At last week's E3 2019, Nintendo revealed a slew of upcoming games coming to the Switch in a Direct presentation. Among the many exciting titles headed to the hybrid platform is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, which will serve as a direct sequel to the 2017 game.

In a post-E3 interview by Game Informer, Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma revealed that Breath of the Wild 2 won't be made from scratch, but will instead reuse the Hyrule map from the original Breath of the Wild. Aonuma explained that "one of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story."

Aonuma also confirmed that Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the director of the original game, will be returning as the director of the upcoming sequel. When asked whether Breath of the Wild 2 will be given the same treatment as Majora's Mask, which was created from scratch and developed in less than a year, Aonuma hinted that the team will take their time in developing the upcoming sequel.

"When I was making Majora's Mask, the timeline was in a year. I was a little stubborn and I was going to make it from scratch and was really gung ho, but it turns out the staff was a little tired from that process. I've learned to give myself plenty of time. You don't want to do it that way or else you'll get white hair like me."

Given that Breath of the Wild 2 was just announced last week, it is likely that it would probably take at least a year for Nintendo to reveal a release date. However, the developers revealed at E3 that Breath of the Wild 2 is heavily inspired by other open-world games including Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2. Of course, no specific details were revealed as to which elements of the aforementioned games will be the source of inspiration for the upcoming game, but it is interesting to see how those titles will influence the final product.

As to how Breath of the Wild 2 will be different from its predecessor, Aonuma is open to the possibility of a co-op mode with a playable Zelda. Given that the trailer showed a lot of scenes featuring both Link and Zelda, the possibility of a co-op feature is not far off. Although Aonuma did not confirm co-op, the developer said that "in Breath of the Wild, you see Zelda and Link together often too, so to go straight into the thought of co-op is very interesting to me."

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is in development exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

Source: Game Informer