A new The Legend of Zelda game may be in the works and it might be different than what fans are expecting.
The Nintendo Switch is heading to the retirement home before long with Nintendo finally confirming that a new console is in the works and set to be revealed. That doesn’t mean the console doesn’t have one or two more big games in it, though. In fact, precedent would suggest that it does.
The Nintendo Wii launched by sharing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and the Switch did the same with the Wii U and Breath of the Wild. While Nintendo hasn’t officially announced that anything new is on the horizon for the Zelda franchise, a Nintendo leaker hinted that the trend might continue.
Why there’s reason to hope for a new Legend of Zelda game on Nintendo Switch
A leaker who has previously revealed major Nintendo Switch releases teased that a new Zelda game is coming, and that it potentially stars Princess Zelda herself.
Papagenos is a YouTuber who covers Nintendo news, but has broken a few stories including spoiling the news of Metroid Prime Remastered being shadow-dropped. They took to Twitter with an odd post containing concept art for Zelda in Tears of the Kingdom. The text in the post contained seemingly random capitalization, though the letters themselves spell out “this is a hint.”
This led to speculation that a new The Legend of Zelda game based around her may be in the works.
Realistically, fans shouldn’t expect a new mainline installment in the series anytime soon. After the release of the Switch, Nintendo stopped its rapid-fire approach to mainline Zelda games. More likely is that a new Zelda game would be a spin-off, though this might still be compelling.
What will the next Zelda game be like?
The Nintendo Switch may receive new remasters or remakes of past Zelda games, or new spin-offs.
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom aren’t the only The Legend of Zelda games on Switch. Also among them are remakes of Link’s Awakening, a remaster of Skyward Sword, and multiple spin-offs.
Ports of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, which were released on the Wii U, have been among the most-requested games on the Switch by fans. Both could realistically come out on the Nintendo Switch, or its successor.
More ambitious would be enhanced ports of the 3DS remakes of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD has flown under the radar, but it shows that Nintendo is willing to remake or port 3DS games that have otherwise been trapped on the console. This would likely require more development resources, but would also be a blockbuster release.
But if the game truly stars Zelda, a spin-off is the most likely possibility. A new Hyrule Warriors would be the leading candidate.
The last installment of the series was Age of Calamity, which showed the events of the apocalyptic event before Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom’s story introduced another similar event that took place in the distant past, and involved Zelda joining forces with her ancestors to fight an army led by Ganondorf.
With Hyrule Warriors developer Omega Force in an apparent lull with its release schedule, this could be in the cards.
