Guide: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2: Everything We Know So Far

Polishing off the last few shrines and giving Calamity Ganon what-for in the final battle of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a bittersweet act. After such a wonderful, rich journey it was time to bid farewell to Link, Zelda and the largest, most expansive iteration of Hyrule we’d ever visited – what were we going to do with ourselves?

Of course, we returned to devour the DLC and burn across the kingdom on our motorcycle while vacuuming up several hundred Korok seeds, but then began the wait for the next ‘proper’ Zelda game. Sure, in the intervening time we’ve had Cadence of Hyrule, the Link’s Awakening remake, and Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity, and there are plenty of Zelda-like games available for Switch, but there’s nothing quite like a full-fat Zelda experience.

We already knew that a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild is in development, after Nintendo revealed it during their E3 2019 Direct presentation. But after E3 2020 was cancelled, we didn’t get another peek at the game until Nintendo’s E3 2021 Direct presentation.

As of March 2022, the game has been delayed to Spring 2023, as the series producer Eiji Aonuma took to Twitter to announce further delays… and a new (very short) clip of the game!

So, grab that Master Sword and let’s get lost (in the woods)…

Breath of the Wild sequel delay announcement, March 2022

Eiji Aonuma takes to Twitter to announce that the game has been further pushed back to Spring 2023, breaking the hearts of Zelda fans everywhere… but possibly leaving 2022 open for a Wind Waker HD remake, right? Right?

Not much new info was included in this 90-second video, but a small snippet of new footage is still worth analysing and dissecting, so here we go!

We begin the new footage with Link climbing out of the ground, as we’ve seen before…

But this transitions into Link looking at some glowy orb-thing. Is it important that his sword is glowing blue, and the glowy orb-thing is yellow? Who knows!

Link then reaches for the Master Sword, which we recognise from the hilt, and we see those long, manicured nails… which we mentioned in the E3 2021 teaser breakdown, too (see page two).

But… oh no! The Master Sword is all… melty! And Link’s hand is also glowing yellow! The blue/yellow glow has been a prominent feature of past trailers and teasers too, so presumably it means something.

In past Zelda games, the colour blue has represented many things: Magic, the goddess Nayru, the “Wisdom” part of the Triforce, and anything to do with water, like the Zora race. It’s also a colour that represents Zelda herself (who possesses the Triforce of Wisdom), and anything to do with spirits and guidance, like Navi in Ocarina of Time, and Fi, the embodiment of the Master Sword, in Skyward Sword.

Yellow, on the other hand, usually represents the desert levels and electricity, but the other two goddesses — Din, the goddess of Power, and Farore, the goddess of Courage — are green and red. It’s hard to say if this is even the right avenue to go down! It could just be nice colours!

Link’s hand appears to be glowing on the back, which is usually where the Triforce appears. Link’s Triforce wedge is the Courage one (Zelda is Wisdom, Ganon(dorf) is Power) — so perhaps yellow represents Courage/Farore in this game? That would make sense, since the dragon Farosh is the equivalent of Farore in this game, alongside Dinraal and Naydra, and Farosh is an… electricity dragon. INTERESTING.

The Master Sword being melty seems quite important, though — in past trailers, we notably haven’t seen the Master Sword, as Link’s always been using some other weapon. What melted the sword? Is it going to be okay? Is the quest in BOTW 2 going to be all about re-forging the sword? We’ll have to wait about a year to find out.

Other important features to note: Link has tattoos, lovely long hair, and an entirely black arm (which could be tattoos, or some kind of arm-curse), and most importantly of all, Link does not have nipples. Is this a plot point? It could be.

Head over to page two and three to read our breakdowns of the 2021 teaser and the 2019 reveal trailer…