Breath of the Wild 2: The Underground World Expansion?

In various interviews around and after E3, series producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed that the development of the sequel to Breath of the Wild ("Breath of the Wild 2") started as DLC ideas, where he wants to revisit that Hyrule again. And judging from the E3 trailer it seems like they are going to place this game in the same Hyrule again, but with an underground world to explore instead of the Sheikah Shrines and Towers.

Of course it is still too early to tell, since the game could offer so much more, but for the sake of this article we will assume that Breath of the Wild 2 mainly will be an expansion of the world of Breath of the Wild, where you explore Hyrule's underground.

This would be a risky move, because Breath of the Wild owes a huge part of its success to its completely open and wondrous overworld, which you can explore as you please and without limits (the Great Plateau tutorial section aside). You climb and glide everywhere and this makes the game so fun that it's a must buy for every Switch owner.

And the success shows: it's the best selling Zelda game of all time with over 14 million copies sold by end of March 2019 - probably some more by now. It's the first Zelda game to break the 10 million mark and it keeps selling.

But... a sequel will have a hard time replicating this success if it re-uses the same world to do something different with it. Even if this expansion will be massive, it won't be able to carry the same sense of discovery and wonder that Breath of the Wild first had. Most people, who bought the first game, still won't have done everything there is already – they are probably still in the middle of exploring, searching for Shrines, hunting Koroks and so on. Or they were exhausted by it and stopped playing.

The main selling point of Breath of the Wild was its world and that's right there on the package. To many people the sequel won't have any real value if it just comes with the same world again. Why buy something that you already have? For some new caves?

A game that takes the same world, but changes it in many ways, will mostly be interesting to the people who have completed Breath of the Wild and can't get enough of it. But even then, getting a completely new world would probably be more exciting than re-exploring the same world to discover the differences and a new underground world below it.

In addition, Breath of the Wild looks best when you're out in the open. The engine of the game really was made for beautiful, open landscapes. It wasn't, however, exactly made for caves and dungeons, where for example the underground sections of Hyrule Castle can look somewhat dull...

So, here a lot of work would be necessary to make the underground sections look appealing, but it still won't have the same appeal as a beautiful new landscape. As already said, the main selling point of Breath of the Wild is on its package and the underground cave expansion sequel won't have that... It will have dark caves instead.

That being said, it still could be an interesting idea to add an entire massive underground world to the Hyrule as we know it from Breath of the Wild. It could be one massive maze, where you make progress by finding different entrances on the overworld. It could be similar to the Skeleton Forest & Skull Woods from A Link to the Past, but on the scale of the entire Breath of the Wild game world. This would allow for a much more classic, maybe even "Metroidvania"-style progress, while maintaining the freedom in the overworld of the predecessor.

At the same time it's also possible that they will expand the overworld itself. Instead of being stopped by an invisible wall in the middle of the ocean or the desert, you could now travel even further and explore new lands beyond the familiar Hyrule of Breath of the Wild... Maybe you can even use the underground to travel to entirely new places.

This is all yet unknown and there are lots of possibilities to make the sequel very amazing, but from what Aonuma has given us so far, there are reasons to be concerned if the sequel can really live up to the success of Breath of the Wild under these conditions.

Nintendo Switch Lite Announced

Nintendo just announced the "Nintendo Switch Lite". You can watch the presentation on Youtube.

It's a solid handheld, has a D-Pad, offers a longer battery life and costs exactly 100$ less than the Nintendo Switch currently. It also will be released September 20th, same day as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. This heavily smells like a bundle and I won't be surprised, if they offer a special golden Zelda Edition here... Which would be a slap in the face for me, since I have been waiting for such a bundle for over two years now and this isn't exactly what I was hoping for.

Overall the Nintendo Switch Lite looks like an interesting deal and it's certainly a smart move by Nintendo to do this, however, it has one major downside: you cannot connect it to a TV, even if you buy a dock separately. If you could, I would gladly get one in a Zelda design...

It's also possible that Link's Awakening is getting such a bundle in a different form, so not necessarily a gold Zelda Edition console. It could be a Nintendo Switch Lite that looks like a GameBoy for example. This would be awesome, but not necessarily something I'd purchase.

Well, for the real deal I will probably have to keep waiting until the next game, either Skyward Sword HD or Breath of the Wild 2, and a potential New Nintendo Switch / Switch Pro / Switch Plus. Rumors for the latter always went hand in hand with the Nintendo Switch Lite, so you should expect an improved Switch model in the next years.

