The producer of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom took part in an interview in which he made a surprising statement. It could be a symbol of a big change for the rest of the license.
The success of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is well established. In a month and a half, it had managed to sell more than 20 million units worldwide. Right now, we’re in the middle of the Christmas holiday season, and it goes without saying that the game will surely find itself under many Christmas trees. Given such popularity, what can we expect for the future of the license? Well, obviously, there is a huge potential change in terms of the playable character.
After Link, place for Zelda?
Even though her name is on the cover, in truth, we don’t play Princess Zelda in Tears of the Kingdom. We find the same pattern in most of the games in the series, with a few exceptions like Spirit Tracks or Hyrule Warriors. However, it was not in the way some people expected. But then, will she end up taking center stage in a new iteration of the franchise? This is what our colleagues at IGN asked Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the latest opus. This is what he responded:
Yes, it’s interesting when you think about the name of the series, The Legend of Zelda, when Link is still the main character. And Link has been the main character, and Zelda has always been involved, and they have a relationship and their own rules in each of the games. But it’s true, I think there’s always room to think about those kinds of things and Zelda’s role. And there might be the possibility of doing something like that in the future.
Eiji Aonuma
He also ended up adding “ Maybe maybe “. Well, it’s not a clear answer, and we see that he doesn’t really know more than us (or that he doesn’t tell us everything). However, he seems open to the possibility of making Zelda playable in one of the upcoming games in the license. And as always, the community will likely be divided on this choice. This time, we wouldn’t play it like in Hyrule Warriors for example, or at least that’s what we imagine. Will she be at the heart of a direct sequel to TOTK? The answer is no, because there won’t be any.
No sequel to Tears of the Kingdom?
Indeed, not long ago, Eiji Aonuma was also questioned by Game Informer about a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, we will have to put an end to the idea. A new Zelda game will see the light of day, and it could bring big changes to the formula. According to rumors, we could be dealing with a new era, or even a different temporality.
Laughs) Well… it would be a sequel to a sequel, which would be kind of crazy when you think about it. As I’ve said in the past, with Zelda Tears of the Kingdom our goal was to build on the world we created with Breath of the Wild. And we really wanted to exploit all the possibilities offered in this world. It is something of an apotheosis. From the final form of this version of The Legend of Zelda. So in this case, I don’t think we’ll do a direct sequel to the world we created.
Eiji Aonuma
If you’ve been following the Zelda news closely, this won’t come as a big surprise. Producer and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently made similar comments. You shouldn’t expect DLC or an expansion either, since Nintendo has moved on. “We don’t plan on releasing any additional content this time around, because we feel like we’ve done everything we can with the world of this game and the way it plays.”.