The teaser trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's sequel promised a significantly darker tone than its predecessor. Breath of the Wild 2 looks to follow the Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask formula, but like those games, the sequel's more overt themes risk losing the subtle sadness that made the first game's world so compelling.
In Breath of the Wild, Hyrule is an only partially healed wound. Hylian ruins are everywhere, wrapped in the time-given bandages of overgrown plant life but still a visible reminder of what the kingdom lost to Ganon 100 years back. While pockets of community do exist, there's a feeling of acceptance that the world is lost to the monsters: Kakariko Village sits happily in its tranquil valley, but its mountain walls are the end. Besides the building of Tarrey Town, civilization makes little effort to expand into the wilds. Even the stables that dot the landscape are less frontier footholds than pragmatic shelters from the world's antagonistic weather.
As Link, players wander Hyrule alone. It's dangerous and lonely work, and despite the world's beauty and relative tranquility, a constant, gnawing melancholy persists. After all, while Link is heralded as the hero, he can't save the world. It's already ended. Physical locations trigger memories in Link of places and people long gone, only for him to be pulled back to a ruined present. All he can do now is prevent Ganon from swallowing up what's left.
This deep deep sadness at the death of the world Link once knew permeates what otherwise appears to be a game full of hope and wonder. What Nintendo has shown so far of Breath of the Wild 2 brings the first game's dark undertones to the forefront, with distorted music, an undead, returning Ganondorf, and actual darkness throughout. It's promising to see the series return to bold, horror-like imagery again, but it also likely means Breath of the Wild's incredible tone won't be replicated.
Perhaps, though, this is the inevitable result of a Breath of the Wild sequel. The first game's tone came from a story rooted firmly in ing and attempting to restore a forgotten past, as well as crushing the evil which took that past away. With Zelda returned and Ganon vanquished, Nintendo has little choice but to make Breath of the Wild 2 more present-focused. The first game's epilogue mentions rebuilding civilization, and one popular Breath of the Wild 2 time-travel theory even suggests Link and Zelda could return to pre-Calamity Hyrule, literally making that past present again. If so, Breath of the Wild's unique take on post-apocalypse will remain as much a treasured past as its ruined Kingdom of Hyrule.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 does not yet have a release date.
