“The Legend of Zelda” is a Nintendo video game series that many have played or grown up with, whether that be with the original 1986 game with the same title or some of the later ones such as  “A Link Between Worlds” from the year 2013 or “Skyward Sword” from the year 2011. The more recent game, “Breath of the Wild,” brought many new fans to the franchise due to its uniqueness from the rest of the series games. Now that “Breath of the Wild 2″ has been announced, the series’ fan base is as big as ever and anticipation for more content is becoming more and more intense.

As the prequel to “Breath of the Wild 2,” the original 2017 game, “Breath of the Wild,” was released alongside the first Nintendo Switch console and did incredibly well, selling over 25 million copies and becoming the most successful Zelda game yet. The game broke many traditions repeated by the series’ previous installments, which now features an open-world format that lets the player go virtually anywhere in the world instead of following the main plot. 

While some were disappointed at the lack of Zelda’s traditional puzzle-solving format presented in the game, fans generally loved the game and obsessed over discovering every last quest, location and secret it contained.

Devyn Gougeon, a freshman at Sage Creek High School and a fan of the original “Breath of the Wild” talks about her experience playing the game.

“For me, the graphics [are what left the most lasting impression],” Gougeon said. “The colors, character designs and little details such as the grass swaying when it’s windy or the fire flickering added so much more to the game.”

Considering fans’ responses to the original game, the 2019 teaser for “Breath of the Wild 2″ quickly became one of the most anticipated Nintendo video games yet. The trailer depicts Link and Zelda venturing through some kind of ruin, only to discover a mummified form of Ganon, the recurring antagonist of the Zelda series. This led to fan theories and their speculation on many possible aspects of the game, such as Zelda or Ganon becoming playable characters.

Sage Creek senior and Zelda fan Owen Bartel discusses things he’s excited to see in the upcoming game.

“I’m interested to see how [Breath of the Wild 2] expands on the original game,” Bartel said. “I heard the map is based on the first game’s map, so I’d like to see what changes they make.”

Around June 2021, a second trailer with much more information was released during Nintendo’s E3 2021 Direct and hinted at different features that could be implemented into the game, like being able to phase through walls or change objects’ path of motion. Within the trailer, the game was said to be released in late 2022. 

However, the game was recently delayed to 2023, as the creators wanted more time to work on it.

“I think the game’s delay just means they’re going to put more work into it and make it better than what it would have been if it hadn’t been delayed,” Gougeon said. “They should have more time to get everything right for the release.”

All things considered, the game is most certainly worth looking forward to when it comes out, even if that might be a while from now. The creators are clearly putting a lot of effort into it, making it as enjoyable as possible, so it’s safe to keep our hopes up while waiting. In the meantime, it might not be a bad idea to play or revisit one of the older games again!