40 Years of Zelda: Is Breath of the Wild followed by… Breath of the Wild?

What will the next great Zelda adventure look like? How will it play? And where will it take place? That’s exactly what we wanted to find out with our major survey for Zelda’s 40th anniversary!

So, what is the community wishing for? Is it finally that experimental space-Zelda with procedurally generated planets in a first-person perspective? One where we level up our spaceship with found items until we can infiltrate a Death Star-like fortress on Ganon’s fire planet? Well… no.

Perfection instead of Revolution

In fact, the vision for the next The Legend of Zelda doesn’t deviate all that much from the most recent titles. What might sound like a boring majority opinion at first glance is, in my eyes, a massive compliment to Nintendo. The results prove that the Zelda formula has been modernized and refined for so long that it now simply feels perfect. Whether it’s a top-down view or a 3D third-person perspective, linear "on rails" or with all the freedom of an open world: at its core, almost every The Legend of Zelda just feels like Zelda. And that’s not to change!

The vast majority wants the familiar 3D third-person perspective in an open world. You play as Link and fight against Ganondorf. The classic hunt for items paired with various puzzles shouldn't change either, though there is a strong desire to see traditional large dungeons (Forest, Fire, and Water Temples) return to the spotlight. And for reasons beyond my comprehension, crafting is expected to play a major role once again. So, it's basically Breath of the Wild 3, if you will.

Oddly enough: Postman beats Epona

Yet, there were small surprises that are hard to capture within the limited space of a readable chart. For instance, the community would rather run through Hyrule as the nameless postman than ride Link’s loyal steed, Epona! Furthermore, most would only give up Ganon as the main antagonist if it turns out that Ganon was actually behind the whole evil plot anyway. Less surprising, but still worth mentioning: absolutely no one can make heads or tails of that messy timeline…

You can find all the results in the graphics below. Enjoy!