One of Nintendo's biggest surprises at E3 2019 was the reveal of a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is coming to Nintendo Switch. Zelda games don't often get direct sequels like this, and BotW has already received some substantial downloadable content, so why not continue to expand the game with additional DLC? Now, series producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed some new insight into why Nintendo is making a standalone Breath of the Wild sequel.
Speaking to Kotaku, Aonuma said the development team had "too many ideas" for new DLC for the original Breath of the Wild, so the studio elected to make a sequel.
"When we released the DLC for Breath of the Wild, we realized that this is a great way to add more elements to the same world. But when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data--you're adding data to a preexisting title," Aonuma added. "And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit.
"Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas, but then we had a lot of ideas and we said, 'This is too many ideas, let's just make one new game and start from scratch.'"
The full interview touches on a number of other interesting subjects, including how overtime and crunch is handled on the Zelda development team. Read the full interview at Kotaku.
Aonuma isn't the only returning member of the Breath of the Wild development team, as game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is also back in that role. Nintendo has also said the developers were inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2.
Earlier, Aonuma spoke to Game Informer about why the team wanted to make Breath of the Wild 2.
"One of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story," Aonuma said.
In addition to Aonuma, Breath of the Wild game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi will serve as the director on the Breath of the Wild sequel.
A lot of the details on the Breath of the Wild sequel are being kept under wraps for now, but the first teaser trailer gave us a lot to think about. Check out GameSpot's breakdown of the Breath of the Wild sequel trailer breakdown here to learn more.
