It’s been a long time since we last had news about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Nintendo revealed the sequel was in development back in E3 2019 with a short trailer that teased the return of Ganondorf, the big baddie of the entire The Legend of Zelda franchise. Two years have gone by since then, but Nintendo finally broke the silence to tell us Breath of the Wild 2 is coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2022.
What’s even better, we got a new trailer for the game, filled with small details that tease both the plot and new gameplay mechanics of the next The Legend of Zelda title. It’s time, then, to break down the new trailer frame by frame in order to uncover what it reveals.
Without further ado, let’s glide over a broken Hyrule and try to figure out what Breath of the Wild 2 has in store for fans of the franchise.
The first teaser for Breath of the Wild 2 showed us Link and Zelda exploring a subterranean temple, where they uncover what looks like Ganondorf’s mummy. The reveal was shocking, as the Prince of the Gerudos’ greed and rage is what feeds his monstrous form: Ganon. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we are faced with Ganon’s ultimate form — Calamity Ganon —, a mass of dark energy that completely engulfs Hyrule Castle. Destroying Calamity Ganon should mark the ultimate end of Link’s journey, as the final form of his ancient enemy is finally defeated.
By the presence of Ganondorf’s mummy, it seems like Calamity Ganon was just a manifestation of the dark energy that’s still emanating from the decaying body. What’s worse, it looks like Link himself will be contaminated by Ganondorf’s evil influence. In the new trailer, we get a clear shot of Ganondorf’s mummy, while we also see a dark cloud of energy spreading through Link’s arm. Princess Zelda also falls into an abyss, which means that the battle is far from over in Breath of the Wild 2. Link still has a lot of work to do.
Although Breath of the Wild was short on memorable temples and boss battles, there is no doubt the game amplified The Legend of Zelda’s sense of freedom by using an open world and giving the player the possibility to glide towards the horizon. The new trailer shows us Breath of the Wild 2 will keep faithful to this goal by increasing Link’s gliding capabilities. The new trailer shows us Link floating between islands in the sky, supposedly fragments of a destroyed Hyrule. The scenario teases Ganondorf’s destructive power but also opens the possibility for a lot of freedom, as it’s easier to use wind currents to wander around more efficiently.
It’s also worth noticing that another The Legend of Zelda game used the concept of islands in the sky: Skyward Sword, a remake of which will be released on the Nintendo Switch next month. This is particularly curious when we remember that Skyward Sword is the first adventure in The Legend of Zelda’s millenary timeline. Breath of the Wild, set in the Timeline Convergence, was supposed to be the final chapter in the chronology, by reuniting all the different timelines. As a direct sequel, Breath of the Wild 2 will also be a part of this grand finale, so it’s fitting, then, that in the large scheme of The Legend of Zelda’s chronology everything starts and finishes with floating islands in the sky.
The new teaser also gives us a look at Breath of the Wild 2 enemies, both old and new. First, we get to see a monster made of sculpted stone, apparently energized by a blue lightning beam. This might be a new kind of technology from the Sheikah, the ancient people who built the giant machines featured in Breath of the Wild. Regular enemies are also apparently smarter in the sequel, as a group of red Bokoblins builds a moving fortress over a Stone Talus, the living golems that serve as minibosses in the previous game.
An intriguing part of the new trailer concerns Link’s new tool, a metallic gauntlet that the hero will use for different purposes. In Breath of the Wild, Link had access to the Sheikah Slate, a tablet capable of amazing feats, such as creating blocks of ice over water or attracting metal parts with magnetic power. This technology was apparently upgraded in Breath of the Wild 2, taking the shape of a gauntlet that has the Slate’s old powers and also some new ones.
In the teaser, Link is seen using Stasis, a Slate power that freezes enemies and objects for a small amount of time. The Stasis, however, is more powerful when activated by the gauntlet, as it not only freezes a huge ball with spikes but also reverses its kinetic energy, sending it back to where it came. The gauntlet also becomes a huge flamethrower in another scene, while Link fights a massive worm-like monster.
The most curious power displayed by the new trailer is Link’s ability to both reverse gravity and move through objects. It makes sense, in a shattered world, that the notions of up and down become blurred. However, the new power not only launches Link upwards but also creates a liquid portal on solid stone, making Link’s body pass through some ruins as if they were made of water. We still don’t know for sure how this power works and how it will affect gameplay but as the release date gets closer we’ll get new details about Breath of the Wild 2’s changes and novelties.
The new trailer ends with a shot of Hyrule Castle getting ripped off the ground by Ganon’s dark energy. This gives some credit to the theory that claims the underground temple Link and Zelda explore in the first Breath of the Wild 2’s teaser is located just below Hyrule Castle, where Ganondorf’s mummy is apparently hidden. The scene is also a direct homage to Ocarina of Time, which also features a floating Hyrule Castle in the Adult Timeline, the last challenge you need to overcome before fighting Ganondorf/Ganon and locking him in the Sacred Realm. It’s well within Ganon’s powers to shatter the land and ignore gravity, and as the villains get stronger over time it’s easy to believe he’ll break Hyrule into several floating parts.
There’s still much we don’t know about Breath of the Wild 2 but now that Nintendo locked down a release window, we’ll start to get news about the game more frequently. Even so, each new piece of footage is a new piece of the puzzle, and little by little we get a clearer picture of how Breath of the Wild 2 will look and play. Now we just need to find an Ocarina of Time to transport ourselves straight to 2022.