Let's say you're given the chance to make one change to Breath of the Wild 2...

[ArkhamFantasy]

Horse utilization in BOTW is very flawed. The horses are made for flat land, they can't climb, swim, glide, or fly. The problem is that the entire BOTW map is built with cliffs, water, and steep drops that the horse can't traverse/

A simple solution to this problem (and it is a problem, because the horse is the only way to quickly navigate this giant map, link is slow and has very limited sprint stamina) is to have the horse spawn behind you when you call it, but BOTW intentionally doesn't do this because Nintendo.

 

[Asbsand]

Not a single shrine appears in BotW2.

Credit for shrines removal - Asbsand.

 

[KeRaSh]

Make it play like LttP.

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Not sure what you mean by that but I love aLttP so I'm in.

Also: proper dungeons and no weapon durability...

 

[Virtua Saturn]

Fleshed out house management

 

[gunlovefiction]

I just hope there is no co-op

 

[Dymaxion]

No more Keese in 3D Zelda games. Those fucking bats aren't challenging or fun to fight. Keep them in the top-down games where they belong.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

Playable Zelda the Link sausage fest for 3 decades has been enough!

 

[Vidiot]

The return of more traditional dungeons. BotW was great but good lord did I miss my dungeons.

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

All I know is that sometimes you're waiting for the rain to stop just so you can climb up something and what would be a 20 second climb turns into a 5 minute wait for the rain to subside. I honestly don't give a shit if rain didn't matter. That's what the lightning is for anyways.

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Oh, I agree the current side effects of rain are annoying. I'd like there to be some difference to traveling during rain though, like maybe shield surfing is twice as fast. Ideally something that's not annoying, obviously.

Horse utilization in BOTW is very flawed. The horses are made for flat land, they can't climb, swim, glide, or fly. The problem is that the entire BOTW map is built with cliffs, water, and steep drops that the horse can't traverse/

A simple solution to this problem (and it is a problem, because the horse is the only way to quickly navigate this giant map, link is slow and has very limited sprint stamina) is to have the horse spawn behind you when you call it, but BOTW intentionally doesn't do this because Nintendo.

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BotW 2: Link Rides a Mountain Goat This Time.

Fleshed out house management

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Would love that. I was really hoping you could actually arrange furniture or something once you acquired your house but it ended up being glorified weapon storage. A nice way to keep weapons you don't want to break, but felt a little undercooked as an idea overall. Also kinda weird to me that the legendary hero of time just lives in some house in... Hateno Village.

No more Keese in 3D Zelda games. Those fucking bats aren't challenging or fun to fight. Keep them in the top-down games where they belong.

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Unless BotW2 features huge swarms of keese that can't be scared away with a single bomb arrow, I agree. It could actually be cool to take the Keese swarms from BotW1 and crank up the difficulty and make them another one of the overworld bosses, but shy of doing that, yeah, just stop making us fight keese. Same thing for the night time stal monsters in my opinion. Unless you're going to throw like 12 of them at me at once or somehow make them more rewarding to defeat, just don't bother.

 

[Cassius Bright]

Stop making Link's weapons out of balsa wood.

And improve the voice acting.

And add a story.

And give the game proper dungeons.

And while they're add it, try and add more than 3 enemy types to the game. And no, palette swaps don't count.

 

[Bumrush]

I mean weapon durability is the obvious answer (and it's mine as well). I'd prefer to be super excited when I unlock something new (a la LttP) than just expecting it to break in a few minutes.

Other than that, the ability to climb in the rain. I get the reasoning - and think the ability should be earned - but waiting for the rain to stop was so annoying

 

[Fuchs]

I don't mind the weapon degradation at all. I feel it fits perfectly into the game and I hope it's one thing they'll keep.
I'd be fine if they'd make some weapons break less easily though.

I mean the most obvious change would be a good handful of proper dungeons. I really enjoyed the shrines in BotW, so I hope they'll keep some of them in the sequel, while adding dungeons.

Oh, also make me able to pet the dogs.

