HYPE@E3

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD 2

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Release 2022

As Nintendo’s own press site calls it, Sequel To The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild cannot have its official title unveiled just yet, because it might give too much away – a clue to something significant about this much-anticipated successor. There’s no danger of that in its latest teaser, which has been precision-designed to answer very few questions while raising many more. That is part of the business of building hype, of course: show just enough to hint at new mechanics and story elements while inviting speculation as to what they mean. And with no one at Nintendo prepared to say anything more about it – save producer Eiji Aonuma suggesting it’s “aiming for a 2022 release”, and we needn’t highlight the operative word there – the conjecture is likely to continue for at least another year.

On with it, then. It’s worth remembering that this game to be designed with the Switch hardware primarily in mind; the original was, of course, intended to be a Wii U exclusive. Link’s Sheikah Slate was designed as a Wii U analogue, and the separation between the two displays naturally factored into some of ’s design choices. With Switch providing a more seamless transition between portable and big-screen play, it’s only fitting that Link’s powers should be more organic in this new . His arm, which has apparently been corrupted by the tarlike Malice from the first game, can be seen harnessing the power of the Stasis rune, as it shoots a chain of spiked balls to bowl over a line of enemies – seemingly without having to strike it first. And the presence of islands in the sky above Hyrule, between which Link can apparently travel by turning into a water droplet (and, presumably, reversing the flow of gravity), would suggest a more direct connection between puzzles and the environment, as opposed to their compartmentalisation in the original.