Like everyone else, we’ve watched the two official trailers of the sequel to Breath of the Wild, the game known by most everyone but Nintendo as BOTW2. Truth be told, we scrutinized these snippets more than once for clues to what the future, both Hyrule’s and our own, holds when BOTW2 is finally released. The return of islands in the sky? The ability to go through solid rock? And Zelda with short hair?
But of all the tantalizing images in the previews, the most teasing of all was the final screen of the second trailer: 2022.
Alrighty, then. It’s 2022. Dear Nintendo: Please send details.
We Zelders have long had two timeframes in mind for the likely debut of the sequel: either early March, on the fifth anniversary of the release of Breath of the Wild (oh please oh please oh please) and – sigh – November, because so many hotly anticipated items come out just in time to cause holiday shopping uproar and furor. (A possible release in July, to commemorate the re-release of Skyward Sword, comes in a distant third. But there’s no denying that BOTW2 has a connection to the events of Skyward Sword, so we’ll throw that date hat into the ring, even as we pshaw it.)
Mind you, BOTW’s sequel has been on Amazon for pre-order since shortly after the second trailer came out, with the longest possible release window of December 31, 2022. We know because Demelza pre-ordered. Of course.
Zelda for Elders hopes Amazon is wrong. We hope we’re wrong about November’s traditional place in the run up to the holidays. And most recently, we’re hoping that IGN leader Peer Schneider, who speculated (or as it was characterized by some outlets, “let slip”) that we’d all be playing the sequel in November 2022, is also mistaken. Sure, it’s better than December 31, but November is no March.
(Ever the optimist, Demelza points out that perhaps the estimable Peer meant that players would not want the game to end, so having started in March, we’d all still be playing in November. A more pessimistic Itzal, having zeroed in on the second trailer’s shot of a Bokoblin camp perched atop a Stone Talus, wryly observes that if he has to defeat a Talus to progress, we Zelders are likely to still be playing in 2025.)
As the days tick by, reluctantly we must consider it doubtful that Nintendo will announce the release date of the game just before it’s actually released. On the other hand, Breath of the Wild‘s release date was announced in January of 2017, and the game debuted on March 3 of that year. One cannot assume the same announce-to-release interval with the sequel, of course; the 2017 game, five years in the making, had been delayed more than once, so perhaps Nintendo feared they’d be the game-boy[1] who cried wolf if they offered a date of release precipitously and had to delay yet again.
However, we hope BOTW history repeats itself with the sequel, not with respect to delays, but with an early January announcement of a March release.
Hey listen, Nintendo. It’s been a hellish couple of years. Have a heart and announce soon. Actually, have two or three hearts. With a heart potion on the side.
We’re waiting.
[1] Sorry, we couldn’t resist the pun.