168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Th⭕e Legend of Ze🌠lda: Breath of the Wild truly was a breath of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fresh air for the open-world genre when it came out. And, with a 97 on Metacritic, seems l♓ike everyone else felt similarly. Then, during E3 2019, Nintendo slapped down a sequel announcement that had us all floored.
It was a frankly disturbing trailer in the best of ways. 🌼But, not much actual information about the game was unveiled, so we got out our analytical goggles to take a 📖deeper look.
Updated on July 3, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: It’s been almost two years since this list first came out, but in all that time there hasn’t been a whole lot of news on Breath of the Wild 2's development, until now. During Nintendo’s E3 2021 press conference, the staff behind the game basically gave fans a little “check-in” trailer to let them know that development was still well underway and that the game was coming sometime in 2022. So, let’s comb through this rather short new trailer for the game, and see what other hidden details we can dig up that people might not have noticed.
Disclaimer: For now, we're just going to use Ganondorf as the identifier for the mummy, as that is the most likely answer, but it still isn't 100% confirmed.
Details From The 2021 Trailer
Malice Tendrils Attack Link & The Master Sword
First up in the newest trailer are these two flash-frame moments of Link getting attacked by the tendril-like Malice, which seems much more alive than in the first game. It’s only on scr🔥een for a second, but there’s a lot we could glean from this🔯 still-frame, such as:
- Finger-like tendrils of Malice are climbing up his arm and up the Master Sword as well. This is the same arm that later gets “possessed” by the glowing green arm holding Ganondorf down, so did the green arm possess Link’s to stop the spread of Malice?
- Link is holding Master Sword as well, which is also being covered by the Malice. Maybe that's why he's right-handed in this game when the character is usually a lefty?
- Link’s hood from the first trailer is gone, so they either changed his outfit for this cutscene, or he takes it off between the mummified Ganondorf waking up and his arm getting attacked.
The Floating Islands & What They Mean
After that horrifying intro, the screen fades to black and a white light appears. Very quickly, the light gets bigger and bigger until it covers the whole screen and reve😼als to us that Link is falling from the sky! Granted, he's falling in a way that’s very similar to how he did Skyward Sword. Link falling, his outfit, and the sky islands below him all imply some pretty neat stuff:
- This falling animation is almost one-to-one with the animation in Skyward Sword, th🥃ough th🌳e games themselves couldn't be more different in many ways. Still, that game also takes place (in part) on a bunch of different floating islands. Maybe that implies BOTW2 will have some lore from Skyward Sword in its narrative (such as Demise), or maybe just some similar mechanics.
- Link is wearing a completely different outfit, leading a lot of fans to speculate that the black to white transition was actually a symbol of some sort of “portal” Link went through to get to this new area with the floating islands, either in his same world, in some other world, or far in the past. Though, to be fair, it's not like Link only 🎀had one outfit in ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚthe first game either.
- His outfit is pretty barebones168澳洲幸运5开奖网: and he has no weapons equipped, meaning this might be the tutorial area for the second game, similar to the Plateau from the first one.
Link No Longer Has The Master Sword & Some Of His Other Gear
We briefly mentꦉioned the Master Sword earlier and how it was covered in Malice when Link was attacked at the start of the trailer. Well, after seeing it very briefly in that first instance, the Master Sword is nowhere else in this trailer. Maybe that’s why the Malice actually attacked Link’s arm in the first place, in order to steal the one weapon that could beat it? In any case, Link doesn’t seem to have it anymore, and in the trailer, he’s also missing:
- His glider (he’s using a new one).
- The Sheikah Slate.
- His Champion’s Tunic.
The Automaton In The Sky & Its Power Source
After landing on the sky islands in this trailer, Link ends up having to fight against some weird sort of Golem with a pretty unique design not seen anywhere in the first game. This Golem is obviously very different from the Guardians, as it has not ꧑a speck of the red energy/color anywhere that would imply Malice or Ganon. Instead, we can see by the beam of energy coursing through its “spine” that this Golem is powered by a different power source altogether. Even with how recent this trailer was, there are already a ton of theories about it:
- It could be powered by the same type of energy that the seal on Ganondorf had, since they're both the same color.
- Again, total speculation, but the “earring” things hanging off both sides of the Golem have an upside-down eye shape similar to the Sheikah symbol or even Vaati’s symbol from Four Swords.
- The similarities to the hand sealing Ganondorf also imply that this automaton was created by the same people or person — possibly, because it senses the Malice in Link, and that’s why it attacks him in the first place.
These Gates Each Sky Island Seems To Have
Another thing we noticed all throughout this brief trailer is the unique architecture the buildings and ruins on these floating islands had. They have their ow❀n hieroglyphics, but those haven't been identified or translated yet. Frankly, the architecture, in general, looks a bit like it was inspiꩵred by feudal Japan (another connection to the Sheikah), and most of the islands seen so far have had these Torii Gate-like arches near the end of the landmass. They could be:
- Just simple pieces of architecture that serve no purpose.
