Two years after the first reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, a new trailer for the highly anticipated sequel has finally debuted. This action-packed teaser trailer, which debuted as the climax of Nintendo's E3 presentation, features the first glimpses of gameplay, and fans are already dying for more. Though the trailer is only a minute and a half long, the trailer features a ton of new details about how the sequel is setting itself apart from its critically acclaimed predecessor.
One of the first bits of gameplay shown in the brand new Breath of the Wild 2 trailer is of Link diving through the air, which is almost shot-for-shot out of the Skyward Sword playbook. It seems like, through some sort of magic or corruption, floating islands will be a new feature on the Hyrule map. How players will navigate them, or transition from the land of Hyrule below up into the clouds remains to be seen, but there are a few options.
Breath of the Wild 2: Reach For The Sky
Some fans think that there will be some tie in with the new green mystical powers Link can be seen using. Link was seemingly able to float up and through an island using these powers, so perhaps there are areas beneath the floating islands that will allow Link to fly upwards.
One other theory could be that players will see the return of the Loftwings from Skyward Sword. These beautiful birds were the main form of transportation in Skyward Sword, and players will get very familiar with them if they are picking up the Skyward Sword HD remaster later this year. Maybe there are some sort of large birds Link can ride. Perhaps players could sneak up and tame them while they are on land, much like players did with horses in Breath of the Wild.
It would be a great callback to Skyward Sword, and a very fitting one at that considering the release of the HD remaster this year. While there are mixed feelings about Skyward Sword as a whole, many players loved the design of the Loftwings, and would love to see them make a return in some fashion.
Refined Runes in Breath of the Wild 2
It seems like players aren't quite done with the Sheikah Slate runes quite yet. In the trailer, Link can be seen using a variant of the Stasis ability from Breath of the Wild. Unlike the original Stasis, which simply locked an item in place and allowed Link to hit it back at enemies, it seems that this iteration of Stasis reversed the spiked ball and sent it back along the path traveled — almost like rewinding time itself.
It's also worth noting that it doesn't seem like this power is tied to the Sheikah Slate anymore, but rather that mysterious new gauntlet Link is wearing. He holds out his hand and casts Stasis with nothing but the glove, meaning that the green gauntlet in the trailers may be some new form of Sheikah technology — or something even more curious, like utilizing malice for good.
If Stasis is getting reworked, then perhaps all of the classic runes will be changed as well. Stasis was one of the most-used runs in Breath of the Wild due to how versatile the rune was. The mechanics of it could be exploited to allow for some forms of flight (thanks, speedrunners). It could also be used to break guardians and give them uncomfortably long legs, among other glitches. Magnesis and the Bomb runes were always helpful, especially when finding secrets, but Cryonis was easily the most underused rune due to its situational benefit. Hopefully the new versions of the runs are more impactful — and who knows, maybe there are even some new runes to try.
Creative Enemies and New Combat Mechanics
It seems that Nintendo is shaking things up a little bit with enemy and encounter design this time around. No combat was shown off in the gameplay trailer, but one eye-catching part was when a Bokoblin camp started rising into the air, as it seems the camp was built on top of a Stone Talus. Stone Talus were a bit intimidating at first in Breath of the Wild, but once players got the hang of them, it was quite easy to simply stand on their back and break the crystal by using spin attacks.
Wandering through the map and discovering these enemies and the tricks to beating them was one of the reasons why Breath of the Wild is seen as such a revolutionary title for open-world games. It seems that strategy is going to be a bit harder when there's an entire structure up there now. A slight aside here, it seems that the Bokoblin horns finally grew. They were simply nubs in the first game, but it seems enough time has passed that the existing Bokoblins' horns grew to a much more impressive length. Whether those will be utilized in combat or not remains to be seen, but it's an interesting new design choice at the very least.
One thing we haven't seen yet are Guardians. Currently, it is unknown if after Calamity Ganon's defeat and sealing that the Guardians returned to normal, were destroyed completely, or stayed corrupted. We don't know what exactly is being awakened in the first Breath of the Wild trailer, but many believe it to be some form of Ganon. Malice does seem to be returning in some form, so it's not beyond reason that evil Guardians may return too.
One new entity was seen in the trailer, a giant green snake-like construct. While we don't know for certain that it's an enemy, it could be some new Guardian-like entity that exists on the floating islands. For that, we'll likely have to wait a bit to hammer out the details. However, with it being showcased in the first gameplay trailer, there is a good chance that it will be important in some way.
Creepy Green Magic and a New Arm?
The most mysterious part of the two Breath of the Wild 2 trailers has been this mysterious green energy, and this new gauntlet Link has. A close look at the screenshot above, grabbed from the gameplay trailer, gives a good look at this mysterious new gauntlet. Whether it's a prosthetic or just a piece of equipment is unclear, but in the opening frames of the trailer, malice can be seen attacking Link's right arm — the one that is later seen using Stasis without a Sheikah Slate. It's also the arm shown above.
In other shots from the trailer, it seems like perhaps the malice corrupted Link's arm, turning it more machine-like — perhaps this is just what Link's arm looks like now. Whatever happened to Link's arm, it seems to have given him powers similar to the Sheikah Slate, as well as some strange portal-like ability. In one scene of the trailer, Link can be seen phasing through one of the floating islands, so perhaps this new arm may be Link's ticket to exploring the vast skies above Hyrule. Only time will tell what secrets (and dangers) this new arm will bring to Link.
While it's still a bit too early to tell, just from the few new gameplay clips we've seen, it seems like Nintendo is trying to shake up gameplay in Breath of the Wild 2, perhaps much more than fans were anticipating. While the trailer didn't bring good omens for those hoping to have Zelda as a playable character, it seems like Link will be getting plenty of new toys to play around with in his new adventure in and above Hyrule when the game launches next year. While the sequel is still a ways off, hopefully Nintendo will continue to share new trailers and clips to keep fans hyped up for this highly anticipated sequel.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will release in 2022 for Nintendo Switch.