The undeniable success of both The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and its predecessor Breath of the Wild have all but cemented the likelihood of The Legend of Zelda remaining an open-world title for years to come. Indeed, even series producer and Zelda mastermind Eiji Aonuma has confirmed that fans should expect more open-world Zelda titles in the franchise's future. While The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are both incredible games, there are definitely Zelda fans that are lamenting the loss of what many consider "classic" Zelda. To appease both new and old fans of the franchise, Nintendo should take inspiration from Capcom's handling of the Resident Evil series.
Beginning with the franchise revival of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Capcom has steadily breathed new life into Resident Evil by interspersing new games with remakes of the classic titles. The remakes have successfully established themselves as "classic" Resident Evil and differed from the new numbered sequels thanks to relying on the traditional third-person perspective versus the newer entries' first-person POV. When considering how Nintendo could appeal to Zelda fans both old and new, adopting Resident Evil's release schedule of dropping a remake of a classic title between newer sequels seems like an ideal fit.
What Resident Evil's Release Approach Could Look Like for Zelda
Zelda games typically have long development cycles. Even though Tears of the Kingdom used the same basic engine developed for Breath of the Wild, the sheer amount of innovations and improvements made between the two games resulted in a six-year gap between them. The long gap between newer games in the Zelda series could serve as the perfect vacuum for the release of a remake of a classic Zelda title, much in the same way that Capcom has remade Resident Evil's past games.
Truthfully, Nintendo has already used a similar approach with Zelda, releasing a remake of Link's Awakening and a remaster of Skyward Sword for the Nintendo Switch during the interim between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Now that fans know that open-world titles are here to stay for Zelda, there's plenty of opportunity to appeal to fans of classic Zelda with a remake of a classic title every few years. The 35-year history of the franchise includes several titles that are fertile ground for remakes that bridge the gap between newer and older series fans.
Nintendo Already Has the Perfect Template for 2D Zelda Remakes
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, released for the SNES in 1992, is often cited as one of the best games in the entire franchise. That the first three Zelda games have not been remade is something of a statistical outlier in the age of remakes and re-imaginings of classic games, but also speaks to the timeless quality of at least the first and third titles in the series. There's a lot of territory Nintendo could revisit first for a series of regular remakes of classic Zelda titles, but A Link to the Past is arguably one of the best candidates and already has a perfect template to draw from.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening released just one year after A Link to the Past and was essentially its Game Boy counterpart. Much of the game's blueprint and DNA were pulled directly from its SNES sibling, and both A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening are considered highlights of the Zelda franchise. Considering that Link's Awakening has already received a great remake, Nintendo has a perfect template to use when re-imagining the classic titles in the series. The Zelda formula of the past may not be revisited in newer sequels for quite some time, but there's no reason for Nintendo to forsake the Zelda series' origins in favor of drawing in new fans.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now for Nintendo Switch.
