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How could BotW2 surprise you narratively?

Other than Ganoncorpse making an appearance in the BotW2 reveal trailer, we know almost nothing about what is likely to happen during the game.

Do you think BotW2 will be more story focused and have some surprising plot twists or narrative elements that you didn't see coming?

Maybe something like going to space on Maz Koshia's UFO looking arena?

Or Ganoncorpse not actually being Ganon like we all think?

Or time traveling into other games?

What could BotW2 do to surprise you narratively?
 

Sheikah_Witch

I just really like botw
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Sweden
I think a more coherent and linear narrative is given this time around. We're done with flashbacks.

I wouldn't be too keen on trope typical 'plot twists' (like: It was Zelda's mother ALL ALONG!) but if they brought up some unusual themes and touched on some interesting subjects, (like, philosophy or mental health) even within the frameworks of a traditional medieval Zelda story... not saying I'd jump with joy, but it would certainly come off as a surprise.
 

MapelSerup

not actually Canadian
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Kill off Zelda, or at least make it seem like she was killed, and you bring her back somehow. After so many theories of playing as Zelda, this would be a huge shock. This might not be the best though, considering she was very absent from the first game.
 

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
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Make it so Link is the one being held captive by whatever force is trapped underground and have Zelda be the one to save him. She could go to the tech labs and get armed with Guardian armor and weapons to fight her way to Ganon or whatever the big bad of the game will be.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
Kill off Zelda, or at least make it seem like she was killed, and you bring her back somehow. After so many theories of playing as Zelda, this would be a huge shock. This might not be the best though, considering she was very absent from the first game.

you mean like spirit tracks?

To be honest I’m not sure what they could do. Anything I can think of that would really be surprising has already been done to some extent in previous Zelda games. Plus if I say it here then it wouldn’t really be that surprising if it happened.
 

MapelSerup

not actually Canadian
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
you mean like spirit tracks?

To be honest I’m not sure what they could do. Anything I can think of that would really be surprising has already been done to some extent in previous Zelda games. Plus if I say it here then it wouldn’t really be that surprising if it happened.
A lot like Spirit Tracks, but instead of having her ghost follow you around, reassuring you that she’ll be ok, she’s straight-up gone. Also, I’m not saying I’d want this in the game, just that it would definitely surprise me.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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It'd surprise me by not falling into the story loop Zelda games have used many times before. I'm just not interested in the same story cycle that games like Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword go through. To me, Zelda games have reached a point where they're so predictable from a narrative sense that you could watch the first five seconds of every cutscene, skip the rest, and still know exactly where the game is going.

I harp on it a lot, but I do think Breath of the Wild was a powerful step outside the box for a series so entrenched in its own box that it was beginning to suffocate. Breath of the Wild was about a Link who lost, a Hyrule that was burned to the ground, and a Ganon just mindlessly hovering above a battlefield it's long since conquered.

For Breath of the Wild 2 to surprise me, I'd want it to twist the game's premise at least a little bit. If I were writing the story, I would kill Link. No resurrection or quest to restore his. Link is dead and Zelda, the new protagonist of the game at long last, must move on. She's not physically adept at martial combat like Link was and what vast magical power she did have is waning.

I'd also like to do something interesting with Ganon for once.

Ganon has never been a developed villain. For a series as longrunning as Zelda, no entry has ever tried to make him look like anything more than some mustache twirling villain. I know that folks will point to Wind Waker, but he had, like, two sentences worth of dialogue in that game about some vague motivations. Ever other game just features him kidnapping women, laughing maniacally, and playing a piano.

While it became kind of a meme after Ganon's appearance in the BotW2 trailer, I'd like to see the Good Guy Ganon trope. Perhaps the looming threat isn't just Ganon for the twelfth time. Maybe a game where Zelda and Ganon, previously enemies in all other installments, work together.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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While it became kind of a meme after Ganon's appearance in the BotW2 trailer, I'd like to see the Good Guy Ganon trope. Perhaps the looming threat isn't just Ganon for the twelfth time. Maybe a game where Zelda and Ganon, previously enemies in all other installments, work together.
I've never liked the idea that Ganondorf is a good guy plagued by the curse of Demise or whatever, I think he is inherently evil. But who knows, maybe this concept could work as another means to change up how we always viewed the series?