 

[Clefargle]

All dungeons have multiple entrances and exits that interlink to other dungeons or overworld areas. I want the dungeons to have some initial rewards for clearing the first available part, then later, the player can return through another route and find something that was previously unreachable . I want the dungeons to be interconnected on the level of Metroid Prime, with certain things in the dungeons being off limits at first. Secret entrances and exits between the dungeons and overworld are a must too. This would go a long way towards regaining the amazing dungeon design in the old Zelda games

 

[GrayDock]

1. A better plot/history
2. A weapon durability system like DarkSouls, where your weapon gets weaker, but doesn't break
3. Hyrule field background music, and more music overall
4. More enemy variety

 

[Mistouze]

1- a few more ennemy types
2- maybe some classic style dungeons?

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

Robot Dinosaurs~!

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

I mean weapon durability is the obvious answer (and it's mine as well). I'd prefer to be super excited when I unlock something new (a la LttP) than just expecting it to break in a few minutes.

Other than that, the ability to climb in the rain. I get the reasoning - and think the ability should be earned - but waiting for the rain to stop was so annoying

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I think if they really went crazy with the weapon variety it would be more tolerable, but in BotW1 the moment you start thinking that there's an endless variety of weapons is pretty close to the moment you start realizing you've acquired nearly every weapon in the game. And the thing is yes, you'd eventually hit that same point with a higher tier of weapons, but if it took an extra 12-15 hours before realizing you've acquired the game's best stuff then that'd be a lot less time spent feeling like you've plateaued, and I don't think people would mind it as much. I imagine a lot of the issue with weapon durability is that at a certain point, which comes too early in the game, you feel like there's no point in letting your [insert really nice weapon] break because you're 99% certain you won't end up with a better weapon afterward, or even an equally good one. If you spent more of the game knowing there's a good chance of breaking one weapon for the sake of acquiring a better one, the durability system would be less stressful.

And of course if the weapons get more intense you need to counter that with tougher enemies too, but I think most people would be fine with that.

 

[Strangiato]

Actual dungeons so that it's not the most empty and boring Zelda game of all time anymore.

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

Actual dungeons so that it's not the most empty and boring Zelda game of all time anymore.

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[BanetteAndBaguette]

Just please don't make it the same map as in Botw 1.

I know it's a sequel and it would make sense to use the same Hyrule/world but after so much hours of playing, I know everything about this Hyrule.

In fact, I think that it would be a cool thing to make Zelda and Link travel to another region like Termina.

If Nintendo only adds new things to the map while not changing its shape I'll be very disappointed.

Oh and bring back proper dungeons please. It really seems that they peaked in terms of dungeons in Skyward Sword, thus the divine beasts feel like a step back.

 

[giapel]

I want to see a lot more transformation of the world. Like when you solve a puzzle, complete a quest, help an NPC etc..., the world around you changes to reflect the acomplishement. In BOTW there was Zora's domain permanent rain, that town you help build and.... nothing else really. The rest of the world remains mostly static. I'm not looking for Bethesda permanence, just some milestones reflected in the world.

 

[ReyVGM]

People saying they want shrines removed are insane. If you remove them, the world would be even emptier.

The highlight of the exploration was finding shrines. If you don't like them, then you have the option to not play them.

And you CAN have regular dungeons and shrines.

whynotboth.gif

 

[byDoS]

Keep weapon durability. I actually love the feature in botw.

Give me more underground places to visit (not shrines), secrets to uncover and improve the environmental storytelling.

 

[byDoS]

I want to see a lot more transformation of the world. Like when you solve a puzzle, complete a quest, help an NPC etc..., the world around you changes to reflect the acomplishement. In BOTW there was Zora's domain permanent rain, that town you help build and.... nothing else really. The rest of the world remains mostly static. I'm not looking for Bethesda permanence, just some milestones reflected in the world.

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I for one loved the shrines, they're great for botw and fulfill an important role in the game's world design, but I think they're done for the sequel.

I want something new.

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

People saying they want shrines removed are insane. If you remove them, the world would be even emptier.

The highlight of the exploration was finding shrines. If you don't like them, then you have the option to not play them.

And you CAN have regular dungeons and shrines.

whynotboth.gif

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I agree. Honestly I don't think most players' issue with shrines is the actual existence of a fast travel point that requires solving a puzzle to activate, but rather that the puzzles were a little lackluster at times and their aesthetics were monotonous. I think shrines can be fixed rather than removed, although just as with Link seemingly starts BotW2 with the Master Sword, I don't see how he would need to reactivate shrines he's already chronologically activated, nor would it make sense for him to lose the ability to use that travel medallion you get in the DLC, unless we're to assume the DLC isn't canon or something which I don't think is the case. The fact that BotW2 is a direct sequel seems to presuppose, in my opinion, that a lot of the BotW1 mechanics will be vastly different. Like, it wouldn't quite make sense to me for Link to suddenly no longer be able to use Urbosa's Fury and all the other champion's abilities, but I'd have to imagine there will be some sort of in-game justification for stripping those powers away. Perhaps the green energy hand thing is part of that.

