Nintendo Reveals Callbacks To Original Zelda Game In Breath Of The Wild
A new blog post from Nintendo shows off some familiar faces and locations in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—and they can be traced back to the very first Legend of Zelda game. Which timeline are we in again?
The Nintendo UK site gives us a look at some of these callbacks, like the Old Man, Spectacle Rock, the raft, and the skull-shaped dungeon. While Hyrule wasn't in the best shape in the classic 1987 NES game, the ruined Hyrule in Breath of the Wild has definitely seen better days. Still, it's cool to see the lush overgrowth covering the legendary land of Hyrule, making it so everything is familiar and alien all at once.
The first similarity we're presented with is the old man from the beginning of the game who warns Link it's dangerous to go alone. Here we see him in beautiful HD, still being warmed by a fire and looking as bearded as ever. He won't be tossing us any swords in Breath of the Wild, but apparently he'll let you borrow torches and provide baked apples for you to eat.
We're next given a look at what looks to be the new incarnation of Spectacle Rock, so named for its resemblance to a pair of glasses. Unlike the original rock formations in the classic Zelda game, the Breath of the Wild version looks slightly larger and could prove to be quite a climb for Link.
The raft from The Legend of Zelda has made a return, giving Link the option of staying dry as he crosses over Hyrule's waters. It seems as if you'll be able to steer the new raft in Breath of the Wild with the wind generated by Link's leaf/fan tool. You can bet that we'll probably see some alternative uses for that tool in dungeons.
And then there's this callback in the form of a skull-shape cavern, which is a reference to the final dungeon in the original Zelda game. As you can see, the new version is a smaller cavern that houses bad guys. According to the blog post, there's a lantern visible through one of the skull's "eyes," which you can hit to trigger an explosion with an arrow. We know what we're hunting down first when The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is released for the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch in 2017. Until then, we'll just keep dreaming of the things we want to see in the game.
