The Sequel to Breath of the Wild doesn’t have an official name yet, but we’re only a matter of months away from the release of the most anticipated game of 2023. Today I am going to look at why Nintendo hasn’t released the name of the game yet, plus speculate as to what the name might be for Breath of the Wild 2.

Before getting stuck into today’s topic I would love to hear from you, and let me know in the comments what you think Breath of the Wild’s Sequel is going to be called.

Nintendo confirmed the Sequel to Breath of the Wild was in development at E3 2019, however, the game hasn’t been given a name since then, and we’re still stuck in the middle of the awkward labelling like Breath of the Wild 2, or The Sequel to Breath of the Wild. This has gone on for far too long, and it would be great to see Nintendo finally put a name on this thing.

The game is set for a Spring 2023 release window, and one of two things is going to happen, it’s either going to leak or, as I am sure Nintendo would prefer, the next time they show off the game at a Nintendo Direct they’re going to reveal the title of the game. The temptations for leaks are going to be great over the autumn and winter months, so if I were Nintendo I’d come out and confirm the title ASAP.

Why Haven’t Nintendo Revealed the Title?

Nintendo does seem to be holding out longer than normal when it comes to revealing the title for the next mainline Zelda entry. Bill Trinen, from Nintendo of America, gave us some clues as to why this might be back at E3 2021.

“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.

So, Nintendo seems nervous about revealing the title because it’s going to give something away. Its hard to think what that could be, although looking back at this when the name is revealed is going to be interesting…

Do other Zelda game titles give away the plot or something important? We have Skyward Sword, still quite ambiguous. Ocarina of Time, that’s a direct reference to an item, but without context, it doesn’t really mean anything. Wind Waker, same thing. Twilight Princess again, quite ambiguous. Unless it’s going to be called Legend of Zelda: This Time Princess Dies…

Given what Bill Trinen said, let me know in the comments your theories about the name of the sequel and what you think its going to be.

What will the Title be for Breath of the Wild 2?

Looking at the trailers so far it looks like we have a Ganondorf Corpse, plus Master Sword appears to be broken or corrupted. According to patents we’re going to be fighting in the skies, and we know the game is going to take place above ground, underground and also in the skies. My money is something related to Master Sword, and perhaps restoring it to its former glory. Something with ‘Sword’ or ‘Quest’ in the name. There are also a lot of graphical similarities between Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild 2 so far, so perhaps ‘Sky’ or ‘Flight’ makes sense. Link also has his arm corrupted or changed in some way, so it could be related to his arm or new abilities. Plus the story for the game could be playing with the legend from 10,000 years ago, so there is a time theme to consider.

It’s a tricky one because Breath of the Wild was such a left-field name, and it doesn’t really relate to the game. Wild, could indicate the big open world, but Breath… it doesn’t really make sense in the context of the game we have played. This game is also a sequel to that, and previous Legend of Zelda sequels haven’t really been related by name. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask don’t sound connected. Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link, maybe more related, but still… not really.

There is one title out there that has gained some traction and that’s Breath of Duality. This was reported on by games journalist Paul Gale. He’s written for Nintendo Power among other websites and publications over the years and he had a blog post titled “Rumour: BOTW sequel’s name is (was) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Duality”

Gale goes onto say:

“…the sequel to BotW and its main hook is right in the name, which establishes the “Breath” familiarity from the 2017 hit and gives a nod to the fact that you can play as more than the aforementioned title’s Link (including various, polar themes), hence “Duality”.

“Duality between character abilities, on land and floating regions, past and present, darkness and light, etc. (The individual did note that this name was seen a considerable amount of time ago, supposedly, and could have been one of many template titles.”

“…If real, it does make sense as to why Nintendo and Mr. Eiji Aonuma have been so hush-hush on the title. If fake or not final-yet-close to what the actual name ends up being, this still makes for an interesting topic to discuss.”

YouTuber Nintendo Prime also discussed this on a recent live chat saying:

“If you guys are fishing for who his source is, it’s not gonna happen. I’m not gonna tell you who his source is, he can confirm in the chat – me and Paul Gale had a private conversation, I’m well aware of how he got this information… me and Paul have a trust, I’m not going to break that trust just to reveal sources…all I can tell you is it’s someone who is fairly reliable.”

Interesting stuff there from Paul Gale and Nintendo Prime.

What do you think of Breath of Duality? Personally, I’m not very keen on the idea of keeping Breath in the title. I can see why Nintendo might do this… Given the massive success of Breath of the Wild, perhaps they want to keep some consistency, but I would have thought they have that through the overarching banner of The Legend of Zelda. Duality is fairly ambiguous, and it does sound like it could be a title for the game, but I don’t think this is going to be the title, and I am going to stick to my guns and say it’s going to be something related to Master Sword. We’ve had Skyward Sword before, and I think we’re going to have something similar.

Let me know in the comments what you think the title for Breath of the Wild 2 will be, and what do you think of the name Breath of Duality.

Thats it for this look at the title of Breath of the Wild 2. For more Legend of Zelda content like this check out Triforce Times on YouTube and subscribe today.