To answer the OP, I think if it simply tells a good story that will be surprise me, because I have no expectation that the story will be fleshed out this go around.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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I've never liked the idea that Ganondorf is a good guy plagued by the curse of Demise or whatever, I think he is inherently evil. But who knows, maybe this concept could work as another means to change up how we always viewed the series?

To answer the OP, I think if it simply tells a good story that will be surprise me, because I have no expectation that the story will be fleshed out this go around.

I think it depends on how you write it. Just trying to retcon Ganon into some tragic character doesn't work, because games have been horrible about characterizing him as anything more than a mustachioed villain who plays an evil piano (which means that it's the most likely route Nintendo would take with such a twist).

While I hate to bring out the if-I-were-writing-it thing, If I were writing a Good Guy Ganon into Breath of the Wild 2, I would make it a tired Ganon. Maybe throughout the thousands of years and countless times he's battled Link, he's become aware that Demise has been using him as a pawn to exact petty vengeance on two teenagers dozens of times over, and he wants none of it. Maybe it's a Ganon so tired of the never-ending battle with the Link. Now they have a shared enemy in the form of Demise.

Heck, you could use it as an opportunity to characterize Ganon. If go go back to his alleged motivations in Ocarina of Time (which were alluded to in Wind Waker but never actually used), the invasion of Hyrule way back then was motivated by a love for his people. He intended to take Hyrule so that the Gerudo could escape winds that brought only death.

Imagine a revitalized Ganon near the end of the game. His long-time enemy dead (continuing on from the cool twist that the game kills Link) and Demise no longer whispering thoughts in his ear, travels with Zelda to the Gerudo stronghold. Having long since believed his people condemned to a slow death if they remained in the desert, is in awe. Maybe he cries a little bit. Not only are the Gerudo thriving in the desert, but they've reached into Hyrule. There are travelers and settlers abound, and his people are alive.

---

Or we could just have a game where Ganon cackles for a bit and then you play some tennis.
 
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Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
I think it depends on how you write it. Just trying to retcon Ganon into some tragic character doesn't work, because games have been horrible about characterizing him as anything more than a mustachioed villain who plays an evil piano (which means that it's the most likely route Nintendo would take with such a twist).

While I hate to bring out the if-I-were-writing-it thing, If I were writing a Good Guy Ganon into Breath of the Wild 2, I would make it a tired Ganon. Maybe throughout the thousands of years and countless times he's battled Link, he's become aware that Demise has been using him as a pawn to exact petty vengeance on two teenagers dozens of times over, and he wants none of it. Maybe it's a Ganon so tired of the never-ending battle with the Link. Now they have a shared enemy in the form of Demise.

Heck, you could use it as an opportunity to characterize Ganon. If go go back to his alleged motivations in Ocarina of Time (which were alluded to in Wind Waker but never actually used), the invasion of Hyrule way back then was motivated by a love for his people. He intended to take Hyrule so that the Gerudo could escape winds that brought only death.

Imagine a revitalized Ganon near the end of the game. His long-time enemy dead and Demise no longer whispering thoughts in his ear, travels with Zelda to the Gerudo stronghold. Having long since believed his people condemned to a slow death if they remained in the desert, is in awe. Maybe he cries a little bit. Not only are the Gerudo thriving in the desert, but they've reached into Hyrule. There are travelers and settlers abound, and his people are alive.

---

Or we could just have a game where Ganon cackles for a bit and then you play some tennis.
I'd actually go a similar route and even go as far as to say Calamity Ganon is a result of Ganondorf, just so burned out, trying to rip Demise's influence out of himself.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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I'd actually go a similar route and even go as far as to say Calamity Ganon is a result of Ganondorf, just so burned out, trying to rip Demise's influence out of himself.

I'd love for something like that to be the case, but I'm just not confident that Nintendo would do something that... different. Breath of the Wild was a very nice change of pace story-wise, but the Nintendo cynic in me says that it's a fluke. The Zelda series has a longstanding tradition of doing absolutely nothing risky with its stories.
 
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