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Nintendo's Legend of Zelda franchise has been going strong since the 80s, starting with the NES original. The action-adventure series starring the green-cloaked hero Link has been consistently outstanding, with the vast majority of them releasing to critical acclaim.
The latest installment in the franchise that's out so far, Breath of the Wild, saw the most prominent hype among them all, all thanks to Nintendo's step in a new direction.
A shift to a free-form open-world focus, allowing the player to play indeed the way they want and reward them for ingenuity, won the Japanese publisher tons of accolades - as well as a 97 on Metacritic.
So it makes sense for the upcoming sequel to be met with even greater anticipation, especially seeing that it's been 1000 days since the game's announcement - that's almost three years.
The upcoming Legend of Zelda game has a high bar to meet
Ever since the trailer for "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2" dropped in 2019, fans have been ecstatic to see what comes next. Knowing Nintendo's pedigree, there is no doubt that they will deliver a great game that is on par with the original BOTW and a worthy entry to the long-running franchise.
But can it be better? For the amount of universal praise that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got, criticism was also geared towards several design choices.
The "fragile" weapon durability system, repetitive shrines (mini-dungeons), lack of traditional dungeons, and a weak finale were cited as dents in an otherwise pristine experience. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had a development cycle of about four years, so it seems likely that the sequel isn't much further off.
After all, it is seemingly on the same core engine tech as the first game, so the development taking as long as a whole new game from scratch does seem odd. However, as per the trailer, Nintendo might be coming up with a more ambitious game than before.
This is reflected in the focus on verticality in the literal sense, as Link can be spotted gliding and falling through the skies littered with numerous floating islands. New enemies, new upgrades, new tools, new environments - everything points to an improvement as a whole.
We might have to wait a bit longer until its 2022 launch, but we're bound to see more news about it shortly because the game doesn't have official subtitles yet. Here's hoping the game breaks the current AAA trend of getting delayed and launches as intended. It's set to be released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
