Will Breath of the Wild’s Sequel Be A Spiritual Successor of Zelda II?

In many ways, Breath of the Wild was a spiritual remake or reimagining of the original Legend of Zelda. From the iconic Dueling Peaks, the open world with emphasis on exploration, and its defining of the series for many, to name just a few of the parallels. There has been a lot written on this idea already, so I’m not going to spend long going into those parts. However, I think there’s another set of connections that we can look at. The original title has one particularly important and sometimes overlooked wrinkle: it had a direct sequel. We’re all anxious for more information on the upcoming Breath of the Wild 2, and given what little we know, it’s no surprise. But I think we’ve actually been given quite a bit, and given the nature of this sequel, we can draw some powerful conclusions to this aforementioned follow-up. I think that in many of the ways that Breath of the Wild was this reimagining of the original, its sequel will be a remake or reimagining in ways of the original sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Zelda II has been the victim of many criticisms over the year from much of the community, myself included. I’m not going to debate whether these criticisms were deserving or not, as that’s not what this article is focused on. I do, though want to point out some of the unique facets that game has though before getting to the meat of this theory. Zelda II gave us some of the iconic features that the series has come to know and love. Some of these are things that I think Breath of the Wild 2 will absolutely recycle in its own way or needs to.

A note to the reader: if you have somehow not seen the announcement teaser trailer for Breath of the Wild 2, watch it here. It is integral to this entire article, as I will be referencing it a lot.

Magic

While it can be assumed that magic existed in the original, with items like the Magic Sword and abilities like the sword beam, it wasn’t something that was actively tracked with a meter. Zelda II gave us that a few years before A Link to the Past introduced the iconic green magic meter that has since become a staple when magic is present.

In the game, magic was consumed when Link required use of a spell that was selectable from his menu. Each spell had a set value that would be consumed, and would be active until he entered a new area usually. Spells such as jump, fairy, and even life were acquired through his second adventure and granted him powers that either allowed him to reach previously unreachable areas, restore HP, or new abilities in combat. Since their introduction in Zelda II, Link’s magical abilities have been shown in things like the Spin Attack or the spells from Ocarina of Time.

Breath of the Wild 2 though, offers an opportunity for magic to be resurrected in a way that could fundamentally change the game (this theme will return later). In the now infamous teaser, we see Link’s arm being imbued with a sort of green light. Green and magic are synonymous with each other in the Zelda series and have been for a long time. While it seems that technology has replaced traditional magic in the modern take on Hyrule, I believe this sequel will seize this opportunity to reintroduce magic.

Consider this. Link, stripped of the Champions’ abilities either because their spirits have fully moved on or have been corrupted by Ganon’s malice (see my theory on the Champions here), will require some sort of super-Hylian abilities. An ancient sage appears and gifts him a spell that allows him jump really high. This then replaces Revali’s Gale and can be limited by the magic meter. It also could allow Link to use traits like the Downthrust. This is another trait that was introduced in Zelda II and though it existed in Breath of the Wild, could receive its own magical buff or effect, perhaps even taking on a touch similar to Twilight Princess’s Ending Blow.

The images that we are given in the teaser for Breath of the Wild 2 paint a fairly solid connection to the abilities that were first seen in the 1987 title, and I think that it’s going to make a strong comeback. This barely scratches the surface for the potential impact that magic could have, and is only the beginning of the connections to Zelda II.

Underground Dungeons (or Palaces)

One of the most unique things that Zelda II featured was its take on dungeons. In place of screen-by-screen dungeons that would become the focus of all 2-D Zelda games to come, Zelda II gave us side-scrolling underground palaces. While it’s hard for the second game in a series to be considered breaking with tradition, retrospectively it was. In similar fashion, Breath of the Wild absolutely broke the mold and did away with traditional dungeons and gave us the Divine Beasts and 120 shrines in the base game. Both of these changes have been well documented with opinions ranging from favorable to… well, let’s just say there has been a spectrum of thoughts on the topic.

That’s not what I’m going to focus on though. Instead, I want to focus on another aspect that can be drawn out from the Breath of the Wild 2 teaser and Zelda II, that being the nature of the underground setting we see and location that all the palaces take place in.

We see Link and Zelda traversing an underground system of caves, before stumbling on the mummified and twisted corpse of what appears to be Ganondorf (which from here on, we’ll assume it is). This underground region is filled with Zonai ruins (also assumed), cave paintings showing ancient battles, and of course the Demon King’s body which is sealed by some sort of magic force or being.

The fact that this place even exists though, leads me to the real connection with Zelda II. If this structure exists, what about more? What about palaces and dungeons of old, perhaps built by the Sheikah as a way of ensuring the seal on Ganondorf held? This is actually part of the idea that drives the story in Zelda II.

