Summary
Whenever a sequel toThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomcomes out, it will, hopefully, serve as another shake-up for the franchise. AsZeldalooks to the future, the path for a new style of game is being paved, and a key design element of this year’sBaldur’s Gate 3serves as a potential blueprint for it.
Despite the booming success ofBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom, long-timeZeldaproducer Eiji Aonuma has stated that the franchise will be moving on from the “open-air” style of game. This may come as a disappointment for some fans, but the developers should continue pushing forward and innovating within theZeldaframework. If the franchise is moving on from the sprawling, nature-centric design ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it may want to take some notes fromBaldur’s Gate 3.
How the Next Zelda Can Learn from Baldur’s Gate
Why the City of Baldur’s Gate Works So Well
Baldur’s Gate 3’s titular cityis perhaps the most complete, best-realized fantasy city gaming has ever seen. While seminal fantasy titles likeSkyrim,The Witcher 3, and otherZeldagames have all produced impressive and beautiful cityscapes to explore and engage with, few of them feel believable as cities; in many cases, these patches of civilization can feel more like pretty boxes for quests and side activities than believable, crowded, fictional municipalities. Baldur’s Gate doesn’t have this issue, as it has the scope, level of detail, and complexity that one would expect from a real-world city, with all the fantastical charm that is present in the rest of the game.
The way that Baldur’s Gate is implemented in the game is significant as well. Being discoveredinBaldur’s Gate 3’s third act, players will get to explore Baldur’s Gate after at least forty hours of gameplay designed around pastoral wilderness, gloomy caves, and shadowy, cursed, abandoned lands. This stark contrast works in the city’s favor, as it manages to deliver a powerful shock to players and further mix up the experience of the game, even after dozens of hours of playing. Moreover, this approach would gel quite nicely with modern-dayZelda.
The Next Legend of Zelda Can Organically Introduce a Major Fantasy City
While it doesn’t look like there willbe a sequel toTears of the Kingdom, it wouldn’t be surprising for the nextZeldagame to adapt some of the general design principles of the Switch-era titles. If the series takes this route,Baldur’s Gate 3could serve as a natural blueprint, at least when it comes to featuring a fantasy city; players could still get the open-air gameplay of the previous twoZeldagames, while getting a breath of fresh air in the form of a massive city, perhaps surrounding Hyrule Castle or some other major landmark. Previous games in the franchise have offered their own renditions of this sort of city, but they have all been far more limited in their scope, not even approaching the detail or scale of something like Baldur’s Gate.
If the rumors about the upcomingNintendo Switch successorprove to be true, then the nextZeldagame could be playable on hardware that offers significantly greater graphical fidelity and processing power. This would allow for a more visually impressive and detailed city, with more interactive buildings, NPCs, and secrets to uncover. Essentially, the next game afterThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomcould offer a modern version of locations like Castle Town, broadening the world of the franchise and expanding the opportunities available to players.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
