Nintendo’s plans for the Legend of Zelda series are quickly picking up, with both Breath of the Wild 2 and Age of Calamity going full swing into production together. However, when it comes to building up the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild, it may be wise for Nintendo to draw inspiration from the massively successful Genshin Impact.
One of the biggest hurdles that Breath of the Wild 2 has from its predecessor is the way that the game will have to fill the map with brand new experiences for players to engage with. This is where a certain Genshin Impact feature comes in, specifically the Domains that make up the bulk of the questing and fill out a considerable amount of the storyline for the free-to-play title.
These domain designs already have a space to fill on the original Breath of the Wild map for the upcoming sequel that canonically wouldn’t have a place in the next game in the series. This empty space would be the Sheikah Shrines which act as both the major source of upgrades for Link, as well as the pseudo stand-in for dungeons with smaller, individual puzzles for players to solve. While there do appear to be some sort of dungeons alluded to in Breath of the Wild 2‘s early trailers, it’s still unclear what Nintendo plans on doing with the now-abandoned shrines that made up a large portion of the original game’s content.
Genshin Impact‘s Domains are clearly very similar to Sheikah Shrines in that they are separately loaded instances found throughout the world that offer their own specific challenge not found in the open world. However, the divergence from Breath of the Wild is the key to what makes these Domains something that Nintendo should consider integrating into the next Legend of Zelda title. Specifically, that difference is how combat heavy many of these Domains tend to be in Genshin Impact, with puzzles still available for players looking for a chance at additional items and new ways to approach enemy encounters.
At the moment, Breath of the Wild‘s combat centered Sheikah Shrines are few and far between, or are comprised of a single boss fight at varying levels of difficulty. It was a strange choice to keep combat so rare in these puzzles, due in part to how champion skills and flurry rush gave the game some of the best fighting mechanics in the Zelda series. This means the upcoming sequel should definitely lean into Breath of the Wild‘s best mechanics, especially considering the direction that a newly risen Ganondorf may wind up taking the series.
Looking at Ganondorf’s roll in Breath of the Wild 2, he has quite a bit to make up for when it comes to how Calamity Ganon was utilized in the original Breath of the Wild. Specifically, this comes down to how the final boss fight against Ganon, set up to be the character’s absolute last hurrah, was fairly disappointing for players who expected an intelligent adversary. In response to these criticisms, Nintendo should take the opportunity to create and intimidating, dominating presence out of Ganondorf similar to the final match against the original Demise Skyward Sword.
This new emphasis on a more skillfully demanding Ganondorf that can offer a tougher combat challenge than Breath of the Wild‘s Calamity Ganon can easily be incorporated into the new Shrines. With the Sheikah’s role finished, the Shrines are now left empty, and Ganondorf has already been shown to be able and willing to take control of this type of technology for his goals of ruling Hyrule. If this is the case, it’s much less likely that the villain will be looking to test Link with thought provoking puzzles, and will just want to kill him by throwing minions at him at escalating intervals.
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Beyond the combat differences between the two games, miHoYo has already proven with Genshin Impact‘s rapid success that there is a place for multiplayer in a Breath of the Wild type game. In the case of taking this multiplayer into Breath of the Wild 2‘s dungeons, there are ways to balance this without forcing players to find a friend in order to properly enjoy the game. One option is to allow the player to control the multiple characters, likely Link and Zelda, one at a time when playing solo, or allow a second player to come in and help control both characters at the same time.
This can lean in on a more combat heavy Legend of Zelda as well, with the difficulty of the enemies scaling with the number of players currently playing at any given time. Multiplayer would be a completely new concept for a mainline Zelda title, and while fans continue to beg for a playable Zelda in Breath of the Wild 2, new projects like Age of Calamity might be priming the series for this to happen. Regardless of whether or not this was Nintendo’s initial intention when beginning development on the next Breath of the Wild, it is absolutely something that would be wildly popular among fans.
One extra way that Genshin Impact is able to utilize its Domains by stretching out the utility of these areas is to send players back and forth between these dungeons multiple times throughout the story. Combined with the philosophy of allowing players to travel anywhere on Breath of the Wild‘s map from the beginning to end, the need or ability to return to Shrines or Dungeons can set more fixed marks of progression for players. Unlocking separate sections of different dungeons in a steady and segmented manner could let players know when they’re approaching the “endgame” content and give a better way for players to track their progress.
This is one mechanic that may be difficult to implement properly without the dungeons feeling tedious and still giving players a satisfying feeling whenever they beat a new section. However, it could also make dungeons on the level of Breath of the Wild‘s Divine Beasts feel even more dynamic in the world by requiring players to hop around between them in order to complete them all together, as opposed to one at a time.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is currently in development for the Switch.
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