The Legend of Zelda Games Will All Be Open World Going Forward, Says Series Producer

It’s a good thing that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild handles its open word as well as it does– it looks like open worlds will be standard for Zelda games going forward. Speaking to Famitsu, Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the franchise, noted that future games in the series may all adhere to the format and template set by the new game.

“I think that, in the future, open air games will be the standard for Zelda,” Aonuma said, using Nintendo’s own parlance for Breath of the Wild (they insist on calling it an open air adventure, instead of an open world one- although to be fair to them, it’s not even an inaccurate categorization).

Given just how well Zelda seems to mesh with open worlds, this would be no problem- as long as Nintendo’s team iterates on the formula meaningfully. For instance, more dungeons (or more traditional ones), wouldn’t be remiss in the next game!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is out now on Nintendo Switch and Wii U.

[Translation By Japanese Nintendo]