The Legend of Zelda franchise has made waves in the video game industry with its groundbreaking innovations and compelling plot. While the next Zelda games can opt to bring back iconic features, they may benefit more from specifically following the two-game story structure that connects Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
With rumors of the Nintendo Switch’s successor being announced in late 2024 or around 2025, fans of the Zelda franchise have high hopes for a new mainline entry to be announced alongside it. Although both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have shown how the open-world sandbox adventure genre can be innovated to its fullest, there is the possibility that future games will deviate from the established formula. But considering the success of both titles, the next mainline entries can use them as influences by having them set up as two-part entries, regardless of the gameplay approach.
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Nintendo introduces a new line of merchandise items based on the popular Switch game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
How Zelda Games With Coupled Plots Can Lead to Success
As seen from the two recent games’ development cycle, Nintendo will only announce and start the formulation of Zelda titles when there is a clear direction for both the plot and the game design. Should the next games intend to have a deep storyline and gameplay, then they should follow how Tears of the Kingdom handled itself as a sequel to Breath of the Wild by expounding on the already well-established plot and mechanics. A two-part saga can lead to more innovative ideas, allowing for the development team to play around with a longer narrative. By splitting a game into two massive parts, it can allow for things such as:
- Richer world-building that allows for Zelda characters to return in a future title
- Introduction of new combat or travel features that can be further improved upon in the follow-up
- Locations and environments that are properly ingrained in the first game and expanded in the next
- Enemies can become staples and have more variations in the sequel
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What Two-Part Zelda Games Can Learn to Avoid From Its Predecessors
As popular as Tears of the Kingdom is to Zelda fans, there are those who state that the game is a glorified Breath of the Wild DLC. The game’s developer, Eiji Aonuma, did provide a statement saying that the game was originally intended to be DLC but grew far beyond its original scope and became its own game, answering a number of queries regarding the matter. However, this does raise an issue that the next mainline entry should avoid if it plans on being a two-parter. To ensure that the first game in the new series retains a sense of identity, its follow-up shouldn’t borrow too many assets and should focus on having unique ones.
Another thing that a large two-part Zelda title should avoid would be optional quests that have little to no reward. The best example of such would be the Korok seed quest that is present in both of the recent mainline entries. While it does incentivize players to explore the wonderful environments, too much valuable time is wasted, as there are simply way too many to collect. It does not help that the reward for collecting all Korok seeds has no benefits whatsoever. Should the future games also have massive open worlds, it is best to either have a smaller pool of side quests or have rewards that justify their longevity.
As the future is still uncertain as to the next mainline title’s release, Zelda fans create theories that allow them to delve deeper into the established lore or speculate about the next story in the series. Regardless of whether the next game is a standalone game or the first entry of a two-part series, the formulas established by its predecessors should be kept in mind.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
- Released
- May 12, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96