It's not hard to imagine that Nintendo has been content with the reaction to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild so far. The title has amassed the most perfect scores for a video game in Metacritic history, earning its place amongst some as one of the greatest games ever made. This is quite an accomplishment, so it doesn't come as a massive surprise to hear that the director behind the entire series, Eiji Aonuma, believes that the future of Zelda will likely stick to its newfound "open-air" design.

This information sprouted up during a recent interview with Famitsu magazine, where Aonuma was asked whether or not the massive changeup to the tried and true Zelda formula found in the latest iteration would carry over to a proposed Breath of the Wild successor. According to the famed Nintendo dev, he believes that gamers have been given a glimpse at the foreseeable future of the franchise through the BotW.

The rough translation of Aonuma's response can be found below:

"I think that, in the future, open air games will be the standard for Zelda."

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Ultimately the future of the Zelda will likely come down to the platform it's releasing on. For example, a new entry on the Nintendo 3DS and/or mobile would have to take a different approach out of necessity. Of course, with the Switch now eyeing up home and portable gaming audiences, it appears that any new, core title will simply build upon the now proven formula featured within Breath of the Wild – albeit it modified to fit the needs of the narrative and setting. A great example of this is demonstrated though the emergence of in-development images of The Legend of Zelda featuring motorcycles and aliens, which showcase how things can still change drastically even though the formula may not.

For now, perhaps the upcoming batches of DLC for Breath of the Wild will showcase how Aonuma and his team can further innovate within the world.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently available on Nintendo Switch and Wii U.

Source: Famitsu (via GoNintendo)