My first article on what I want to see in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 blew up, and I had SO many ideas in my head for the sequel that it couldn’t possibly be contained in a single article… So let’s go the full monty and run through another 5 things I want to see in Breath of the Wild 2!

1) More rewarding side quests

There were lots of options to explore in BOTW, but too often the side quests would cost you more than they would return. As the Switch is lacking a achievement system, these side quests end up totally unappealing – For example, when you had to bring someone ingredients for a recipe, those are common quests that don’t yield good a enough reward 99% of the time. Sure, there are some fun side quests like the hunt for the Leviathans, or the search for the eighth heroine; those end up being rewarding simply for the hunt… BUT it’s not quite the same when the hunt is for a blue hearty snail. I’d love another side quest chain like Tarrey Town, as that was a lot of fun and required a lot of investment, but it was  worth it…

2) Proper Mini Games!

I loved the inclusion of the mini games such as the ‘how far can you fly’ one, the ‘shield sledding’ and especially the ‘snow bowling’. They’re fun and can often be a good method of farming Rupees when you need them. For example, if you don’t know the perfect technique for a perfect snow bowling round, go get yourself to YouTube! They’re a dime-a-dozen! I’d be sad if mini games disappeared from the overworld; they bring a pleasant welcome break from hordes, Shrines and Koroks when you stumble across one in your explorations.

3) Better Non-Linear Exploration

Now I think this one is a given, and I don’t think we’ll see a change in this. Breath of the Wild’s ‘do what you want when you want to’ attitude to the franchise has been very refreshing; don’t want to do that Divine Beast? That’s fine… Want to head straight over to Hyrule Castle… You can. Want to go to the extremes of the map before even entering a settlement…? That’s cool too.

Whilst there is some kind of logical progression through the game, it doesn’t require you to adhere to it exactly. This kind of ‘find your own fun’ structure is becoming increasingly popular in games and I love it!

4) Mini-Dungeons

Now I don’t think there will be Shrines in the sequel to BOTW, and this is because of the theory that I linked in my previous article… However it would be a shame to get rid of the mini dungeon features all together. I don’t know how or if they will do it in BOTW2, but I really enjoyed having those little puzzles scattered throughout the wilds. I felt like they kind of made up for how samey samey the Divine Beasts were – I’d love to see something targeted towards whatever Link’s new abilities may be (I’m looking at you weird green hand).

5) Playable Zelda

Now, this one has taken me some time to come around to. At first I wasn’t really all that hyped about playing as Zelda until a few people pointed out how great this could be. There have been a few suggestions that have sparked my interest, however; firstly the idea of having some kind of couch co-op feature where one player can be Link and the other Zelda! This would be an interesting direction to take the franchise – Secondly I have seen it suggested that Zelda may fall through the floor of Ganon’s tomb as indicated in the trailer, therefore becoming separated from Link and giving the player the opportunity to work through a section of the game as Zelda, perhaps in the tutorial or opening section. Historically Zelda has very much been the damsel in distress, and a section like this would be brilliant for a little bit of additional character development.

Lastly there’s the possible option to play as her for short periods of time during battle. This would be cool as we would get to see what Zelda’s abilities can really do, and again gives us more opportunity to connect with the character.

Overall I am more than certain that whatever the sequel to Breath of the Wild brings, it will be an amazing adventure. I know it might be difficult to follow up such a renowned game, but I have every faith that it will be just as breathtaking.

Become a Patron!