Nintendo has announced a brand new Zelda game at E3, confirmed to be a fully fledged sequel to their previous Zelda title, Breath of the Wild.
Announced at the end of the Direct as a surprise announcement, the video showed Link and Zelda travelling through a dungeon as the evil embrace takes over the land of Hyrule once again. The art style looks to be the same as it was in the original Breath of the Wild. They have confirmed that it is in development with a small panel at the end of the video, so there is currently no gameplay to show. However, a direct sequel would likely be similar in structure to its predecessor, where you have the whole land of Hyrule to explore, which you can do in any order, and uses a smaller puzzle dungeon structure compared to the much better ones of a traditional Zelda game.
However, with the level of praise aimed at the original Breath of the Wild, a sequel is not very surprising. Breath of the Wild is seen by many as one of the best in the series, and its post-launch support has also increased the appeal of multiple playthroughs, with a Hard mode and trials that provide a healthier level of challenge.
It would be the first sequel to appear on their main home console, with the majority being on their portable devices. The last sequel to the series was 2013’s 3DS title A Link Between Worlds, which expanded upon the original’s light and dark world premise while introducing a 2D mechanic where you can enter a wall and move along it like a moving 2D picture. It was praised for its innovation of the classic formula.
Whether the sequel to Breath of the Wild will use the same level of evolution from its original remains to be seen.
