The Breath of the Wild sequel appears to be devoid of friendly life: What this could mean for the game and its story

After two years and two teasers, we have yet to see any non-playable characters (NPCs) who are set to appear in the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel. No Hylians, no Zoras — not a soul to be found so far.

That’s another thing. We don’t see any people, but we do see the monsters. And there are even more of them than last time. What does this mean? Do they have their run of the kingdom because no one is around to hold them at bay?

If there is a significant reason why Link and Zelda seem to be alone, I think there are three possibilities of what that reason is. Only time will tell which, if any, of them is true, but it’s worth making some educated guesses on what they could be.

Everyone is captured

This is the theory I believe is most likely. Everyone will be magically abducted either by Ganon directly, by Ganon indirectly, or by some unknown force. (Link’s new hand is an added wildcard, so who knows what other magical craziness is coming.) Whatever the cause, Link will have to systematically find methods to free them and return them to Hyrule. This would be how the game’s story would occur in sections. It would also let the game mimic Breath of the Wild in a way that many players would enjoy.

Link would need to save each group of people systematically. It would be like freeing them from the threat of the Divine Beasts. The only difference is that he wouldn’t get to interact with them first. Well, maybe he’d find a way to communicate with some of them through indirect means to help push the story along. There has to be some NPC interaction on occasion to help players know what the heck they are supposed to be doing.

This could be why he travels to the skies. There’s something up there that can help him locate and free each group of people. Remember in Skyward Sword how Skyloft was the central hub that led Link to every main region on the surface? What we’ve seen in the teaser could be the remains of that floating city. There were many secrets of the Goddesses hidden on those islands. Perhaps they hold some clues for the Hero of the Wild.

Link went back in time

The Zelda series loves assaulting its own timeline. That would be an easy way to explain why Hyrule is devoid of life. Perhaps Ganon, doing Ganon things, tries to right the wrong he sees Link as and goes back in time to erase Link from existence. Link figures out what Ganon’s up to and follows him.

This would be great for many reasons. The most important of which is all of the Terminator references and memes we’ll be able to make about it. (OK, that one might only be important to me.)

A Link to the Past (Again. Again.)

Jokes aside, it could work. In the trailer, Link is seen wearing an outfit that resembles the Hero from 10,000 years prior to the events in Breath of the Wild. Could Link have gone into the past and assumed that role? Or perhaps there are two Links. We see Link in two different outfits in the teaser. Maybe those are actually two, separate heroes. Two Legendary Heroes in the same game. We haven’t seen that since Twilight Princess.

There’s also the chance that the Link we know was sent back to the point in time when he lost to Calamity Ganon. Most of everyone would have been in hiding at the time.

It doesn’t truly matter what point in time is chosen. The most important result of going back in time is that it would take us to a Hyrule that appears to be devoid of life. This would create a new set of challenges for Link. He’s regualrly called upon to be the ultimate hero for Hyrule. The thing is, he’s almost never been truly alone during his quests. Isolation in an unfamiliar era would be a test of his resolve.

Everyone is dead

This one is morbid, but its not without precedent in the series. Lots of precedent, come to think of it. Even Zelda’s died a few times. We all love to talk about Majora’s Mask being dark, but all of the games are kind of tragic in one way or another.

Ganondorf learns from his mistakes. His raging insanity aside, the King of Evil is a tactical genius. His intelligence was the focal point of Breath of the Wild if you think about it. All of Hyrule made plans to use the same tactic to defeat Calamity Ganon as their ancestors did 10,000 years prior. Ganon’s plan was to use their plan against them.

Ganon was still pretty peeved about his previous defeat. Rather than let that anger get the best of him though, he decided to do something productive and clever. His cunning led to the destruction of a large portion of Hyrule and the deaths of the Champions, the king, and many, many other people.

But there were still some left alive. Turns out, that was an oversight on Ganon’s part.

Link survived and was the true threat to Ganon. That fact can’t be ignored, but many other people did help the hero along the way. Without Sidon, Teba, Purah, Impa, and many others, Link would have failed in his quest to free Zelda.

Ganon Might Fix His Greatest Mistake

By the looks of things from the sequel’s teasers, Ganon isn’t quite dead yet. This means that Ganon will remember how he failed. If Ganon can’t kill Link, why not see if getting rid of all of the hero’s friends will make doing so easier? And no stopping halfway. Remove every single one of them from the equation this time.

Of course, the genocide of an entire nation wouldn’t just be the end of it. The whole game’s premise would be about bringing everyone back. This would probably involve time travel or manipulation. Though, we’d have to call the game The Legend of Zelda: Endgame if that was the plot. The only difference is that everyone would probably be revived systematically. It would be similar to my first theory, albeit with a much larger douse of trauma for the players.

How Long Will The Hero Stand Alone?

Could all of these theories be completely wrong? Definitely. I hope a few of them are, to be honest. I never said I wanted any of these to actually be real. I just know they’re possible. The validity of these theories will be made obvious the moment Nintendo shows us any NPCs.

But they haven’t done that yet, and anything shown in any Zelda trailer is always deliberate. Painfully so, actually. They know we’re checking each frame. Characters will have to show up in the game eventually. But that’s my whole point. There’s a specific reason why Link is currently exploring a vast, lifeless world.