The Legend of Zelda is buzzing again! Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Twilight Princess – high hopes for Switch 2
Spring 2026, and talk of The Legend of Zelda is everywhere in the gaming world. It all started when Eric Barone (ConcernedApe), the creator of Stardew Valley, declared in an interview: “For me, the best Zelda is Twilight Princess.” The moment he said it, social media timelines turned a shade of twilight. After the almost limitless Hyrule of Breath of the Wild, it seems those gloomy, weighty dungeons and the bond with Midna still feel strikingly vivid.
In Barone’s words: “Zelda has always kept presenting the very blueprint of adventure.” And it’s true – the evolution from 2006’s Twilight Princess to 2017’s Breath of the Wild and then 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom isn’t just about better graphics. It’s about how to break down the “walls” of the game world. Remember that jolt of freedom when you first stole the skies with the paraglider? The sheer creativity of crafting and material fusion has already blown past the boundaries of traditional action-adventure.
One and a half years after Tears of the Kingdom: Switch 2 rumours and ‘another Zelda’
It’s been about three years since Tears of the Kingdom launched. Yet discovery videos – “I can’t believe you can do that with Zonai devices” – keep popping up. That’s Nintendo’s craft for you. Meanwhile, industry chatter is steadily shifting to the next-gen hardware, the ‘Switch 2’. I haven’t touched one myself, but several developers have whispered that a new Zelda title is being readied as a launch game.
- A 60fps, high-res version of Breath of the Wild (a so-called ‘DX edition’)
- An additional story DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, exclusive to Switch 2
- An entirely new The Legend of Zelda, rebooting the style of older entries
All still rumours, of course. But for veteran fans who, like Barone, love the linear dungeon design of Twilight Princess, there’s also a longing for a tighter, less open‑world‑only experience. In fact, I recently revisited Twilight Princess HD on my Nintendo Switch Lite. The contrast of the Twilight Realm in handheld mode felt fresh, carrying a different kind of tension from the console‑only days.
Why Zelda, right now? The ‘universal design philosophy’ behind Barone’s words
Barone adds: “Zelda never just rests on past glories. Breath of the Wild smashed the series’ conventions to pieces, and Tears of the Kingdom went even further.” In other words, if Twilight Princess represents the polished peak of ‘traditional 3D Zelda’, then the games since have put ‘liberation from tradition’ at the very core of their design.
From that angle, just imagining what the next Zelda might look like gets the heart racing. Maybe it’ll fully leverage the Switch 2’s rumoured new features (a ‘camera‑linked controller’? ‘high‑speed streaming assist’?) to deliver an unprecedented paradox of building and breaking. Or perhaps they’ll choose to refine a weighty, linear story in the mould of Twilight Princess with cutting‑edge tech – that possibility can’t be ruled out either.
Either way, the Legend of Zelda series never loses that exciting sense of “who knows what they’ll do next”. Right now, even on a Nintendo Switch Lite, you can easily carry both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom with you. When Barone praises the innovation of the latest games while still holding a torch for Twilight Princess, it’s proof that “every Zelda was part of my youth”.
So, how about stepping into that vast Hyrule for yourself? Who knows – by the time the Switch 2 is officially announced, there might be one more ‘legend’ added to the list.