It’ll be very interesting to see how Nintendo will handle Hyrule from here on out. I really don’t think they intend on reusing this map a third time, but I also find myself wondering how they can do a Hyrule again that is fully original. The Hyrule in BotW/TotK is without a doubt THE definitive Hyrule, fully realizing the kingdom and all its major locations with the full scale that all the older games were somewhat abstractly trying to represent, so to speak. How do you remix it enough so that it feels like an entirely new land to explore for future games? Hyrule has always changed between games, but mostly retained its major landmarks and overall structure (desert to the west; Death mountain to the northeast, etc). Even if they hypothetically just start from scratch and completely change the layout of its major areas/biomes, how do you do that without it in some ways still feel like retreading old ground? Like does it really make a different if the snowy area is in the west this time, the desert in the north, etc? I feel like there’s a particular challenge with designing a completely open world to make it feel fresh and brand new as opposed to an overworld that guides you in a more linear fashion, where there’s more obvious ways it could mix things up for the player.
With this in mind, I can see Nintendo going in one of these directions for the next mainline game:
1. Next game takes place in a non-Hyrule land. Probably the most obvious solution. With this, they are much less held to comparison to BotW/TotK’s overworld and are free to design something that’s wholly unique in the type of environment it gives us, and are probably less pressured to rival the same size and scope of Hyrule.
2. Wind Waker 2.0. Another popular option I see people mention is to do another water-focused game with islands and sailing, plus the prospect of underwater exploration. After TotK tackled sky, land, and underground, underwater seems like the next natural frontier to tackle. Underwater mechanics are without a doubt difficult to implement from a game design standpoint, not to mention having to rework the physics of everything when underwater, which I’m sure is why it’s been left out in these games, but if they make that their main focus in the next game, I’m sure they can deliver something extraordinary.
3. Hyrule, but in a vastly different time period that’s it’s nearly unrecognizable. Maybe a Hyrule that’s fully built up with sprawling cities? A futuristic Hyrule? (tbh I’m not sure how I feel about that idea). One thing I was thinking of is setting the next game in the Adult timeline after Spirit Tracks, in New Hyrule, and carrying over/expanding on the trains and steampunk elements. That could work.
It’s always fun to speculate on where they’ll take the series next, and this is perhaps the most “uncharted territory” the franchise has been in, so I’ve been thinking about this often.