It's no secret that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild introduced a lot of new mechanics to The Legend of Zelda, refreshing a generally very traditional franchise. Link picks up all kinds of weapons on his travels rather than relying on the Master Sword, and Hyrule itself is an open world that Link is encouraged to explore at his leisure. There's another significant change that puts Link in a new light: cooking. Most incarnations of Link just bottle up some potions for the road, but in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link has to develop some serious culinary skills to defeat Calamity Ganon. Every meal he makes is a precious healing item.
Breath of the Wild 2 will almost certainly bring back the first game's cooking since it's a direct sequel that uses the same map of Hyrule as before. Link will still have a whole world of potential ingredients to gather. Still, there are a few significant ways that Breath of the Wild 2 can improve BotW's cooking system. For one thing, it'd be great to give Link a cookbook that recalls every exact recipe he makes, and for another, Breath of the Wild 2 would be wise to make the effects of Link's meals more diverse than ever.
Recalling Link's Recipes
There are dozens of ingredients that Link can toss into a cooking pot in Breath of the Wild, from realistic basics like eggs, milk, and butter to more outlandish ingredients like glowing mushrooms and monster guts. Breath of the Wild encourages players to collect as many of these ingredients as possible and experiment with them. The rewards for doing so speak for themselves. Link's recipes can give him extra hearts that protect him from harm, increase the damage he deals in combat, help him resist overwhelmingly hot or cold temperatures, and much more.
One of the biggest problems with cooking in Breath of the Wild is that the game doesn't keep track of what players have made already. Anybody who wants to make Link a specific meal, whether it's for practical reasons or just for fun, has to either memorize the meal's recipe or look it up outside the game. For convenience's sake, Link ought to get himself a cookbook in Breath of the Wild 2. If the game automatically records recipes for every meal that Link makes, following the Hyrule Compendium's model for photos that Link takes, then players would have a reference guide in Link's pocket. A Sheikah Slate could easily keep track of Link's various meals.
A cookbook could even encourage a fun new collectible in Breath of the Wild 2. In BotW, buying armor from shops is a satisfying way to spend Rupees, but it'd be great to see certain stores stock recipes that Link can buy too. If Link buys a recipe, then he could record the necessary ingredients for a certain meal in his Sheikah Slate as if he'd made that meal before. Recipes could appear as alternative quest rewards or overworld treasures in BotW2 as well. The way to make certain niche BotW recipes isn't always obvious, so recipes that Link can buy or find would be a boon to both completionists and to fans who just think Link needs a diverse diet.
Building on Breath of the Wild's Cooking
Of course, if Breath of the Wild 2 gives Link a cookbook, then it should also introduce wholly new recipes for Link to make. There's certainly cause to get more granular when it comes to cooking. Although cooking in Breath of the Wild seems to have endless possibilities at first, anyone who plays BotW for long enough will soon realize that generally any given meal will simply restore health and possibly have a single additional effect. The game's best meals do their job, but they don't necessarily keep cooking interesting after a certain point.
Nintendo would be wise to play around with the status effects that food can give to Link in Breath of the Wild 2. For instance, while most recipes only allow for one stat boost, maybe Breath of the Wild 2 will let Link make more complicated dishes. For instance, if Link throws an Ironshroom and a Razorshroom into a pot together, maybe the resulting Mushroom Skewer could boost both Link's attack and defense, but restore much less health than usual, or shorten the duration of the stat buffs. Adjusting recipes in that way will encourage fans to think more deeply about what kind of meals they stockpile.
Restoring health through food in Breath of the Wild 2 deserves an adjustment too. Food largely just restores a flat amount of health to Link or simply gives him all his health back, which doesn't encourage much thought or strategy when players heal Link. A new Breath of the Wild 2 recipe could slowly restore Link's health over time, making it less useful in combat but a valuable alternative snack when Link isn't in any danger. Another meal could be cheap to make and restore more health than usual, but Link loses a little health over time shortly after eating the meal, introducing some risk in healing.
Sharpening Link's Cooking Skills
Cooking was a really brilliant addition to BotW's roster of major changes. Not only did it make healing more compelling than simply spending some Rupees at a shop, but it served as a great way to characterize Link by building a new skill. That doesn't mean that it's a perfect mechanic. Even the acclaimed Breath of the Wild has its shortcomings, but that further establishes the value of its sequel. Breath of the Wild 2 gives Nintendo an opening to polish and expand good concepts like the first game's cooking and make them even better than before.
There's no doubt that Link will be up against some incredible threats in Breath of the Wild 2. Whatever dark force is causing a pretty literal upheaval in Hyrule is not to be underestimated, so Link will have to bring plenty of healing equipment to take care of himself. In the first Breath of the Wild, cooking was a nice breather from running around the ruined Hyrule, and it'll probably play the same part in the midst of the second game's catastrophe. Since cooking is bound to play a pivotal part once again, hopefully, Nintendo takes the time to make cooking better than ever before.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 releases for the Nintendo Switch in 2022.