Link's Awakening Remake: Shadow Link Footage

I hadn't seen this until earlier this week, but apparently Nintendo of Japan showed us the Shadow Link, which can be spawned via the new Link amiibo inside a Chamber Dungeon, in a video. You can find it here.

It reminds me a lot of the Cosmic Mario from the Super Mario Galaxy Prankster Comets. And that's not really a good thing, because both the behavior and the music are annoying. It's still nice to see that Shadow Link made it back, where it's probably the same AI that was used for both A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. After all this remake seems to be borrowing quite a lot from the Nintendo 3DS Zelda games, but while they were at it, they also could have borrowed some of the amazing music from the Shadow Link battles.

I'm not entirely sure, how using the amiibo in a Chamber Dungeon works. In the Treehouse Live stream they made it sound like you can add the Shadow Link on a specific chamber, so you could potentially use one of these "plus effects" per chamber in your dungeon.

It will be interesting to see, what different effects all the Zelda amiibo will have. I could imagine that one of the Zeldas or maybe all of them will add flying Hearts or even a Fairy to your chamber. Archer Link and Revali could add flying arrows. And the Guardian could add maybe a Beamos to the chamber. But those are all really cheap ideas, where the final product will hopefully be somewhat more interesting...

Link's Awakening Remake: New Map Features and Secret Seashells

Next to the Trendy Game, the newest video from GameXplain also shows off some of the new map features. You could already see them partially at E3, but here you get a nice look at them.

You can replay conversations with the Owl (much like the original game's map could), but also with Marin, which is new. And it marks your found Pieces of Hearts and Secret Seashells on the map, which is certainly useful.

However, as a completionist this also makes me wonder, how the Secret Seashells are going to work in this version. I'm already suspecting that the two extra Secret Seashells from the Seashell Mansion will be gone and replaced with something else, like one of the new Pieces of Heart. Unlike the extra shells, those prizes then could be gotten at any time, so you wouldn't have to rush to the Seashell Mansion, just because you have exactly five Secret Seashells after the 2nd dungeon already.

But in the original you only needed 20 of 26 Secret Seashells for the reward. And then the other six seashells would simply be gone or replaced by 20 Rupees. But would they then be missing from your map? I would hate that, because for completion I also want all Secret Seashell marked on the map, of course. But in this case you would have to wait until you get the Flying Rooster to reclaim the reward, while you could get it two dungeons earlier.

Ideally, there wouldn't any missable seashells any longer and they would all be useful. For the one at Kanalet Castle you should always be able to borrow the Flying Roster again. And they could also add more Secret Seashells in various places for a total of 30, where there is a new, additional prize for the 30.

The prizes could go like the following:

• 10 Secret Seashells: Piece of Heart
• 20 Secret Seashells: "Master Sword"
• 30 Secret Seashells: Great Spin (Attack)

Kudos to Lankelink for suggesting that they should add an upgrade to the Spin Attack here. It makes a lot of sense. Oh, and I called the Seashell Sword "Master Sword" here, because I wouldn't be surprised if you just get that in the remake, because it needs to be the Hylian Shield and Master Sword in every Zelda game now...

Link's Awakening Remake: New Trendy Game Prizes

The newest video from GameXplain shows off some good stuff in Mabe Village, including the Trendy Game, where they get a Yoshi Doll. However, unlike in the Treehouse Live stream, they go back inside afterwards and reveal that the prizes have changed:

There's now a figurine of YipYip here, the Chain Chomp pet with the ribbon (now called CiaoCiao). And this is probably where you get the figurines for the stands from, where in this version of Link's Awakening you would have to play the Trendy Game a lot more to complete it.

There's also a new Piece of Heart there and with the new physics it might be difficult to cheese this game in order to get many Rupees early on. The initial Purple Rupee even gets replaced by the figurine, while a Red Rupee takes the place of the Yoshi Doll. But with the 10 Rupee fee you would only earn 10 Rupees from it.

Of course it also could be that this isn't the only source for those figurines. For example the Shop seems to have to extra slots, which weren't there in the original:

There are signs on them, probably indicating that something will go there in the future... And it would make sense, if those were figurines as well. The Chamber Dungeon could also be a source for getting these figurines.

But then there's the question, how you would store them in your inventory...? Maybe they have their own sub menu or maybe you can only get one at a time, where you'd have to place it on its stand before you can get the next one. Or maybe they don't appear in your inventory at all...

