Daily Debate: Is The Overworld In Breath of the Wild Too Large To Act As A Familiar Home Base In The Sequel?
Posted on October 14 2021 by Alexandria Weber
From Clock Town in Majora’s Mask to Skyloft in Skyward Sword, Zelda games typically have a home base for Link to recuperate from battles. It is a familiar place where the player can perhaps buy potions, embark on side quests, and enjoy a bit of peace amidst the hectic adventure. Breath of the Wild went back to the roots of the series by establishing several different towns like in Adventure of Link, dotting the expansive open-world of Hyrule with different types of villages. However, Breath of the Wild was also designed so that heart recovery and other effects are attainable in places other than towns, such as the cooking pots at stables and Bokoblin camps. Most players who put many hours in Breath of the Wild know, for instance, what ingredients do what and what region those ingredients can be found in.
Breath of the Wild 2 will be the first direct sequel to a Zelda game to be set in the same place as its predecessor, Aonuma himself stating in an interview his desire “to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story”. The most recent trailer for the Breath of the Wild 2 shows Link embarking on an adventure in the skies, but with the over-world beneath it something that is likely well-known to the player, I can’t help but think that it could serve as the biggest home base in the Zelda series, and perhaps even the gaming world. After all, if Breath of the Wild was about exploring the over-world, perhaps now it can be used as something familiar to lean on.
I personally think that the over-world of Breath of the Wild is not too big and would be an amazing and realistic resource that also re-grounds the player in Hyrule. There could be new side quests from NPCs we know and new stories emerging from a Hyrule where time has passed since the first game. Of course new players might be at a disadvantage but I think it would fit for players the connect the last game to the first–since this is to be a sequel–and to utilize their knowledge of the geography, terrain, and ingredients that this Hyrule in particular has to offer.
What do you think? Is it too ambitious? Are there any technological constraints? How do you think the overworld will be handled? What other ways could the first game connect to the second? Let us know in the comments below!
Alexandria Weber is a Senior Editor and an aspiring creative writer. Her favorite food is apple pie and she loves her cat Galadriel. Ask her for pictures!
