Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the sequel to 2017 open world adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has officially launched for the Nintendo Switch. The game utilizes the “Musou” style of gameplay originally featured in previous Zelda title Hyrule Warriors, featuring individual playable characters taking on hordes of enemies led by powerful commanders and bosses.
IGN asked Eiji Aonuma (Legend of Zelda series producer) and Yosuke Hayashi (Age of Calamity producer) whether the release of the new title meant that future Hyrule Warriors games might be on the way. However, Aonuma and Hayashi denied current fan speculation that Nintendo was planning to turn Hyrule Warriors into its own spin-off franchise.
“I don’t think we’re expecting this to become a series,” Aonuma told IGN. However, he did acknowledge the possibility that future Warriors-type games could be made in the future, should “circumstances…align.” He further explained that the team behind The Legend of Zelda prefers to take an “idea-first” approach, preferring to start with creative ideas pitched by team members rather than feeling forced to make certain types of games or games covering certain topics.
Aonuma further explained that the original idea for Age of Calamity was pitched by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who had directed Breath of the Wild. Fujibayashi wanted to tell the story of the Great Calamity, the past event which set Breath of the Wild’s plot in motion, but wanted to do so in a format which could properly convey the vast scale of the armies involved. Finally, Aonuma revealed that the team had been brainstorming ideas for another Hyrule Warriors-style game, but had not been able to come up with any good ones until Fujibayashi made his pitch.
Unfortunately, neither Aonuma nor Hayashi were able to provide IGN with any information regarding the planned Breath of the Wild sequel, although they did confirm that it is still in development.