I want to see a lot more transformation of the world. Like when you solve a puzzle, complete a quest, help an NPC etc..., the world around you changes to reflect the acomplishement. In BOTW there was Zora's domain permanent rain, that town you help build and.... nothing else really. The rest of the world remains mostly static. I'm not looking for Bethesda permanence, just some milestones reflected in the world.

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I love this idea. There are a few other permanent changes in the overworld, but you're right that more of them would be great and I think there's a pretty good chance of this happening. I pitched an idea back when BotW1 came out that the story could progress by having things happen in the overworld after completing a divine beast, regardless of which one it is, that would then alter the terrain in some way (for example: after completing your first divine beast, no matter which one, death mountain erupts.) That way you can still do anything in any order but there is also a structured narrative progression. And I'm pretty sure BotW already tinkers with this concept in regard to when you start getting ambushed by the Yiga clan as well as when the three dragons start appearing.

 

[Letsfly]

I have three wishes:

- No items can be used in the menus. It makes any game just too easy.
- More enemies added.
- More locations to explore. Nothing crazy but there has to be a middle between BotW general emptiness and something like Fallout 4 world, where you can't walk 30s without finding something.

And I like the current weapon durability system. Makes for a more varied gameplay and I don't know how they could balance the game otherwise (given that BotW doesn't have XP and levels). For instance, I feel that Cadence of Hyrule right now would be a better game if they added durability to all weapons.

 

[Brix]

Better environmental storytelling. Like more detailed item descriptions to add an extra layer of world building.

Better combat. We just had a bunch of swords and axes using the same damn attack animations. Have more diverse combos & animations.

Better boss battles. Seriously look at how bayonetta, Sekiro, Bloodborne, Nioh, DMCV handle their boss battles. Don't just straight up copy them but look at how bombastic & awesome they are. Go big or go home when you are doing boss battles.

Give link more magic abilities with cool downs.

Let me play as Zelda for a little bit.

End the game with Link talking. (Lmao)

 

[toad02]

p2w microtransactions

 

[Tonswelt]

I'd like to be able to gain heart pieces via side quests again instead of having to grind thorugh repetitive shrines the whole time

 

[ArchAngel]

10 times bigger map of this quality. So after 500 hours coming back to the great plateau and feel the nostalgia <3

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

Better environmental storytelling. Like more detailed item descriptions to add an extra layer of world building.

Better combat. We just had a bunch of swords and axes using the same damn attack animations. Have more diverse combos & animations.

Better boss battles. Seriously look at how bayonetta, Sekiro, Bloodborne, Nioh, DMCV handle their boss battles. Don't just straight up copy them but look at how bombastic & awesome they are. Go big or go home when your doing boss battles.

Give link more magic abilities with cool downs.

Let me play as Zelda for a little bit.

End the game with Link talking. (Lmao)

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Yes please. Meteor Rods should be able to hail meteor storms the way wizzrobes are able to. The thunder helm should let you summon lightning storms in addition to being lightning-proof, etc. Urbosa's Fury was such a small but satisfying sample of how fun it could be to play a LoZ where Link is teetering on demigod by the end of the game.

 

[byDoS]

Better combat. We just had a bunch of swords and axes using the same damn attack animations. Have more diverse combos & animations.

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This whole paragraph is actually inaccurate. Combat is super diverse in botw and each type of weapon has its own style and animation.

Swords and axes aren't handled the same way.

And I, personally, don't consider the world of botw to be "empty", as some of you may suggest. It's quite the opposite, tbh

 

[moomoo14]

I really dig the ideas about nighttime, OP. It'd really make the game feel different from the first in a pretty substantial way. Works with the tone in the first trailer, too. I was just going to pitch weapons not degrading/having a waaaaay larger variety of weapons. As it stands, there's basically three weapons in the game that you're using, with variations on those three.

