If time travel is present in Tears of the Kingdom in some form, it carries a few implications. The first is that its version of Hyrule would be very different from BOTW . That much was already known, but if Link is getting sent back to the past, and especially if it's as far back as the first rise of Calamity Ganon, then it could be practically unrecognizable, and have an all-new cast of characters either unrelated to those in BOTW or with only distant relations. It could also mean that players will see Ganon's intitial rise first-hand, in addition to other events such as the construction of the Guardians and Divine Beasts, which BOTW 's sequel could use in unexpected ways if

The main antagonist of the Zelda series needs no introduction. Fans everywhere have thrown controllers and joycons in frustration over the terrifying threat that is Ganon, from A Link to the Past all the way to Breath of the W

The implementation of crystal portals into Breath of the Wild 2 would be unexpected, but also creative and fun. Link could find them in previously unexplored sections of Hyrule Castle where they were originally intended to be over two decades ago, helping players see new locations and building on BOTW's lore. They could also be used to access the floating islands across Hyrule's sky. In E3's trailer, Link is seen floating and maneuvering through solid rock, indicating that he'll have some form of control over his movement between Hyrule's surface from Breath of The Wild soundtrack of the Wild and the new settlements above it. However, it's fun to think that these crystal portals could play a part in that discovery. Perhaps Link and Zelda catch wind of the crystals, leading them to Hyrule Castle where they may be encountering Calamity Ganon in the teaser trailer. Then, once Zelda falls into the darkness, Link continues his search for the portals to help rescue her. There's also potential that each floating landmass in the sky has its own crystal portal to teleport between each ot

While much of Hyrule’s past has been left intentionally obscured by the overarching Zelda timeline, there are shreds of details present throughout the canon games and companion books that may add deeper context to the series’ main events. Namely, the Hyrulean Civil War mentioned in Ocarina of Time and the Interloper War alluded to during Twilight Princess are two major events in Hyrule's history that have yet to be thoroughly detailed. It’s possible that BOTW ’s First Great Calamity is actually another name for the Interloper War, which would place almost every single game on the Zelda timeline between BOTW ’s two apocalyptic Calamit

Ocarina of Time was a flagship game for the Nintendo 64, and it was a game Nintendo purposely utilized to test how far the console could be pushed. While Ocarina of Time's scrapped portal system couldn't work in the Zelda franchise in the late '90s — the portal work was completed around '96 or '97 per Giles Goddard, a developer who worked on a concept demo for Ocarina of Time - it might be able to now. The Switch can handle much more complicated coding and larger game sizes. The original Nintendo Switch handled Breath of the Wild , the franchise's biggest game, with ease, and now there are even newer Switch models with better specs and capabilities. With each new console, cooler features like these scrapped portals become increasingly possi

Tears of the Kingdom will have flying mounts , which means Link will take to the skies to explore floating islands. Combining their talent for magic with their reverence of dragons, there could be more Zonai ruins on those islands. They may have expanded their civilization to the sky for advantages in war, or they could have been exiled or driven to the sky in a last effort to avoid being wiped out. While it's possible that the Zonai could be related to the floating islands since both are heavily referenced in the trailer, it seems unlikely that the Zonai will be the focus of the islands since the trailer links the Zonai more heavily with the Calamit

Not much is known about the Interloper War mentioned in Twilight Princess , but its placement on the official Zelda timeline may have some deeper implications for the series when combined with the lore about BOTW ’s two Calamities. Assuming that the Zonai truly are the ancestors of the Twili people sealed away to end the Interloper War, then it’s possible that this group was among the first to attempt to revive the Demon King after Demise was sealed away in Skyward Sword . While the vague legend about the Twili’s origins leaves plenty of room for interpretation, it’s possible that the Interloper War has since become known as the First Great Calam

There's also more creative challenges like custom builds for Link to use in Breath of the Wild . For example, players might only wear the Guardian Armor and use Ancient and Guardian weapons, or the Barbarian armor with Bokoblin and Moblin weapons. They can play through the entire game with only the starting clothes and terribly weak weapons like Tree Branches if they so wish. Playing through the game on Master Mode - which is something of a survival mode that was introduced in BOTW 's Master Trials DLC - can also add an extra challenge. Players can even set smaller rules like only using archery in combat, or only using bombs. Breath of the Wild 's open-world format and its focus on player freedom mean that there's plenty of ways to play and keep the game fresh until _Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom _ comes