The Legend of Zelda is heating up again! Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Twilight Princess – growing anticipation for Switch 2
In spring 2026, chatter about The Legend of Zelda is buzzing across the gaming world. It all started when Eric Barone (ConcernedApe), creator of Stardew Valley, stated in an interview: “For me, the best Zelda is Twilight Princess.” The moment he said it, social media timelines were bathed in twilight hues. For those who’ve grown used to the boundless Hyrule of Breath of the Wild onwards, those gloomy, weighty dungeons and the bond with Midna still feel incredibly vivid.
In Barone’s words: “Zelda has always kept presenting the ‘blueprint of adventure’.” And indeed, 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 graphical upgrades. It’s about how to break down the “walls” of the field – remember the shock of seizing the skies with that paraglider? The freedom of crafting and material fusion effortlessly leaped beyond the traditional action-adventure framework.
A year and a half 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 still pop up, showing off wild Zonai device creations – that’s Nintendo’s real strength. Meanwhile, industry attention is gradually shifting to the next‑gen hardware, the “Switch 2”. I haven’t got my hands on one yet, but whispers among several developers suggest “a new Zelda title is being prepped as a launch game.”
- A 60fps, high‑resolution version of Breath of the Wild (a so‑called “DX edition”)
- An additional scenario DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, exclusive to Switch 2
- An entirely new The Legend of Zelda, rebooting the style of past entries
All of this is still just “rumour” for now. But for long‑time fans like Barone, who love the linear dungeon design of Twilight Princess, a “tighter experience” that isn’t purely open‑world can be quite appealing. In fact, I recently replayed Twilight Princess HD on my Nintendo Switch Lite, and the contrast of the Twilight Realm in handheld mode felt fresh – a different kind of tension from the console‑only days.
Why The Legend of Zelda right now? The “universal design philosophy” behind Barone’s words
Barone continues: “Zelda never relies on its past heritage. Breath of the Wild smashed the series’ conventions, and Tears of the Kingdom went even further beyond that breaking.” In other words, if Twilight Princess was the pinnacle of “traditional 3D Zelda”, then the games after it placed “liberation from tradition” at the very core of their design.
Looking at it that way, just imagining what the next Zelda might look like gets the heart racing. Perhaps it will fully leverage the rumoured new features of the Switch 2 (whispers of a “camera‑linked controller” and “high‑speed streaming assist”) to present an unprecedented paradox of “building and destruction”. Or, there’s still a chance they’ll deliberately refine a linear, story‑heavy experience in the style of Twilight Princess with cutting‑edge technology.
Either way, the Legend of Zelda series never loses that thrilling sense of “you never know what they’ll do next”. Right now, on a Nintendo Switch Lite, you can easily carry both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom with you. While Barone may cast an admiring eye at Twilight Princess, his praise for the latest games’ innovation is proof that “every Zelda was part of my youth”.
So, why not step into that vast Hyrule yourself? Who knows – by the time the Switch 2 is officially announced, maybe one more “legend” will have been added.