Nintendo has announced that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will now be launching in Spring 2023. This delay hurts, but it isn’t entirely unexpected. Link’s upcoming adventure will not only see us revisit the original game’s vision of Hyrule in an evolved form, but also feature an entirely new world set amidst the sky. The game is clearly going to be ambitious, and thus Nintendo is taking the extra time it needs to get it right.
The delay was decidedly understated, confirmed during a small video that saw major members of the creative team breaking the news alongside a selection of gameplay clips both old and new. While the casual viewer won’t find anything worthwhile in this video beyond the new release window, a good little gamer like me is already infatuated by the extended glimpse of Link provided towards the announcement’s end. While it might seem like a tiny scene featuring him and a broken Master Sword, there is much more to it.
Link - or perhaps another character entirely - is seen facing an orb of golden light before turning to the camera and pulling the Master Sword from his back. Except now the once legendary weapon is broken, its sharp blade covered in some form of unknown corruption. Slithers of light still burst forth from some of it, hinting that not all of its power has been lost during whatever cruel fate befell Link and his legendary arsenal.
The mixture of black and green upon it looks similar to the corruption that plagues Link’s upper body, and maybe what led to his arm becoming replaced by a mechanical approximation of what his limb used to be. Breath of the Wild 2’s very first trailer saw Link and Zelda venturing beneath Hyrule Castle to investigate a mysterious threat only to stumble upon the awaiting corpse of Calamity Ganon. The once legendary figure has been reduced to a lowly husk, but still has unimaginable power running through his veins.
While the sequence of events aren’t exactly clear, it appears that Link investigates the corpse and has his arm infested with the aforementioned corruption, likely causing it to morph into the practical alternative we see in trailers today. Others believe this to be another character entirely, such as a humanoid version of Ganon or past version of Link, who we will take control of during the skyward segments, while our tried-and-true Hero of Time remains on the ground. This would explain airborne Link’s new array of powers, and why his face was strategically hidden in previous trailers released before this one. It feels deliberate, so much so that I think these are two distinct characters with an intertwining story, or at least come from two independent parts of the game that will be explored in solitude.
It’s either that, or whatever Link encountered beneath Hyrule Castle has begun to infect his body, starting at his hand and slowly rising up towards his upper arm and torso, the black markings upon his chest hinting at exactly where the infection will take hold next. This would explain the powers, and a pilgrimage to the sky in order to uncover a cure of sorts. Like I said before, this new footage doesn’t reveal much, but reading between the lines provides a glimpse at what exactly Link is hunting for, and the effect this newfound infection is having. The golden orb of light could be similar to a Shrine or Sheikah Tower, housing a power that will either reduce the infection’s plight or repair the Master Sword.
Otherwise Link’s arsenal and appearance remains unchanged, meaning we will be controlling the same iteration of his character who must once again rise to challenge and save Hyrule while helping Zelda out of the hole she fell into. I hope she isn’t once again reduced to a damsel in distress, but Nintendo is keeping specific details surrounding Breath of the Wild 2 very close to its chest, meaning that fans will be more than happy to offer up theories and delve into each new morsel of information with everything they have.
The game’s delay might be a bummer, but I love that even the tiniest piece of new footage provides such an abundance of clues as to what Link’s new journey is all about, and the part we will play in bringing it to life in 2023.