Link's Awakening Remake: New Warp Holes?

The original Link's Awakening certainly wasn't the most convenient Zelda game when it came to teleportation. There is Manbo's Mambo, which can teleport you to Manbo's Pond and the entrance of any dungeon. And there a four Warp Holes, where only three of them are really useful for a majority of the game...

These Warp Holes will be back in the remake, where you can spot one in the screenshot above. They look a little bit different from before, where they seem to be some sort of monument now, without any real hole visible. Maybe they will activate, once you get close to them, because according the Mabe Village Library they apparently work exactly the same as they used to (during E3 I saw someone check all books in the library, but I can't find that video anymore, sorry).

However, it's entirely possible that they've added one or more new Warp Holes to Koholint for convenience. And a video by GameXplain you can actually spot an area, which was changed when compared to the original. It's the quadrant north of the House by the Bay:

In the original there are only trees there, blocking you from getting to the secret Mad Batter close by. But they've added an elevated area with stairs, where there's no visible purpose to this change. But what if they've added a Warp Hole right there?

This would be really useful for the quests, where you meet Marin at the beach and where you have to bring the Ghost back to the House by the Bay. In both cases you have to get to this area, but there is no quick route to and from this place.

Another nice place would be a Warp Hole at the Seashell Mansion, because there is no quick way of getting into this area either, as well as a Warp Hole up in the east half of the Tal Tal Mountain Range, maybe next to the Hen House. Of course there is already one in the Tal Tal Heights, but this doesn't help getting back up the mountains as much. And you have to get up there multiple times during the game, where a shortcut would be appreciated.

Link's Awakening Remake: New Piece(s) of Heart Spotted!

GameXplain has released a new gameplay recording from the E3 demo of Link's Awakening. In there they've managed to go past the Tail Cave to show a little of what's beyond the Mysterious Woods.

There they take a look inside Mr. Write's home and Dampé's Shack, where the latter isn't ready to arrange the Chamber Dungeon just yet. But they also go to the small ledge at the foot of the Tal Tal Mountain Range just north of Mr. Write's home to listen to the incredible music of the mountains.

This has always been a special spot, because it let's you take a sneak peak into the final area of the game very early on. You won't get up there until you're on your way to the final dungeon, where it all comes back full circle. It's a special feeling, once you finally arrive on the upper end.

But as you can see in the screenshot above, they've also added another element to this area: a Piece of Heart. It's on the ledge that lets you drop down a little bit more to the east.

This is where you end up, if you go to the western half of the mountains without the Mirror Shield and that's a nice consolation price. You can go there as soon as you get the Hookshot, where now you will be able to find a total of two Pieces of Heart there, where an early tour might be actually worth the trouble.

However, there is another Piece of Heart visible in the footage, which wasn't as easy to spot before. It's south of the Dampé's Shack in the northeast corner of the Tabahl Wasteland:

During the Treehouse Live footage you could already get a glimpse of it, but this fully confirms that there is indeed another Piece of Heart there. And this is an excellent spot as well, because this used to be an otherwise empty area.

Though, with this addition you can quickly get two Pieces of Heart in a row here, unless they somehow changed up the area and walled it off with boulders or even trees. From the footage it seems like there are many more of these skeleton trees than there used to be. Maybe you need the Power Bracelet to even enter the area. You also can't get to the east of the Witch's Hut now without the Power Bracelet, so they might have changed this.

Anyway, with that we already know of three additional Pieces of Hearts (the third one is in the Trendy Game), where there is also lots of potential in other places... Here are some ideas:

• Additional reward in the Seashell Mansion.
• As reward(s) in the Chamber Dungeon.
• New seaside fishing minigame.
• Somewhere on the Rapids Ride.
• From the hidden Zora in Animal Village.
• From a new cameo character in Animal Village (e.g. Isabelle from Animal Crossing).
• Sunken somewhere around Martha's Bay, if you now can spot sunken Heart Pieces.
• In the cave north of Mr. Write's house. The original version only had Rupees there.
• Somewhere in the east half of the Tal Tal Mountain Range.
• Sold later in the Shop.

We are already looking at three additional Heart Containers with these suggestions. Three more to go... Though, it's reasonable to assume that we'll also get full Heart Containers in certain spots, e.g. from the boss in the Color Dungeon or clearing a boss challenge in the Chamber Dungeon.