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June 12, 2019 1:17 PM   Subscribe

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was an instant classic upon its release in March of 2017, propelling monster sales of itself and the Nintendo Switch console (much-needed after the disappointing performance of the WiiU and the disastrous "Year of Luigi") and gaining the most perfect reviews of any video game in history. Which is probably why the internet went a little bit wild yesterday when Nintendo finished their E3 Direct with a trailer announcing the venerated title's sequel. With only those ninety seconds to go on, speculation has been rampant, with the most compelling theory being that this will finally be the game in which Zelda is a playable character...
posted by Navelgazer (50 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Uh Zelda is the boy.
posted by saladin at 1:23 PM on June 12, 2019 [17 favorites]


Yeah, pretty sure we've all been playing as Zelda this whole time across all version of the game.
posted by mulligan at 1:28 PM on June 12, 2019 [4 favorites]


It was called "A Link to the Past," not "Link Goes to the Past."

"Link" was a mis-translation in the original LoZ. A better word would have been "avatar" or "player character," but it was the mid 80s, and RPG culture was still pretty new.
posted by explosion at 1:31 PM on June 12, 2019


Yeah, everyone knows that the original NES game was about F Scott Fitzgerald meeting his wife. Autobiographical with a little poetic license.
posted by lkc at 1:34 PM on June 12, 2019 [6 favorites]


F Scott is Gannon Right?
posted by French Fry at 1:43 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


I got a Switch this past Mother’s Day and I immediately became hooked on Zelda. With any luck I might even finish before the next one releases.

Who am I kidding? I’ll be foraging Hearty Durians and Ancient Cores until the end of time. :-D
posted by dorkydancer at 1:46 PM on June 12, 2019 [14 favorites]


also I refuse to get hype. because I've been queer-baited and basic-gender-representation-baited by video game publishers too many times.

Like the number of games I'm still only playing as a white guy is getting fucking exhausting. I'll believe it when I fucking see it.
posted by French Fry at 1:47 PM on June 12, 2019 [9 favorites]


What do you mean, finally play as Zelda? She was the playable character in The Wand of Gamelon!

...

Uh... please, put down the torches and pitchforks...
posted by SansPoint at 1:51 PM on June 12, 2019 [4 favorites]


I am playing Wild Breath on the WiiU which I'm borrowing but thinking of getting a switch. Is there any way to port my save file? I'm hours and hours in, would rather not re-do........ but maybe the gameplay would be worth it? Please advise!
posted by rebent at 1:53 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


> Uh Zelda is the boy.

Discussed previously (where by "discussed" I mean "a lot of pretty hilarious grabassing")
posted by ardgedee at 2:04 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Rebent I have replayed BotW three times at this point and thinking about a fourth. It's totally worth it.
posted by Mizu at 2:04 PM on June 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


Just based on some of the analysis I've been reading, I'd guess Zelda and Link have somehow found the Ganon's physical body that was sealed thousands of years before Breath of the Wild (he's had many physical bodies as cyclical reincarnation of Demise). In Breath of the Wild we're dealing with Calamity Ganon, his spiritual incarnation. The glowing blue hand is a seal on Ganon's body, and it's losing its strength... maybe he left a part of his soul behind.

I think it'd be great to get to play as Zelda -- she was controllable as Phantom Zelda in Spirit Tracks. But I think everyone was hoping to play as her in BOTW as early as it's Wii U trailer. I also heard mentioned that the BOTW designers wanted to explore multiplayer at one point... that would be pretty awesome! But I think it would be difficult in such a freely explorable world as the Hyrule of BOTW... I'm not getting my hopes up, though, particularly based on my frame by frame scrutiny of the trailer. It looks like at some point Zelda falls and Link reaches to grab her hand... implying they may get separated and Link may have to rescue her.

However, they could do it such that the separation means you have to play each character individually through parts of the world. It's very early... don't get hopes up.

You know what would be cool? If the beast of burden pictured increased your inventory, and it served as a home base of sorts that you use to explore the vast underworld of Hyrule... we didn't get many dungeons in BOTW so I'm hing for DUNGEONS that require Zelda and Link to DELVE and manage resources to explore in cooperation using their unique streeeeeengths.

