If you think the setting forTears of the Kingdomlooks a lot like theZeldagame you have been playing for the last six years, you’d be right. TheBreath of the Wildsequel takes place in the same Hyrule as the previous game, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be identical. New and unfamiliar layers have been added to the Hyrule we know and love, a concept that was apparently inspired by Wii Sports Resort.
Tears of the Kingdom’s technical director Takuhiro Dohta revealed the decision to build on an already-existing Hyrule rather than send Link somewhere new came from an unlikely place during a newNintendo interview(thanks,IGN). “When I was working on the programming for Wuhu Island during Wii Sports Resort’s development, I remembered [Shigeru] Miyamoto-san saying that he wanted to ‘turn the actual stages of games into characters’,” Dohta recalls.
RELATED:Tears Of The Kingdom Should Include Hero’s Path From The Beginning
“What he meant by that was to create one island and use that as a base to add various kinds of gameplay in different games… I’d been wanting to try this idea with other titles, and I supposed this game would leverage that kind of approach.” Much like Wii Sports Resort was effectively just the hugely successful Wii Sports with new layers, Tears of the Kingdom will be the same thing to Breath of the Wild.
Although the setting is naturally familiar, I can’t imagine many people have seen Tears of the Kingdom gameplay and rolled their eyes, upset that it looks too much like Breath of the Wild. For starters, the game on which Tears of the Kingdom has been built is regarded as one of the greatest ever. It’s also evident the layers Dohta is referencing will achieve the goal of making the sequel feel like an entirely different game.
Tears of the Kingdom’s creators were also sure to note in the same interview that even though the sequel is built on Breath of the Wild’s foundation,newcomers will feel right at home. It’s a sequel, but you don’t need to have played the previous game to enjoy it. Something else the new Zelda game has in common with Wii Sports Resort, althoughNintendowill be hoping Tears of the Kingdom outperforms Breath of the Wild’s massive sales numbers, something the Wii Sports sequel was never going to achieve after the original was bundled with theWii.
If you’re not a newcomer and you’ve been excited about Tears of the Kingdom for years, there’s a very real chance you’re reading this while standing in a queue outside a video game store. Some of you are so eager to get your hands on the game,you started queuing for it 72 hours before it actually launches.
NEXT:Magic: The Gathering’s Longer Standard Rotation Is A Small Step In The Right Direction
