Nintendo Isn’t Concerned With Older Zelda Games Anymore

gamepur.com:

The developers of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have discussed how they’re no longer concerned with the older entries in the series in response to a question about whether the franchise will return to the classic formula. This is because Breath of the Wild kicked off an open-world era for the series, where it stepped away from the more linear entries of the past.

The past two mainline Legend of Zelda games were Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, which used the open-world gameplay style. If remakes and spin-offs are ignored, then the last mainline entry to use the classic Zelda style was Tri Force Heroes in 2015, and before that was A Link Between Worlds in 2013. It doesn’t feel like as much time has passed, as Nintendo keeps remaking and remastering old titles and throwing old Legend of Zelda games on Nintendo Switch Online.

Related: Tears of the Kingdom’s First Trailer Teased Cut Content

Those hoping for a return to the classic Legend of Zelda formula might be in for disappointment. Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma was interviewed by RTL Nieuws (as translated by Nintendo Everything), where he was asked about a return to the classic formula in the future, especially as Tears of the Kingdom was done.

This raises many questions about the future of The Legend of Zelda series. The Legend of Zelda series may stick to games with the scope of Tears of the Kingdom in the future, but that involves a ton of work and a lot of time to build for what will eventually be diminishing returns. There is such a thing as open-world exhaustion, where players have grown weary of the Ubisoft style of massive settings with points of interest, and giant