 

[mindatlarge]

I'm torn between replacing shrines with something more memorable and also getting rid of the breakable weapon system...I like collecting stuff in games.

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Ignore all fan input that will date your game in 10 years time.

 

[Ouroboros]

No weapon breaking and more variety to weapons and attributes to them.

Shields can break though. I'm ok with that.

 

[Thatguy]

More water stuff. Ships and sailing and underwater swimming. Manta Ray diving beast.

Item breaking is necessary for a huge world with thousands of treasures. It would be nice though if you could occasionally resharpen a weapon you like. The master sword basically ends the fear of being caught without any good weapons but thats half way through.

 

[Frodo]

Shields don't break or break at one tiny fraction of the usual rate when surfing.

 

[Deleted member 48813]

I'd like to be able to gain heart pieces via side quests again instead of having to grind thorugh repetitive shrines the whole time

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Yeah that's a must have. The bare minimum they should do if they keep the shrines is getting rid of the spirit orbs and just giving you a heart piece or stamina vessel when you finish a shrine, so you never know what you're getting beforehand. But yeah, it'd be much better if heart pieces were a sidequest reward again, it just feels more Zelda.

 

[Razgriz417]

Durability

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

This whole paragraph is actually inaccurate. Combat is super diverse in botw and each type of weapon has its own style and animation.

Swords and axes aren't handled the same way.

And I, personally, don't consider the world of botw to be "empty", as some of you may suggest. It's quite the opposite, tbh

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I've always felt that BotW did a great job of populating the world with interesting things to discover and explore without feeling too much like they're artificially boosting the Cool Shit Per Square Mile meter because its a video game and that apparently requires a bunch of stuff being crammed into every few steps.

That said, I wouldn't mind if there was more variety in regard to what you can discover because the thing to discover was a Korok seed waaay too often. Just replace like 200 Korok seeds with a silver rupee and that'd already be a huge improvement.

I really dig the ideas about nighttime, OP. It'd really make the game feel different from the first in a pretty substantial way. Works with the tone in the first trailer, too. I was just going to pitch weapons not degrading/having a waaaaay larger variety of weapons. As it stands, there's basically three weapons in the game that you're using, with variations on those three.

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Thanks! As some posters pointed out, making it too dark at night might defeat the spirit of exploration so I'd maybe nix that idea. Maybe it'd only be especially dark during blood moons or something. But in general I think it'd be a lot more engaging for day time to be a low-risk, low-reward time to get from place to place while night time serves as a high-risk, high-reward time to travel. As it stands, traveling at night isn't much different from the day, it's just a little more annoying.

And I agree on the weapon variety. Boomerangs in particular should be more fleshed out imo.

 

[Richietto]

I just want more dungeons and dungeon like areas like classic Zelda, more key items and equipment. Otherwise expand on the current ideas present in BotW.

 

[KillstealWolf]

Don't set in the same universe as Breath of the Wild.

 

[Schaft0620]

I don't want it to be the same exact map over again.

 

[Phantom]

Honestly if this is the way Zelda moves forward I'm done with this series. Open world just feels bad when dungeons suck (or most are forgettable). I get what they were going for with BOTW but having a second game which will probably follow the same design is just wrong. But I guess creating intricate dungeons, having a coherent story and great boss battles is too much to ask.

 

[DanteMenethil]

I'll never understand the weapon durability complainers. The late stage weapons were so durable you were drowning in them. I mined with late game swords and shit just because it didn't matter at all. For the early-mid game stage when you get a few late game weapons just treat it as a temporary powerup, or the energy sword you sometime get in Halo campaigns when you find a secret. It's a temporary fun spike in power then you go back to your normal level of power. Don't view it as a baseline of power that you get stripped from.

Edit: Also adding a repair system completely undermines and go against the whole reason of the existence of weapon durability. Who cared about durability in Dark Souls because you could repair anything anyway? Might as well remove it at that point.

 

[ced]

They need to add risk and reward to the exploration.

 

[Equanimity]

Replace shrines with actual dungeons.

 

[dmoe]

Weapons that don't break. That's all.

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This

 

[Tom Nook Says...]

I don't want it to be the same exact map over again.

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Considering that the series has been entirely reimagined around the sensation of exploration I am like 99% confident the world will be entirely different, or so vastly altered that it's unrecognizable.