Aonuma
28th June 2019, IGN
Sam Claiborn: I have to ask about the trailer. Everybody’s buzzing with excitement: It seemed like this was a dark twist on Breath of the Wild, that reminded me of Majora’s Mask, was that on purpose?
Aonuma: The new Breath of the Wild, or the sequel to it, it’s not necessarily going to be related to Majora’s Mask or inspired by it. It’s just that it happened to be what we showed you currently is a little bit darker, and we’re honestly still in production, so we can’t really say exactly how it’s going to be turning out.
Sam Claiborn: I know for a long time, people have wanted to play as Zelda, and there have been some games where you get to play as Zelda a little bit. It looked like Zelda and Link were hanging out a lot together. Do you think this is going to be the game in which we get to play as Zelda, maybe as a co-op game?
Aonuma: It’s kind of interesting that you bring that up because in Breath of the Wild, you see Zelda and Link together often too, so to go straight into the thought of co-op is very interesting to me.
Sam Claiborn: What recent open-world games have you been playing that you draw inspiration from, probably for the sequel that we just found out about today?
Aonuma: Recently, I’ve been very busy, especially with Link’s Awakening, so the thing is, on my breaks, I’ve also been playing Cadence of Hyrule. I’ve just been overloaded with a lot of Zelda games recently.
Sam Claiborn: What’s a game that you keep on hearing your young staff members talk about that inspires them?
Aonuma: I do remember when I was working on Breath of the Wild, Mr Fujibayashi was the director. He was playing Skyrim. Another thing I did hear that a lot of people were playing was Red Dead Redemption 2.
Aonuma here reiterates that Breath of the Wild 2 isn’t going to be like Majora’s Mask, just the first E3 2019 trailer was much darker. Nintendo put that right when they showed off their next trailer at E3 2021, where the trailer’s setting was much brighter and showed everything above ground, rather than the dark, creepy setting of the first. Aonuma expertly dodges the playable Zelda question, rightly pointing out we do see Zelda and Link together in the first game and Zelda wasn’t playable there. He didn’t outright confirm or deny, so I think that left fans with a lot of hope that we are in fact going to be seeing a playable Zelda. Also at the end, we have confirmation of Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2 as inspirations for the latest Zelda games.
Nintendo Job Listings
5th July 2019, GamesRadar
The company recently shared Japanese listings for terrain designer and level designer contract positions, both of which mention dungeons.
The listings are mostly composed of standard information such as preferred experience and potential compensation. However, the descriptions of the jobs themselves give us a little more insight into the Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel.
The terrain designer position will work on parts of the game “such as field dungeons”, and the level designer will work on “game event/dungeon/field planning.” The latter position will also help with work on creating and tweaking enemies, in case you were worried that the sequel wouldn’t expand on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a relatively limited cast of enemies.
Although this isn’t a specific interview, it is Nintendo posting job listings looking for specific skills. “Field Dungeons” and “game event/dungeon/field planning” sound promising when it comes to the addition of old-school Zelda Dungeons being in the sequel to Breath of the Wild, although you could consider the Divine Beasts as “Dungeons”. Hopefully, we’ll have more info when Nintendo show the next trailer.
Matt Kim interviews Bill Trinnen
17th June 2021, IGN
Officially, Nintendo is calling the game the sequel to Breath of the Wild. This is because this game will have a proper subtitle, just not one Nintendo is ready to reveal.
“As for why we’re holding back on the name, you’ll just have to stay tuned because, obviously, Zelda names are kind of important,” Trinen says during our interview. “Those subtitles… they start to give little bits of hints about maybe what’s going to happen.”
“[Breath of the Wild 2] is going to be shorthand and it’s natural for people to want to find a shorthand way to frame it. We’re still calling it the sequel to Breath of the Wild,” says Trinen.
After the E3 2021 trailer, we got more from Nintendo and Bill Trinen during interviews with IGN. This points to some plot spoilers in the name of the game, although it’s hard to look at some of the games and understand the theme or plot. I can see that in Ocarina of Time, that makes sense. Breath of the Wild didn’t give too much away, and Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess are both ambiguous. There are rumours the name will be Breath of Duality, which certainly makes sense from a theme point of view if we’re going to be switching between Link and Zelda, the Sky and the Earth, or perhaps even dimensions.
Let me know in the comments what you think of Nintendo’s comments on Breath of the Wild 2.
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