Could Breath of the Wild’s Sequel Be The Darkest Zelda Title Yet?

Multiple reports over the last few months have suggested that Nintendo’s forthcoming Breath of the Wild sequel could be one of the series’ darkest titles yet.

The game’s initial teaser was pretty dark already, with Zelda and Link exploring a dark (and definitely cursed) cave, before inadvertently awakening what seemed to be the corpse of a long-dead Ganondorf.

Despite speculation to the contrary, Eiji Aonuma (Director and Producer for the Zelda series), debunked any relation to Majora’s Mask in a 2019 E3 interview with IGN, saying that “The new Breath of the Wild or the sequel to it, it’s not necessarily going to be related to Majora’s mask or inspired by it… What we showed you currently is a little darker,”.

Mr. Aonuma also said in that same interview that his “younger” staff on the Zelda team were playing, and inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2. If that’s any hint at which thematic direction this next Zelda could be heading in, then I think we’re in for a real treat.

The latest rumor comes from a 4chan user, so should probably be taken with more than a few grains of salt. Inverse reposted this alleged leak of an all-new video demo for Breath of the Wild’s sequel.

So, not only does this leak address a few “darker” elements of the game, but also implies that Breath of the Wild 2 isn’t even coming this year, but sometime next year alongside a new Switch “Pro” model.

Whatever the case may be, any reported inspirations or influences on Breath of the Wild 2 so far are nothing but exciting. A rumored delay so that BOTW2 could release on Switch Pro would definitely be a bummer, but at this point I’m willing to wait however long it’ll take for what’s sure to be an unbelievable game.