RAMPANT SPECULATION
posted by Mister Cheese at 2:14 PM on June 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


BotW is by far my favorite Zelda game EVER. I have only ever beaten Zelda, Zelda 2, WindWaker and BotW. I got 3/4 through SS, about a third through TP, I had LTTP on GBA, but only got to the dark world and stopped shortly after.

I also played Crypt of the Necrodancer and loved the hell out of it:
Between Cadence (releasing tomorrow! - the CotND dev made Zelda game) + Link's Awakening AND this announcement, this is like making up for all the poor Zelda years.

It's a good time to be a Zelda fan.

Ninty is killing it IMO. I actually feel a bit overwhelmed with the strength of the lineups. Not just the obvious indies and ninty, but even large 3rd party IPs coming and being strong, *NEW* IPs!

But yes, I cannot wait to get my mitts on this sequel. And tomorrow to get Cadence of Hyrule! I hope it's not too expensive, and I hope it has a good flow, I loved the main CotND, but after playing through once with the main character didn't do the whole completion thing...
posted by symbioid at 2:25 PM on June 12, 2019 [3 favorites]


F Scott is Gannon Right?

Gannon is Gatsby. That’s why he’s always wearing that pink rag of a suit.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:34 PM on June 12, 2019


Zelda is also playable in Hyrule Warriors, which is the Three Kingdoms / Legend of Zelda crossover that is a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

Hoping Link disappears in the first five minutes of the new BotW and we get a Zelda / Linkle buddy game.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:06 PM on June 12, 2019


I'm loving this but Aonuma kind of poured water on the theory in interviews. He was curious why so many people are asking whether she's playable. That suggests to me that they A) Never even considered it or B) Did it and can't figure out how they spilled the beans. Given Nintendo's past record I'm leaning towards A.

That said I love this Zelda and thought she was a great character in BotW. I wouldn't mind being her traveling companion in the new game even if she isn't playable. She's competent and magical so she can take care of herself. I'd worry that it would divide the gameplay too much to have a sort of sub-game where you're her, checking inscriptions, examining stuff and thinking deeply about them. The player character in these games is a warrior and adventurer, which BotW's Zelda, for all her strengths, isn't. That said if they can find a way to do it, I'm super into it.

I want her to be a much bigger part of the next game, just as long as she isn't a damsel in distress.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:16 PM on June 12, 2019


I definitely really want Zelda to be the protagonist, but if I had to bet I'd guess that it'll be Link with magic ghost arm powers (since it sure looked like he was absorbing the swirly spirit rune stuff). Then again, we didn't see much actiony stuff from either of them, and there was what looked like ghost arm rescuing a falling Link, so. Maybe he rescued himself with ghost arm powers, maybe Zelda gets ghost arm powers, maybe the trailer is showing Finn with a lightsaber, who knows?
posted by NMcCoy at 3:17 PM on June 12, 2019


>Uh Zelda is the boy
Everybody knows that the zeldo is stored in the balls
posted by boo_radley at 3:38 PM on June 12, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm loving this but Aonuma kind of poured water on the theory in interviews. He was curious why so many people are asking whether she's playable. That suggests to me that they A) Never even considered it or B) Did it and can't figure out how they spilled the beans. Given Nintendo's past record I'm leaning towards A.

Interesting. I read that bit in a much more hopeful way, I think. Here's the Kotaku article with the conversation described in it. It makes me lean pretty hard towards your B option.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:38 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


I just really hope that Nintendo isn't doing the very typical-of-Nintendo thing where the physics-rich world and ghost arm powers are a showcase for the Nintendo Switch+'s Powerglove VR.

The more I think about it the more terrifyingly plausible it seems. Nintendo loves leading the industry with new controller tech, they did Labo VR, Oculus Quest has already demonstrated the technological viability of an untethered VR console, we know there's a Switch hardware revision on the horizon, and they've made a core Zelda title with mandatory integration of motion controls before with Skyward Sword.

...And like all (and only) the Links of past motion-controlled games, BotW Link is right-handed.

And the trailer showed only cutscenes; for all we know, all the gameplay could be first-person.
posted by NMcCoy at 3:45 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


the most compelling theory being that this will finally be the game in which Zelda is a playable character...

