After the enormous critical and commercial success ofThe Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild,one would think that game developers everywhere would be doing all that they can to emulate what made the game resonate with so many people. On the flip side, Nintendo is looking to other big open world games for some inspiration in buildingBreath of the Wild 2.As for which games Nintendo is looking at, there are a few well-known titles that could give the company some ideas in keeping theLegend of Zeldaformula fresh. Nintendo is likely to be observing other open world action games likeBotW.
While the game is considered by many to be a masterpiece, there are still a couple of things that the sequel could stand to address, such as the lack of underwater exploration, the absence of majorZelda-style dungeons, etc. It appears that Nintendo understands these issues and is working toward building off of them, as an interview from last year with Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that the team is actively working toward makingBreath of the Wild 2’s open world map even better than the original. Here are a few games that could inspireBotW 2to achieve just that.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Nintendo actually directly referencedRed Dead Redemption 2as a potential influence for the sequel toBreath of the Wild.During an interview last year,Legend of Zeldaseries producer Aonuma stated that members of the development team were playingRed Dead Redemption 2on the side, similarly to how the development team for the originalBotWwas playingSkyrimat the time. Just like howSkyriminfluencedBotW(and probably its sequel as well),Red Dead Redemption 2could influenceBreath of the Wild 2in some major ways. For one,BotW 2could borrowRDR 2’sbase camp system.
After the events of the first game, Link and Zelda might have to rebuild Hyrule as they know it inBreath of the WIld 2,and a base of operations would provide players the ability to build up resources in order to take on that task.Red Dead Redemption 2’s stranger quests are another thing that would work well inBotW 2,and would give life to an otherwise empty Hyrule. Nintendo should be wary about mimicking everything fromRDR 2though, as the game has an abundance of systems and gameplay mechanics that can prove to be a bit overwhelming at times.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Games of the same general genre tend to borrow from one another anyway, so it’ll make sense if elements found withinAssassin’s Creed Odysseyend up finding their way intoBreath of the Wild 2as well. The biggest difference between the two games is the fact thatAC Odysseylets players travel via the sea and allows for underwater exploration.Wind WakerandMajora’s Maskallowed players to travel the open seas and travel underwater respectively, so the precedent is there; Nintendo just has to execute on the idea (although one shouldn’t expect naval combat to be inBotW 2).
Another gameplay element thatBreath of the Wild 2could borrow fromAssassin’s Creed Odysseyis the mercenaries/cultists enemy system (which itself is an iteration of the nemesis system found within theMiddle Earthgames). Imagine Link and Zelda having to go through a list of leftover Yiga Clan members in the same fashion as those games with tiered enemy networks. Besides reintroducing dungeons into Breath of the Wild 2,the enemy system could also freshen up an otherwise barren Hyrule kingdom.
Minecraft
There are already so many things in common betweenMinecraftandBreath of the Wildthat it wouldn’t be a big deal ifBotW 2took some more ideas from the famous blocky game (Minecraft Dungeons represents the reverse of that idea). Most notably, both games have a deep focus on collecting and utilizing resources.BotWwas lauded for allowing players to climb up virtually anything and everything (excluding shrines) butBotW 2should go a step further and allow for terraforming and digging through earth, similar toMinecraft.If Link and Zelda truly are going to rebuild Hyrule, then they should use someMinecraftshovels.
The sequel toThe Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wildis currently in development for the Nintendo Switch, with no confirmed release date.
