A deep look into the Breath of the Wild Sequel Teaser Trailer
Well gamers, we are nearing the end of this year’s E3 and there is some exciting stuff to look forward to. Each company brought some new titles to the table that look great, some of which have been delayed…*cough cough* Nintendo…but patience is a virtue, right?
Not only did Nintendo put together a nice direct, but they blew all our minds at the end with a teaser for, drum roll please, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! Yes, another Zelda game is in the works and will probably surface sometime within the next 3 years. So while we gingerly wait for its arrival, let’s take some time to dissect the trailer and possibly make some sense of it.
At the end of BOTW, Link goes in to take on Calamity Ganon and ultimately put him away for the last time, or so we thought. After this, we see him join Zelda in Hyrule field as she surveys the land, which is probably way different from the land she knew before she was captured. The game ends on a high note, with players left to assume Link and Zelda have gone to piece together the mysteries of the Sheikah. I would have liked to play in the now peaceful Hyrule, but hey, its traditional of most Zelda games to leave you in a state of constant peril by not offering a final save. For now, let’s rewind a bit to right before Link battles Ganon.
Before I accidentally went to fight Ganon, I spent significant time playing around in Hyrule castle. I say accidentally because, as I was exploring, I came across an enemy and ducked through a doorway, which happened to be the entrance to the boss fight…yeah that was a pleasant surprise. Anyway, this castle holds a pretty expansive underground and the interior is full of cool weapons, cookbooks, ingredients, and a few mementos from when Zelda was still out and about. I’ve learned that with LoZ games no stone can be left unturned, so I try and comb through every room before moving onto the next task. As you move through this castle though, you begin to discover a little of what happened when Calamity Ganon took over. Apparently, everyone knew that eventually, Ganon would return, but his actual arrival took the people of Hyrule by complete surprise, including Zelda, who was already preoccupied with discovering her own hidden power. When Ganon did show up, he was in another form that resembles his appearance in older installments of the series; a boar. Except this time, it’s as if he is in spirit form, sort of flying around the castle in anger. Little did we know, this is the first clue in solving the mystery behind what has happened to Ganon.
As Link enters the boss fight, we are introduced to the Scourge of Hyrule Calamity Ganon, which in my opinion, is a little anticlimactic. Ganon looks like a kind of spider, with the body of a shriveled corpse that crawled out of the crematorium. He wields a variety of weapons, although if I remember correctly he only uses three of them consistently, and overall he is a pretty easy fight. One thing to note here, once this version of Ganon is defeated, he sort of slumps over as dark oozy malice leaks from his body, followed by what appears to be his spirit. Remember this.
Link is then transported to Hyrule Field where he takes on Ganon’s boar form, shooting it with the light arrows Zelda has gifted him. This is common among Ganon fights, where the use of light arrows leads to the demise of Ganon in one way or another. In this particular boss fight, Zelda actually finds her hidden power and hits Ganon with a spectacular gust of light, ending the battle.
This is where we make the transition onto the teaser trailer, which begins with Link and Zelda making their way through an underground cavern.
Within the first 30 seconds of the teaser, we discover that Zelda has cut her hair. This is sort of a big deal, as it shows that this is a new chapter for Zelda, and maybe a new chapter for the series. It seems that Link and Zelda are well into their task of discovering the secrets of Hyrule, and have decided to travel into a cavern beneath the castle, where Ganon initially began his reign of destruction one-hundred years ago. Art appears on the walls of what looks like Ganon atop his horse, and we are shown the ancient ruins of Sheikah technology and possibly the tomb of Ganon. Link and Zelda then stumble upon what looks like Ganon’s corpse, which comes as a surprise. It seems that the corpse is of Ganon’s Gerudo form, as we see the Gerudo symbol on the cloth covering his body. This bodily form never appeared in BOTW, and the area surrounding the corpse looks oddly familiar. With the spiral of glowing light fragments, this grim scene reminds me of the shrine of resurrection. What is even more alarming is the ghost-like arm gripping Ganon’s chest.
Throughout The Legend of Zelda series, Link has had numerous run-ins with characters that have chosen darker paths and caused trouble. In Twilight Princess, we are introduced to the Twilight realm, more specifically Midna, a Twili who forces Link to help her right the wrongs of Zant, a Twili who went searching for power and created a portal for Ganon to enter Hyrule once again. In Breath of the Wild, we have the Yiga Clan, a group of Shiekah who swore loyalty to Ganon and created their own society, vowing to destroy Link and pave the way for the eternal rule of Ganondorf. Now, is it just me, or does the ghost arm clutching Ganon’s chest look like that of a Twili, or Yiga Clan member?
Now, the mirror allowing travel between the Hyrule and the Twilight realm was destroyed (thank you, Midna) but where there’s a will, there’s a way? The Sheikah technology is incredibly advanced, and has created portals between realms plenty of times. We saw this in the stone portal created in Skyward Sword and even Majora’s Mask, where the Sheikah learned to channel dark power through items as harmless as masks. It seems that only members of the Sheikah clan truly know the inner-workings of their ancient technology, wielding it to create powerful machines and devices, like the guardians and Sheikah slate found in BOTW. We have seen this technology resurrect Link, and I wouldn’t underestimate its power to resurrect Ganon, even if it takes one-hundred years.
The teaser runs through a series of scenes showing moments leading up to Ganon awakening for another time. It seems that this ghost arm is gripping Ganon in the same place a majority of his ending blows have landed, in the center of his chest. We also see the same dark malice floating in, around and throughout his body. It seems that his spirit has been running amok while his body cooks underneath, and it appears that this kind of awesome zombie-like corpse is all that is left of Ganon’s body, which makes sense as he has been killed so many times. We didn’t get much of Ganon’s thoughts or personality in BOTW, so I’m hoping that this resurrected version will make up for what BOTW was lacking. The end of the teaser shows Hyrule castle breaking away from the ground and rising. There is a lot of speculation here, and I guess all we can do for now is wait. I am excited that Nintendo has decided to continue this story, and hoping this sequel delivers a deeper, darker storyline that will allow the series to evolve and continue with plenty of momentum.
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