- Teleportation gates that connect all the islands.
- Specific spots where Link can use whatever method of movement to get from one island to the next.
- The theorized “portal” Link hops through to go back to his own time, timeline, world, or reality.
That Awesome New Flamethrower Weapon
Next up is a weapon seen only briefly in the recent trailer, but we really needed to talk about🌌 it. During one of the clips where Link is fighting what could potentially be the BOTW variant of a Like-Like🧔 underground, he uses this new flamethrower weapon.
But, if you look close♛ly, the design of this thing looks very similar to the structures or statues depicting the dragons in the first BOTW game. But, more than that:
- Link blocks an attack with this thing, meaning that it’s not just a flamethrower, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:but also an awesome shield.
- The “eyes” of the flamethrower light up for just a second after Link uses it, and they light up with a very similar color to the sealing hand energy (similar to the Golem's power source).
- This looks to be underground, but the carvings on the walls and floor look very similar to the ones on the sky islands, implying they might both be made by the same group of people or person.
No Deku Tree Where It Should Be
Where the heck did the Deku Tree go? 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Or the Korok Forest, for that matter? There are꧙ a couple of moments in the trailer where Link is on the ground or near it, and in those moments we can see the horizon with some similar landmarks, albeit with some differences. But, the Deku Tree is completely missing from wh🎃ere it should be! This isn’t the first time this thing has disappeared or gone away in a Zelda game, but it means that:
- It could’ve died or disappeared in between BOTW 1 and 2.
- This part of BOTW2 takes place in a different time period before it was there or after it was gone.
- The overflowing Malice destroyed it.
- It was lifted into the sky as well.
- Or quite simply, this is a reality that Link is in where the Deku Tree just isn’t in that same spot or doesn’t exist at all.
Link's New Abilities & Where They Come From
Other than the new weapon, this brief look at BOTW2 also showed us one of the new abilities Link can use, which seems to be some sort of "time-reversal." Link uses his power on this spike ball rolling down a hill, it stops, the game turns black and white, and the ball goes back up the hill in the exact reverse path from the way 𝔍it came down. But, there 🎃are a few other key details to pick up here:
- You can see the previous states of the spike ball as “afterimages” (technically "beforeimages"), and it perfectly traces those images as it rolls back up the hill. Meaning that in-game, you’ll likely be able to see the same "afterimages" with whatever you use this power on.
- When Link activates the ability, that golden light isn't coming from a Sheikah Slate, it comes from his now transformed arm. But, even weirder than that, it’s golden light, not the tell-tale green light, meaning this might be a power coming from Link’s part of the Triforce rather than his new magic arm.
- No other object or monster other than the spike ball moves backward during this, meaning Link can likely use this ability like Statis on objects he's standing on to travel across the map in style and possibly skip the entire🃏 narrative once again.
Random Mobs Now Seemingly Work Together
One of the greatest things seen in this trailer is the moment where Link is gliding toward a Bokoblin Camp, and suddenly the whole🥃 camp raises up out of the ground and reveals it is on the back of a Stone Talus. Finally, mobs will work together in this game more than ju🌊st throwing each other around. Also, some other aspects to note:
- This act of a piece of earth “rising” out of the ground is very similar to what happens to Hyrule Castle and to other sky islands, just on a much smaller scale.
- The Bokoblins are actually protecting the Stone Talus’ core, putting up barricades around it so Link can't easily get to it.
- There are spikes on the bottom of the wood platforms, seemingly to limit where Link can climb up.
- This introduces the possibility of mobile enemy camps or camps that move around.
- The Bokoblin's horns are substantially longer now. This could imply a passage of time or just that their creator, Ganondorf, has become more powerful now that he's unsealed.
Phasing Through Terrain With The New Arm
And lastly꧟ for the 2021 trailer, let’s highlight another one of the new gameplay mechanics that was briefly shown: Link literally swimming up through solid ground. This happens at the end, right before the big panning landscape shot, but Link jumps up headfirst into the botto𓃲m of a cliffside, and there a few things that might confuse you about that:
- Link motions like he’s “swimming” or “climbing” while doing this, implying that this power just softens the ground rather than “phasing” Link through it.
- Link’s arm glows and there’s green light while this happens, heavily implying its another ability tied to his new magic arm.
- It’s not clear whether this will be an ability that can only be used at certain points or on certain platforms, or if it's this game's version of the Champion abilities 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:(we'll miss you Urbosa).
- This power doesn’t seem to be “time-based” at all, which might be why it glows green while the reversing power shown earlier glowed gold. Perhaps green = magic hand, gold = Triforce time powers.
