The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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Template:Future game Template:Game The Legend of Zelda Wii U is the working title for an upcoming Template:LZS game for the Wii U.

Development

The Zelda HD Experience, a The Legend of Zelda tech demo of the Wii U, was shown at E3 2011. On June 20, 2011, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Nintendo is planning on creating an HD The Legend of Zelda title.^[1]

The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U was officially announced in the Wii U Direct presentation on January 23, 2013. Eiji Aonuma stated that the game intended to challenge what was expected of The Legend of Zelda games, such as the player having to complete dungeons in a specific order or that it is a single player experience. The game is expected to have a long development time, so Nintendo released The Wind Waker HD for the Wii U to decrease the gap between releases.^[2] During E3 2014, the first video of the game was shown, revealing Link riding Epona, in addition to a new enemy, and Hyrule Field. Link can be seen wearing an outfit similar to the one used in The Wind Waker. Eiji Aonuma responded to fan reactions to the character's design stating that the character was not explicitly stated to be Link,^[3] but later stated that he was joking.^[4]

During the Game Awards 2014, Miyamoto and Aonuma showed a new gameplay video. It demonstrated the scale of Hyrule, which was designed with the open world concept of the original Zelda games in mind.^[5] It also shown the return of the Sailcloth and the use of beacons for pointing out important landmarks in the huge overworld. Different from previous games, riding Epona is done automatically, with Link only needing to steer. This was made in order to focus on the surroundings with the fully controllable camera and on combat with the Sword or Bow while riding. Link is also able to jump off Epona, slowing the game in order to shoot Arrows at enemies more precisely. If an enemy is hit by an Arrow, a metallic sound will play. Enemies also show a life meter above them, similar to when the Hero's Charm is worn in The Wind Waker.

The game was originally planned to be released in 2015, but due to new ideas added during the game's development, the release date was pushed forward past 2015.^[6]