In Zelda II, the Great Palace is sealed by six barriers in the six palaces across Hyrule. At the start of is journey, Link is given mysterious crystals by Impa that he is to put at the end of the palaces to then open the Great Palace, home of the Triforce of Courage. If something like this were to be reused in Breath of the Wild 2, it could be Link restoring parts of the seal that may have weakened on Ganondorf or perhaps installing a new seal to ensure his continued restraint.

But the fact that these palaces are all subterranean, makes me think of all the shrines. All these were essentially underground mini-dungeons. Of the idea of these palaces were to be revisited, it’s totally feasible that the Sheikah built more extravagant temples and used hidden entrances to lead down to them. In fact, the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time could be considered something like that, but that’s another theory for another time.

The Yiga Clan and Zelda II’s Story

No, the Ganon supporting sect wasn’t in Zelda II, but there was a group hellbent on his resurrection. In addition to Link’s journey to reform the complete Triforce and awaken the slumbering Zelda, he is constantly faced with opposition by Ganon’s minions. These monsters believe that by spilling Link’s blood on the ashes of their master, he can be brought back to life. Given their strong presence in the first game, the Yiga are more than likely to return in Breath of the Wild’s sequel.

With Master Kohga defeated, I suspect a new and stronger, perhaps even more intimidating leader could arise. Following an ancient legend from times long past, he could lead the Yiga on a quest to vanquish the Hero of the Wild and bring their supreme leader back. Much like the monsters who spawn randomly in the overworld of Zelda II, this revamped Yiga Clan could appear as they did in the first Breath of the Wild.

This potential similarity isn’t one that’s too deep or shown off in the announcement teaser like the others so far, but it was too easy of a parallel to not mention.

As I’ve already said, I think Zelda II is overlooked in many aspects for what it brought to the series. The story, for what it was in the days of the NES, gave some more identity to Link as a character. It also introduced us to the Triforce of Courage and Dark Link, who served as the final challenge for the Hero, and is a final boss idea that I tossed around in my previous editorial about the Breath of the Wild sequel. However, the story was slightly expanded from the original and to say that Breath of the Wild took a controversial approach to its story would be an understatement. That being said, it could take some of the ideas from Zelda II in creating a more personal journey to Link and a date with destiny.

The Map

Without a doubt, one of the strongest things about Breath of the Wild was the massive and fully explorable version of Hyrule. It was beautiful, littered with history, and with something to discover over each and every ridge. It set a whole new precedent for map sizes and gave us the largest map in Zelda history. While other maps were larger to explore, Zelda II actually had one of the larger ones. With towns the size of one square, and the entire world from the original Legend of Zelda contained in the southwestern most corner of its map, Zelda II was huge.

While it’s hard to imagine the development team pulling off something of this scale, there’s certainly a possibility that they can still make Hyrule bigger. One of the ways that Zelda II did this, was through islands. There was a main continent of Hyrule, an almost equally big island portion, and then the Eastern Hyrule where the Great Palace was sealed.

I doubt I’m the only player who stood on one of the sandy beaches of Hyrule and said, I wish I could go out there, just a bit further. Now, I don’t expect any great ocean faring adventures to the level of The Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass, but the ability to take a vessel from Lurelin Village or Tarry Town and sail out to a new part of Hyrule would be amazing.

And islands aren’t even new to the world of Breath of the Wild. There were the four islands presumably named after the Tingle brothers, there was Eventide Island that served as a direct reference to Link’s Awakening, and of course the Lomei Labyrinth in the Akkala region that was set apart from the mainland. While I personally already think the Lomei Labyrinth was a callout to Zelda II, I imagine an even larger region could serve the purpose I’m thinking of with these.

So, in the same ways that Zelda 2 expanded on the world players experienced in the original title, Breath of the Wild 2 could do the same.

Conclusion

In a world filled with remakes and remasters, I don’t think the Breath of the Wild sequel will fit squarely into that round hole. However, with the similarities that the first bore to the original Legend of Zelda, I think we will see many of the same ideas from Zelda II recycled for this title. The footage we saw in the teaser brings a lot of ideas to the discussion, and when looked at side-by-side to the progressions from the two NES games, I think there is a lot to draw on. I fully expect that the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel will be that spiritual remake of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link many fans have been clamoring for.

What about you? Do you think I’m onto something with this theory? What parts of Zelda II would you like to see appear in the Breath of the Wild sequel? Would you want a Zelda II remake, or would you be okay with it getting the spiritual reimagining in the form of Breath of the Wild 2? Feel free to discuss these ideas in the comments below or over in our discord!

 

David Wayne Nystrom is a Staff Writer for Zelda Dungeon. His top three Zelda games are Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Link’s Awakening. He likes playing games like Smash and RPGs like Final Fantasy.