You sweet summer children...
posted by Reyturner at 3:56 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


This has to do with Skyward Sword, I bet. Those crystals look like time shift crystals from the mine area and the castle was lifted in the air at the end.
posted by domo at 3:59 PM on June 12, 2019


F Scott is Gannon Right?

Gannon was the pig demon
Gannon Dorf was the actor who played the bad guy in the first Blade movie.
posted by Groundhog Week at 4:06 PM on June 12, 2019 [3 favorites]


Right Right That's when Kris Kristofferson hands him the boomer-rang in the cave at the beginning
posted by French Fry at 4:15 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Cool this means my BoTW Player can now be called my Zelda Player instead. Why is everyone calling their Zelda Players a "Switch"? I do not get?
posted by nikaspark at 4:31 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


wait you call your Picross Player a BoTW Player?
posted by cortex at 4:34 PM on June 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


wait you call your Picross Player a BoTW Player?

No I have a BoTW Player and I don't know what that thing is you have.
posted by nikaspark at 4:47 PM on June 12, 2019


y’all have some weird names for your tetris 99 players
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 5:02 PM on June 12, 2019 [6 favorites]


Of course it would never happen, but I really would have enjoyed a BotW sequel that plays like Tropico, where you play as Zelda managing the reconstruction of Hyrule’s infrastructure after 100 years of neglect.
posted by vogon_poet at 5:04 PM on June 12, 2019 [9 favorites]


Am also extremely disappointed that Link appears to still be right handed in this one, despite no motion controls.
posted by vogon_poet at 5:09 PM on June 12, 2019 [3 favorites]


I don't know how I've made it this far in life not knowing that Zelda is the boy. Time to plug in the SNES and fire up A Link to the Past and start all over again...(I didn't have the first 2 games)
posted by Chuffy at 5:21 PM on June 12, 2019


I’d be happy if Zelda is playable, but only if she gets to use the same weapons Link has always been able to use. Why can’t she wield the sword?

Legend of Zelda, Adventures of Link, Ocarina of Time, Windwaker, Twilight Princess, and now BoTW - have loved and beaten all (well ok not BoTW, because I’m not done exploring, but I’ve crushed every shrine including the expansion pack)
posted by caution live frogs at 5:26 PM on June 12, 2019


(I mean I’ve been everywhere but I still have a couple armor sets to upgrade, and farming star fragments is boring but I’m a completist)
posted by caution live frogs at 5:27 PM on June 12, 2019


I don't know why people keep saying Zelda is the boy, because there isn't a boy? There aren't any boys in Zelda. They're both girls. Is this... not obvious to everyone else?????

There's one boy but he isn't Link or Zelda, he's Ganondorf, who is an extremely tall and admirable boy.
posted by elsilnora at 5:49 PM on June 12, 2019 [8 favorites]


I love love love that they're playing this just like Majora's Mask: make a quick-to-market sequel using your existing engine and assets, but pivot sharply and make it dark as hell so no one cares.

I mean, not that "everyone you ever loved who DIDN'T die in the calamity is long since dead from old age, except the fish people and they hate you, and also the princess you're sworn to protect has been fighting the living embodiment of ancestral evil by herself deep in the shadow castle for 100 years" isn't a pretty dark baseline. But you see where I'm going with this.
posted by Mayor West at 5:55 PM on June 12, 2019 [5 favorites]


Hard not to get the sense that this game isn't closing a very long circle. The two things missing from Breath Of The Wild and recent Zelda games in general are a substantial underworld and some sort of resolution of the major character's arcs, Zelda in particular. Maybe this is the last Zelda game, though you could gave said that after seeing the conclusion of Windwaker as well.

I mean, that zombie dude is wearing Gerudo regalia, and the only male Gerudo we've ever seen in the series has been Ganon. The right hand, the motif landing over and over again in this trailer, has traditionally been where the one-third symbol of the Triforce manifests itself in its avatars. Whatever's going on there, that's the body of the avatar of the Triforce of Power, pinned between two very different forces.
posted by mhoye at 6:49 PM on June 12, 2019


> Maybe this is the last Zelda game...

ahhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahabHBfgggghh.

