Dawn of a New Year – 2022

We have entered the promised year 2022, where Nintendo finally wants to release the long-awaited sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Of course we cannot be 100% sure of that, where originally Breath of the Wild was also said to release in 2016, but then came out in March 2017. Something similar could happen again and even if it releases in 2022, it's probably going to be late 2022, like October or November, or else Nintendo would have probably shown us more about the game already.

Right now it looks like they are going to tell us all about the sequel during E3 2022 in June, but we might get another trailer during an early year Nintendo Direct just to pass the time and to keep the internet speculating. A patent from last year has revealed that the mechanic of going through a ceiling could be literally ground-breaking and do for this game what the free climbing and paragliding has done for Breath of the Wild, so it will be interesting to see this in action.

And 2022 will be an exciting year for this title alone, where it doesn't really need more than that. Still, Nintendo could release some other things to keep Zelda fans entertained in the meantime and this wouldn't be Hyrule Blog without some ideas:

• More DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
• The Wind Waker HD / Twilight Princess HD ports
  
• Zelda villagers and items for Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  

As for Age of Calamity, its Expansion Pass is done and gone, but they could still make a second one or do some updates with free DLC. And there are still some gaps to fill, where they would have the chance to make this special Warriors title truly complete. And from the prequel they would move on right to the sequel, where there could even do some special collaboration here, like unique armor pieces that become available when you own the other game.

With porting The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD over to the Nintendo Switch they could make all 3D Zelda games playable on the system, where this would be the perfect way to pass some time until the next big 3D Zelda game arrives. Ideally, they would put both titles on the same cartridge as a small collection, maybe even add Link's Crossbow Training to it, but you never know with Nintendo. Of course it's entirely possible that they might save these games for later, so don't hold your breath here.

Last but not least, there is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which got its extensive 2.0 update last November. Yes, Nintendo has said that this will be the "last major update", but technically it was also the first major update, where some smaller content updates could still follow. In March 2020 the game received an update with Super Mario items, where the same could happen with Zelda this Spring or later down the road. And it would be very nice to get those Zelda villagers from New Leaf back, as well as all the special items.

Meanwhile Nintendo and GREZZO might already be making the next topdown Zelda installment, following Link's Awakening from 2019, which could be remakes of the Oracle games, a new multiplayer title, or something else entirely. But GREZZO has been working in a four-year cycle for Zelda and also on one of their own projects, while Nintendo certainly wouldn't want this to steal any attention from the sequel to Breath of the Wild, so don't expect any news here in 2022. This is more likely to happen in 2023 or even beyond, after all the dust has settled.

In any case, 2022 won't be a boring year for Zelda fans, quite the opposite. We really can look forward to the sequel to Breath of the Wild right now and might receive some other goodies on the way.