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After Tears Of The Kingdom, where can Zelda games go next on Switch 2?


Zelda collage featuring Link from throughout the ages

Zelda: A Link to the Future (Nintendo/Metro)

With the Switch 2 on the horizon, Nintendo has a major problem on its hands in terms of how it surpasses Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.

The release of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild in 2017 changed the Zelda series forever. While some purists weren’t fond of its radical open world overhaul, Nintendo was more than justified in its decision thanks to the game’s widespread critical success and massively increased sales.

The unparalleled sense of freedom Breath Of The Wild offered – in how players could explore the world, progress its story, and solve puzzles – led to it being widely acclaimed as the best video game ever made, although admittedly that’s not the first time anyone has said that about a Zelda title.

Nintendo even managed to capture lightning in a bottle twice, with the 2023 sequel Tears Of The Kingdom expanding the map further and adding impressively realistic physics-based gameplay, turning Hyrule into the ultimate sandbox playground.

Much like with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the problem with the last two Zelda games is that Nintendo has done too good of a job, setting an impossibly high bar for the eventual next game on Nintendo Switch 2.

With Nintendo’s plans for its next console, and the Zelda series as a whole, still nebulous, we need to discuss where Nintendo can go next and what we do know so far of Zelda’s future.

What has Nintendo said about the next Legend Of Zelda game?

In a 2023 interview, series producer Eiji Aonuma and Tears Of The Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi confirmed that the inevitable follow-up would still feature an open world setting.

This doesn’t rule out more 2D games, as demonstrated by this year’s Echoes Of Wisdom, but it’s safe to say any new 3D game would continue the formula established by Breath Of The Wild and not the older one pioneered by Ocarina Of Time.

Aonuma has expressed confusion over why fans would want to go back to the old 3D formula but he’s also made it clear that there’ll be no more sequels to Breath Of The Wild. So while future games will be open world they won’t necessarily resemble the Switch’s games in any other way.

Even without official statements from staff, it’s obvious Nintendo will stick with the current formula, or something close to it, just by looking at the sales figures. For as prestigious as the Zelda series is, the games never used to reach anywhere near the same level of financial success as the Super Mario and Pokémon games.

What is the best-selling Zelda game?

For the longest time, the best-selling Zelda game was 2006’s Twilight Princess (ironically, one of the least regarded entries by most fans) which had sold 8.85 million copies by 2015. While still a success, compare that to New Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon …read more

Source:: Metro

      

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