They haven't even made a topdown Zelda for switch yet. Let alone brought back cel shading.
posted by lkc at 6:57 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Of course it would never happen, but I really would have enjoyed a BotW sequel that plays like Tropico, where you play as Zelda managing the reconstruction of Hyrule’s infrastructure after 100 years of neglect.

This is essentially the plot of the extremely elaborate primarily epistolary based post BotW canon fanfic I will never write. Like, what if all the shrines were subway stops tho??
posted by Mizu at 6:58 PM on June 12, 2019 [7 favorites]


Someone pointed out that the mummy looks more like Demise than Ganondorf, due to lack of a beard.

(this fact and domo's comment is not helping with my coming-full-circle-with-Skyward-Sword-right-handed-motion-controls paranoia)
posted by NMcCoy at 7:01 PM on June 12, 2019


There aren't any boys in Zelda. They're both girls.

That's what I've been trying to tell people! And sometimes they're dating.
posted by gaybobbie at 7:03 PM on June 12, 2019 [4 favorites]


It's taken this long to allow black people to exist in Animal Crossing. No way in hell is Zelda going to be playable, sorry.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:58 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


Mr.Encyclopedia: I hear what you're saying, but...

The end of Mario Odyssey (Spoilers, obvs) has Mario rescuing Princess Peach from a forced wedding to Bowser, then trying to elicit a kiss from her, and then her refusing and skipping town for a bit because Mario made it weird.

In Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which barely has a story but still has Toadette being captured by a giant bird at the beginning and Toad setting off to rescue her, it's not long into it before we switch perspective to Toadette rescuing herself.

And the lead producer is being pointedly cagey about this very question.

So I'm hopeful Nintendo is getting there.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:05 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


Soooo...worth buying a Switch to play as Zelda the boy, while I wait for Division 2 to not be a dumpster fire?
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:43 PM on June 12, 2019


I'm loving this but Aonuma kind of poured water on the theory in interviews. He was curious why so many people are asking whether she's playable. That suggests to me that they A) Never even considered it or B) Did it and can't figure out how they spilled the beans

There's also the outlandishly woke C) Wonders why people are focused on video games instead of Nintendo's real life inequity in the boardroom, executive suite, middle management and probably line staff.
posted by pwnguin at 9:16 PM on June 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


Breath of the Wild is a wonderful game and it truly nails everything wonderful about Zelda (at least in my opinion). But, I won't hold my breath (yup, I'll see myself out) that they make Princess Zelda a playable character. Nintendo is notoriously slow on the whole "being woke" front. They're very patriarchal. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised/shocked, but I just don't see them leaning into that direction.

As pwguin just wrote up above, they're pretty terrible in the boardroom and everywhere else in their corporate structure. We rarely see woman executives on stage or in any of their marketing really (not talking commercials, I'm talking about the way they will transform one of their CEOs into a kind of mascot the way they did with Reggie or Bowser who has stepped in).

So yeah, great at making games, but kind of terrible at being progressive and woke in 2019. Lots of room for improvement with this company.
posted by Fizz at 5:17 AM on June 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


Mayor West: "I love love love that they're playing this just like Majora's Mask: make a quick-to-market sequel..."

If only it were quick-to-market: Majora's Mask came out ~2 years after Ocarina of Time in North America, but with this game we're talking 3.5 years, at least.
posted by crazy with stars at 10:46 AM on June 13, 2019


BTW, I picked up Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer and it's so much damn fun. You can play as Princess Zelda (which I currently am) and for those who were concerned about the difficulty (original Necrodancer is notoriously difficult), this is a bit more approachable. Still have to think and time things out right but lots of fun, well worth picking up.
posted by Fizz at 1:09 PM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


I thought Midna was the playable Zelda. Like, during her Wiccan phase in high school.
posted by sexyrobot at 7:50 PM on June 13, 2019


I believe there are 4 playable characters, though I haven't unlocked everyone and we're now into spoiler territory which I'd rather not know about. But if you google, you'll see who all you can play as.
posted by Fizz at 6:41 AM on June 14, 2019


the most compelling theory being that this will finally be the game in which Zelda is a playable character...

Wand of Gamelon, Zelda's Adventure, Spirit Tracks, Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros Melee/Brawl/WiiU/3DS/Ultimate
posted by dances with hamsters at 7:01 PM on June 14, 2019


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