Nintendo has kept many details under wraps about the upcoming sequel to its award-winning game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Since the release of the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer at last year’s E3, however, fans have noticed some similarities hinted between Link’s next big outing and one of the most beloved games in the Zelda franchise, Majora’s Mask.
While the grim visage of the Happy Mask Salesman is nowhere to be seen, the trailer has a more sinister tone than most Zelda games, with Link and Zelda exploring the depths of Hyrule Castle when they discover what appears to be the corpse of Ganondorf, before his reanimated head suddenly turns and his eyes light up. Breath of the Wild 2 is shaping up to resemble Majora’s Mask in at least one key way – it is likely going to be darker.
The Link Between BOTW and Majora's Mask
The original Breath of the Wild did not shy away from its own moments of light horror. From exploring the spooky Lost Woods to the frankly terrifying horse god Malanya that any player attempting to revive a dead mount has the pleasure of visiting, the series has never been above dipping its toes in the macabre and skittishly surreal, and those aren’t even in the top 5 creepiest moments in the Zelda franchise.
With Majora’s Mask directly following the events of Ocarina of Time – a rarity in the timeline of the Legend of Zelda games – Breath of the Wild 2 wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo has taken Link down a darker path with a direct sequel. In Majora’s Mask, many of the people players can meet in Termina are versions of people they can find in Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule, with Termina acting as a twisted mirror-image of the prior game’s setting.
Breath of the Wild 2 is confirmed to be using the same game world as the first game, but it is likely significant changes to the Breath of the Wild map will be made in order to make the game feel like a true sequel, meaning the Hyrule we explore in the sequel will likely have many eerie difference as players see the longer term consequences of Link’s actions in the first game.
How Hyrule does Horror
The true horror of Majora’s Mask, however, did not come solely from the places players could visit, but the conceit of the game itself – Termina is trapped in a time loop three days before its destruction, with the game playing out one of the more cerebral and terrifying implications of a world where incredibly powerful artifacts like the ocarina exist.
There are already indications in the trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 that the new game will also explore Link’s strange relationship with time in some sense, with the music in the teaser trailer clearly being audio played backwards, perhaps indicating that whatever forces are at play to bring Ganon back to life are doing so using a similar kind of magic.
In any case, the teaser makes it likely that, like Majora’s Mask to Ocarina of Time, the sequel to Breath of the Wild will play out some of the darker implications of the Hyrule. Hyrule as presented to us in the original Breath of the Wild is one that, like Termina, seems to be under the constant cyclical threat of apocalyptic annihilation, albeit on a far larger timescale.
Indeed, with Zelda herself seemingly featuring more heavily in the upcoming game, with some fans hoping Zelda may even be a playable character, it is possible that Breath of the Wild 2 will explore the strange cyclical dynamic that Link, Zelda, and Ganon find themselves in throughout the series, the lack of lasting peace that any version of Link is able to bring to the land, and the relentless impermanence of Ganon's defeats.
Ganondorf's Return
The horror in the trailer is focused on what appears to be the mummified corpse of Ganondorf judging by its general appearance and the Gerudo symbol on its necklace. Ganondorf does not appear in his Gerudo form at all during Breath of the Wild, and by focusing on his corpse Nintendo gives the impression that, like Skull Kid, Ganondorf may have become a vessel for forces far beyond his control.
The real agent in the teaser appears to be the red and black twisting tendrils of Malice itself, which are already moving through the castle long before the reanimation of the corpse. It is possible that we will see some exploration of the tragic side of Ganondorf, at this point quite possibly a corpse literally animated by malice, rather than in control of it. It would certainly be a far cry from the bestial Calamity Ganon.
The potential parallels don’t end there either. Hyrule Castle seems at the verge of taking off at the end of the teaser, which would hugely change the map for the next Breath of the Wild game and hints at the potential for a looming villainous presence in the sky over Hyrule resembling the role of the moon over Termina in Majora’s Mask, though without the iconic face.
For now, this remains speculation, but franchise producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed in an interview about Breath of the Wild 2 that the sequel was likely to be “a little darker” than Majora’s Mask. With Majora’s Mask considered by many to be the darkest entry to the Zelda franchise, this could mean Zelda fans have a lot in store of them.
While Aonuma also claims that the sequel may not even be inspired by Majora’s Mask, the fact that the development team members are fans of the games makes it seems highly unlikely that some influence will not seep in, especially when Majora’s Mask is the main reference when considering the unique way that the best games in the Legend of Zelda franchise have told dark stories in the past.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is in development for the Nintendo Switch.