When the Nintendo Switch launch, it did so with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a launch title. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild earned near-universal critical acclaim and is widely considered to be one of the absolute best video games ever made. Its critical success translated into sales success, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild standing tall as one of the best-selling games in the franchise.
Before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched, some fans were skeptical about whether or not the game would be a success. The Legend of Zelda track record is nearly spotless, but Breath of the Wild made some major changes to the established formula. It abandoned the dungeon and progression structure established by previous games in the series, embracing an open world design that offered a completely different experience.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild represented a major shift in the way Nintendo designed Zelda games, and its influence has left a lasting impact on not just the franchise, but the industry at large. There's no denying that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the most innovative Zelda games, and one of the most innovative video games period, but some may be surprised to learn that the foundation for the game was actually laid by the previous entry in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which released six years earlier as an exclusive for the Wii.
Stamina Meter
Nintendo itself recently pointed out some of the similarities between The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild. For the most part, these similarities are found in the two games' gameplay, with Skyward Sword introducing mechanics that would later be adopted by Breath of the Wild. One of the most obvious of these is the stamina meter, which plays a major role in Breath of the Wild.
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the stamina meter is used to govern actions like Link climbing up walls and sprinting. The stamina meter in Breath of the Wild plays a similar role, though it is a much more prominent part of the experience. Since so much of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is about exploration, players have to manage their stamina much more often, having to regularly eat food to keep Link's stamina gauge built up.
Exploration and the stamina meter are a huge part of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but the concept originated in Skyward Sword.
Upgrading Gear
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link is able to upgrade the gear he gets to make it more useful for combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. This is in stark contrast to most games in the series, which have featured static items that do not change once Link has them. This is yet another gameplay mechanic that some Zelda fans may have believed originated in Breath of the Wild, but it was first featured in the series in Skyward Sword.
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Link is able to upgrade gear using various materials that he can find out in the game world. One example of this is the slingshot item. Skyward Sword players can upgrade Link's trusty slingshot (long a mainstay in The Legend of Zelda franchise) to the more-powerful Scattershot if they have the right materials and rupees to get the job done. The process is similar in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so it seems that is yet another idea that carried over from one game to the next.
Sailcoth
A big milestone in the early hours of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is when Link is able to get his sailcloth and safely leave the starting island from the beginning of the game. The sailcloth gliding item was yet another idea that originated in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Like the stamina meter, the sailcloth is a unique addition to traversal in Zelda games, and while Breath of the Wild made it more of a focus, it definitely owes some debt to Skyward Sword.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
One of the reasons why Nintendo recently made these comparisons between The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild is because the former is set to get a remaster on the Nintendo Switch later this year. It was confirmed during the most recent Nintendo Direct presentation that the previously-leaked Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD will launch on the Nintendo Switch this summer. Millions more people played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild than Skyward Sword, so it stands to reason that Nintendo thinks it can convince some Breath of the Wild enthusiasts to give Skyward Sword a shot by showing how the games are similar.
Of course, fans should keep in mind that while there are definitely some similarities between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword, the games are more different than they are the same. Skyward Sword is a more traditional Zelda experience, with standard dungeons to complete and things of that nature, whereas Breath of the Wild is completely open world. It's unclear if Skyward Sword will be able to win over Breath of the Wild fans who never played the original release on the Wii, but it will be interesting to see what happens when it launches for the Switch this summer.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD launches this summer, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.