Legend of Zelda BOTW Sequel delayed to Spring 2023

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Mnementh said:

HoloDust said:

Let's just say Elden Ring is few grades above BotW when it comes to exploration, world design and things to see. But, to be honest, as a Zelda fan I found BotW to be fairly weak, so I'm really hoping that BotW2 would be significantly better.

In regards to BOTW influence - Hidetaka Miyazaki said he was impressed by BOTW and it influenced his design. The funny thing is, that many games took inspiration from things present in Breath of the Wild, like climbing everywhere or the glider. Yet Elden Ring took it's influence from the things that were absent in BOTW. For instance BOTW explicitly decided not to put target markers on your map, except the ones you put there yourself. Elden Ring does the same. And building upon it, the guidance of grace is ingenious, because it gives you some orientation in the world, but instead of presenting the goal it shows the direction. So you still need to interact with the world to find the goal.

These are good points.  I can definitely see BotW's influence in Elden Ring in both what is there and what is missing.  Right out of the tutorial area I start gathering crafting materials from bushes and stuff just like BotW, and in both games the items that you can craft are actually from a fairly limited list.  For example, you don't craft armor or melee weapons in either game.  Those are meant to be found or won as a reward.

From my perspective, the two best games of the 2010's were Dark Souls and BotW.  Elden Ring feels like a pretty good blend of the two.  I'm only 25-30 hours in, but so far it feels like it's going to be my game of the current decade.  I am not optimistic that another game will touch it any time soon, including BotW2, but I would like to be proven wrong.