Age Of Imprisonment Might Encourage Subsequent Zelda Recreation, Say Devs, However What Does That Imply?

What’s subsequent for The Legend of Zelda? It appears to be the massive query scratching everybody’s heads this 12 months.

2026 continues to be a clean Sheikah Slate. Now that the Swap 2 console is in full swing and the Period of the Wild appears to be lastly driving off into the Gerudo sundown, we’re really in uncharted territory. We all know there can be a Legend of Zelda film coming in 2027, however apart from that, we’re nearly as blind as a wayward Keese in a snowstorm on Snowhead. Who is aware of what’s going to occur within the first essential, non-Associate Nintendo Direct for 2026, or if there’ll even be a Zelda sport revealed within the coming months.

Happily, the legendary workers behind the collection isn’t misplaced by any means. They know what they’re doing, they usually’ve left us a mysterious however essential clue behind. In an interview with 4Gamer and the Koei Tecmo improvement workforce, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma shared that an infinite quantity of inspiration happened after they co-developed Age of Imprisonment with Koei Tecmo and their new AAA Studio workers.

“Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is the primary Zelda title for the Nintendo Swap 2. To be trustworthy, we needed to be the primary to take action,” Aonuma laughed, in response to TheGamer’s translation. “Nevertheless, the inspiration we acquired from this collaboration with Koei Tecmo could also be mirrored within the [next] Zelda we create. Please think about this whereas taking part in Age of Imprisonment, and stay up for our Zelda.”

However it’s not Imprisonment for you

Maintain on, earlier than you groan and head for the again button in disgust, I do know what you’re pondering. A lot of you (not all) are a bit of weary of dwelling within the Period of the Wild for nearly a decade. And the very last thing you need in a Zelda sport is extra repetitive hack and slash in addition, proper?

That’s comprehensible. I’m 99.99% assured that’s not what the following Zelda can be about. I depart behind the 0.01% as a result of, properly, it’s The Legend of Zelda we’re speaking about. What the Zelda workforce has in thoughts will at all times be mysterious to a degree.

That stated, I consider their inspiration with Age of Imprisonment in creating the following Zelda sport has to do with a brand new narrative fashion. Actually, Age of Imprisonment may maintain the important thing to fixing the “Nice Divide” between the old fashioned and new college Zelda fan camps. Think about a sport in a model new Hyrule period that lastly joins the open-world and conventional Zelda formulation collectively into a novel cinematic interactive expertise.

How is that attainable? Permit me to elucidate.

Assume Legend of Zelda: The Video Recreation Film

It’s true, Breath of the Wild modified historical past. Not solely did it revolutionise the open-world style for your complete trade (taking a look at you, Elden Ring), it launched full spoken voice performing into the collection for the primary time. This format inspired gorgeous artwork course and breathed life into characters like by no means earlier than in a Zelda sport. However there was an issue. The sheer freedom of open world motion restricted the narrative potential to flashback cutscenes that the participant finds scattered all through the map, geographic lore searching, and a artistic, although considerably disconnected last boss.

Its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, launched a a lot stronger last boss expertise with the return of Ganondorf and has loads of geographic lore searching, however it too was restricted to cinematic flashbacks that may both elate or destroy a participant’s expertise relying on who you ask, what the discovered order was, and what the context consisted of within the participant’s private state of affairs. Or maybe, the scenes we do get are produced so extravagantly that we’re solely left wanting extra.

One factor is for sure: they’re highly effective sufficient to spark gigantic web fights. That is open world for you. Do with that what you’ll.

Placing all of it collectively

Now I arrive at Age of Imprisonment’s strongest level – the narrative.

Its function is to permit gamers to expertise the traditional Imprisoning Struggle firsthand and fill within the gaps left behind in Tears of the Kingdom with a staggering three hours’ value of seamless voice-acted cutscenes that surpass the constraints of Breath of the Wild, because of its extra linear Purah Pad map format.

What’s fascinating is that the sport isn’t fully linear. In contrast to the earlier Hyrule Warriors instalment, Age of Calamity, the battle challenges in Age of Imprisonment are included into the primary story with the map. There’s a variety of freedom to pick battles with out breaking the narrative. While you clear a certain quantity of them, a story-locked milestone battle with cutscenes seems. Even the map itself interacts with you to drag you into the high-stakes stress of the Imprisoning Struggle. You really really feel such as you’re within the trenches with the characters and sharing of their blood, sweat, and tears as they push again in opposition to the Demon King’s overwhelming forces. This was meant by design.

Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujubasashi defined that Age of Imprisonment’s “performance and participant expertise got here first, however though the order might change, we put it collectively in order that the situation and terrain are well-rounded.”

Koei Tecmo director Aoyagi Kimiki additional defined that Age of Imprisonment has “the enchantment of a historic drama” with the Imprisoning Struggle, an essential occasion for Zelda followers. “We aimed to offer the historic move that was shared with us at first its true kind, and to create a construction that might enable gamers to really feel that they have been a part of that historical past as they fought, as a part of the Warriors expertise.”

Might this imply that the narrative limitations of the open-world system will lastly be conquered within the subsequent Zelda sport? That we’ll not solely expertise full-length cinematic cutscenes that move naturally like a standard mainline Zelda once more, however we’ll get to stay and work together in a dwelling, respiration Hyrule Citadel City and expertise the thrills of huge dungeon crawling and tenting beneath the celebrities in Hyrule Discipline, too? Maybe a completely interactive, cinematic universe?

I dare you to think about such a feat. That looks like an not possible fantasy proper now. But when the Zelda workforce can obtain a feat like that, it could not solely revolutionise Zelda video games once more, it could set a complete trade pattern ablaze.

Then once more, that’s routine for the Zelda workforce. They’ve a cussed behavior of constructing groundbreaking historical past.