'Breath of the Wild 2' News: Nintendo Teases a Brand New Map and "Terrain"

Hyrule will once again be in danger at the hands of Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 and it’ll be up to Link and Zelda to save their homeland from the forces of evil. But Hyrule might be unrecognizable in the upcoming adventure.

Nintendo has been tight lipped about the sequel to Breath of the Wild since its June announcement at E3 2019, but a new interview with three BotW game designers Tuesday published by the company itself seems to reveal some new details. While the trio couldn’t divulge any specifics about the impending title, they did chat about job openings for the BotW 2 development team.

The conversation heavily focused on what went into creating the original game’s vast world and included vague comments about what the staff wants to achieve with the help of new teammates for BotW 2. There was no discussion about game mechanics or the plot, but the group did say Nintendo is on the hunt for more “terrain designers.”

“We want to borrow the power of more people to deliver new experiences that exceed the previous work,” said Satoshi Takizawa, art director for BotW 2. “This time, we decided to recruit additional terrain designers.”

A complete overhaul of the sequel’s setting seems extremely likely, especially with the addition of new staff. That means Legend of Zelda fans might not be returning to Hyrule at all.

The E3 2019 BotW 2 trailer made it clear that Hyrule will face a new cataclysmic event. In the short clip, Link and Zelda discover Ganondorf’s dried-up corpse as it’s being resurrected deep beneath Hyrule Castle. One of the final scenes shows the castle being lifted into the sky by an unknown force, which suggests something hellish is about to emerge from its depths.

Exactly what that could be remains a mystery, but glimpses of the evil threatening Hyrule in the trailer suggest it might be engulfed by a dark and twisted dimension. It wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo has let Zelda fans traverse parallel worlds.

Twilight Princess, A Link Between World, and Majora’s Mask all involve Strange Things-esque mirror worlds. Producer Eiji Aonuma also told IGN in June that BotW 2 could have some similarities to its predecessors with a more nightmarish twist.

“The new Breath of the Wild, or the sequel to it […] it’s not necessarily going to be related to Majora’s Mask or inspired by it,” he said. “What we showed you currently is a little darker.”

Gamers will need to wait until later in the year or perhaps 2020 to learn precisely what they’ll face in BotW 2. But a compelling Reddit theory from June suggests the teaser trailer was a direct reference to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and its main villain: Zant.

In case you forgot, Zant was a member of the Twili race that lived in the Twilight Realm. After being denied the throne, he took over his home by force before invading the World of Light (Hyrule) with Ganon’s help. Zant was defeated by Link and Midna (the true ruler of the Twilight Realm), but before his “death,” he promised to return.

Could BotW 2 could feature a familiar enemy in a realm that Zelda fans have never explored before?

Breath of the Wild 2 is currently under development and coming to the Nintendo Switch … eventually.