Eiji Aonuma is dropping hints that open world might be the future of Zelda from here on out. A recent interview about The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu unveiled Aonuma's head space following the highly successful game:
Famitsu: Making the next Zelda game might be more difficult if you choose to make it an open-air game. What will evolve open-air? How will you make future dungeons? What will the next Zelda title be like?
Aonuma: I think that, in the future, open air games will be the standard for Zelda.
For at least the immediate future, this is true. Nintendo has already announced plans to release story DLC for Breath Of The Wild later this year. Right now owners can expect a "Cave Of Trials" in the Summer and a completely original story and dungeon due out in December. Quite frankly, the world of BOTW is so large that I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo pulled a Majora's Mask and did a reimagining of the world for a sequel. Even though I know how it all ends up, I would be down to play the prequel to Breath Of The Wild.
Do you think lightning can strike twice? If Zelda continues the open world format what would you like to see change or improve, if anything?