Zelda s Producer Has Just Dropped The First Hint About Next Game, Will Take Inspiration From Hyrule Warriors
Sam (He/Him) is the former Managing Editor of DualShockers and is now Senior Reporter at TheGamer. He’s been in and around games media for six years now and has held a variety of roles within the industry, including staff writer, SEO editor, managing editor and global head of gaming content.
During this time, he’s hosted a PAX panel, interviewed game directors, reviewed some of the biggest games, attended Gamescom, Summer Game Fest, and Tokyo Game Show and covered some of the hottest news stories.
Sam has been learning Japanese for almost three years now, with the intention of bringing you news from the country before anyone else.
He’s been playing video games for as long as he can remember, and you can regularly find him on his PS5 or Nintendo Switch. When he’s not playing games, he’ll no doubt be watching his beloved Ipswich Town.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s first few months have been strange. While, around launch, the original Switch received mainline games from the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda franchises, alongside Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch 2 got a Donkey Kong game, a Hyrule Warriors game, a Metroid game, and Mario Kart World. That’s not to say they’re bad games; it just feels like it’s lacking a bit of that star power.
One of the games missing from the launch line-up is a new Legend of Zelda, with the latest game in the series coming in 2023. Given current lengthy development times and the semi-recent release of Tears of the Kingdom, the next entry is likely still a little way off, too.
Clinging to whatever we can as Zelda fans, series producer Eiji Aonuma may have just given us our first hint at what the next title will be like, saying inspirations from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment “may be reflected in the Zelda that we create.”
The Next Zelda Game Could Contain Influences From Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment
Speaking to 4Gamer in Japan (and translated by us at TheGamer) about Age of Imprisonment, Aonuma revealed that he and his team wanted to be the first to release a Zelda game on the Switch 2, but they were beaten to the punch. “The Legend of Zelda: Age of Imprisonment is the first Zelda title released for the Nintendo Switch 2. If I’m honest, we wanted to be the first to do so,” he said, laughing.
Aonuma’s words seem to suggest that his team is working on, or at least planning for, the next Zelda title, and during the interview, he gave a small hint as to what that might contain. “The inspiration we received from our collaboration with Koei Tecmo may be reflected in the Zelda we create. Please imagine this while playing Age of Imprisonment, and look forward to our Zelda.”
The inspiration we received from our collaboration with Koei Tecmo may be reflected in the Zelda we create.
Now, it’s unlikely the next mainline Zelda title will go full musou, but there are certainly parts of Age of Imprisonment it could pull from. During the 4Gamer interview, when speaking about the rail shooter-style segment in the latest Hyrule Warriors, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, revealed that Koei Tecmo “came up with ideas that we wouldn’t have come up with by ourselves,” and that the collaboration was “very stimulating.”
There’s every possibility that ideas were left on the cutting room floor that will be picked up for the next Zelda game, or that smaller elements, like the rail shooter parts or Sync Strikes, could appear in some form.
Unlike Age of Calamity, this new Hyrule Warriors ties directly into the events of Tears of the Kingdom.
The interview also included some other interesting tidbits about Age of Imprisonment, including how neither Aonuma nor Fujibayashi thought that Calamo the Korok would be a playable character and how the partnership “went beyond the realm of normal collaboration.”
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Whatever happens, we’ve got our first hint at a new Zelda, so I can now enjoy my holidays in peace.
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