Daily Debate: What’s Your Favorite Easter Egg from the Map of the Wild’s Location Names?
Posted on July 27 2024 by Nicole Scott
One of the most iconic aspects of Breath of the Wild and Tears for the Kingdom is their map. The talks about Echoes of Wisdom‘s map resembling A Link to the Past got me reminiscing the time I spent in these sprawling lands and seeing all the tributes to their predecessors. Breath of the Wild was a gateway into the series for many, but classic fans enjoyed seemingly endless Easter eggs in the map’s location names.
The map is bursting at the seams with references from other titles — many of which I didn’t notice until I was neck-deep in my playthroughs. Some of the locations aren’t as obvious as others. A few are plays on words, potential mistranslations, natural references, or clues you’d get if you know Japanese. I wanted to highlight some of my favorite locations that maybe even the most seasoned players missed or other sites that simply brought a smile to my face.
The first one I wanted to mention is Tabantha. As it so happens, it is a reference to the Japanese name for The Minish Cap‘s Castor Wilds: Tabantha Wilderness (タバンタ秘境, Tabanta Hikyō). I’ll always get behind a subtle nod to this treasured 2D title.
Next, is Batrea Lake in the Dueling Peaks region. It may not appear obvious, but this is a reference to Batreaux from Skyward Sword. This is confirmed, because the Japanese for this name lake, Moruse Ko (モルセ湖 ), is a variant of Batreaux’s Japanese name.
Finally, I wanted to poke at a more apparent reference in Lanayru. I didn’t realize Inogo Bridge was a reference to the Zora band, the Indigo-Go’s, from Majora’s Mask. However, several bandmates gets obvious lakes named after them near the Domain, including Lulu, Toto, and Mikau.
I wanted to give a huge shout out to the content creator Omega, who put together an incredibly thorough video about the map. If you want to dig even deeper into the tiniest details, I highly recommend giving this a watch!
What were some of your favorite nods to the other Zelda games you noticed throughout your playthroughs? Let us know in the comments!
Nicole Scott is writer for Zelda Dungeon from suburban Appalachia. She loves drinking espresso, seeing live music, building LEGO sets, being a completionist, and snuggling her two probably-alien cats, Tizo and Alarielle.
