Topic: Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Special Edition

So a private demo of an enhanced BotW running on more powerful hardware and various other rumors of late, and it seems like Ntdo will be taking a Skyrim approach with Zelda and the launch of new hardware. And why not, the various special ed’s of Skyrim sold well. And people loved year 1 of Switch, let’s do it again, Sam!

What would y’all like to see updated in an enhanced edition of BotW for Switch 2?

Personally, I hope they go the route of Link’s Awakening for GBC. Definitely the precedent for this type of close proximity rerelease. Give the graphics/performance a boost for sure, but also some new shrines, similar to DX’s exclusive dungeon. But the new shrines could be a pair of Mega Shrines, much bigger, maybe half the size of a traditional dungeon, with some cool robots to fight at the end.

What more could Nintendo do to this game, it's already big enough as is from launch and the DLC's just made it even more rich. I'd probably buy it regardless but at the very least I'd want some performance upgrades, though I imagine 1080p60 would be a reach even for a Super Switch.

I guess Nintendo could include some measure of TotK content into BotW, and vice-versa for enhanced Switch successor ports. That would be pretty cool to see.

Thinking for example, how reasonably notable characters are absent from each entry like no Penn in BotW, no Kass in TotK, you could add in Tauro into BotW.

It could be really cool if certain abilities intended for one game could be made accessible in the opposite game, like Sheikah Slate runes in TotK or Zonai abilities in BotW, and the possibilities for new unique shrines introduced by their combination.

Generally speaking, I don't think I'd support this idea. If there's going to be a full-price revisit, it needs to be after a lot of dust has settled from TotK. We've all spent hundreds of hours in that Hyrule and I don't think encouraging Nintendo to rinse it dry would do the series' reputation much good. Sure, remaster it someday or do something new with it, but not until 2030 at least.

Having said that, I know that if Nintendo granted my wish and made it so that the whole game had new, next-gen Wind Waker Toon graphics, I probably wouldn't be able to resist.

@jedgamesguy
Depends on what the goal is. Based on how the game runs on emulators on "Switch 2 like" hardware I'd guess that 1440p 60fps with minor additional graphical improvements would be possible. 4K 30fps at a real stretch. 1080p 60fps would be a cakewalk. If they start cranking up the fidelity then sure, 1080p/60. But BotW with the assets it uses isn't going to be something that stresses Switch 2 at 1080p

I know BotW targets 900p/30fps on Switch and occasionally misses it. But I think people seriously underestimate how much of a jump this is going to be

@jedgamesguy The special edition of BOTW is believed to be the Switch 2 upgraded version, which spawn wave talks about here: https://youtu.be/IMh-swZxrEc?si=99Ka7fbBL8wm0RqO&t=294

If the next gen switch is a big leap in power, resolution & load times, then I think an upgraded version makes sense.

This is disappointing if real to be honest, it reeks of Sony's nonsense in the PS5 era. It's like doing a remaster/remake of Horizon Zero Dawn (which is heavily rumoured).

If it’s a free update for those who already own the game then yes, that’d be great.
Otherwise it’d be quite the hard sell, especially if they push it as part of the launch lineup.

Besides, we already have 3 games set in this version of Hyrule, sure they’re all great but players might get sick of it fast if it’s milked too dry (just look at what Atlus did to Persona 5)

@skywake To be fair I haven't followed the Switch 2 specs much, so my picture isn't as clear for me as you. It still feels strange to think that a game as big as BotW can run 1080-60 even on a PS4 Pro-level system, let alone at all on the Switch, so I ain't holding my breath over this. Still, I'll buy it, there's some games I've gotten twice on multiple systems that feel like a new game when there are better graphics and a stable 60-fps platform, like Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dragon Quest XI et cetera.

@WoomyNNYes Sigh... of course Midori's behind these leaks. Fun! I just hope they do some kind of extra content to sweeten the deal for people like me, who've already double-dipped.

Ideally, switch games would just be able to run naturally in the new system, and be able to use the upgraded specs by default to decrease load times and increase resolution/frame rate.

None of that “we kept the lag for authenticity” like with emulated NES games.

@Grumblevolcano Horizon remake is 100% happening. It fits with Sony's MO this gen.

Wii U remasters were understandable given the lack of sales on that system, but if they try that with Switch 1 games... yeah, I'm out.

Yeah I'm hoping this doesn't happen, I've been pushed away from Playstation as it seems like they've abandoned so many promising and fun games just for constant remakes. I guess if it doesn't interfere with the amount of games they release for a potential launch lineup (3D Mario, Mario Kart, Metroid, maybe some others) then it's fine, but I don't love the idea on first glance.

BotW mostly looks good due to good art direction and a lot of polish. While improvements to texture quality/filtering and resolution would be nice...it would be similar? Like trying a GC/Wii game on Dolphin, great and sharp. Still the same for the most part.

Content-wise? BotW has plenty, I don't think the DLC was necessary in the first place.
And a lot of what TotK has is what I wanted during my first playthrough of BotW. And BotW has some things the sequel never managed for me.

They're good as two sides of the same coin. An era of Zelda that's definitely going to be remembered. And if we're getting backwards compatibility with or without minor upgrades then I'm happy.
...would rather have Wind Waker HD again. Or Wind Waker...upscaled 4K (kind of) Edition

@Ralizah Removal of the PS4 version from PS+ Extra/Premium is pretty much confirmation of a PS5 remaster/remake.

@Kimyonaakuma Yeah, BotW is weird. Beautiful game, but upscaled 4K footage on PC I've seen doesn't look that much better tbh. The art-style works well at any HD resolution, but, conversely, it's also not something that benefits dramatically from more pixels on-screen at once.

A higher framerate would be nice, but I'm not rebuying the game just for that.

I think what Nintendo has an opportunity to do is redraw a lot of textures, especially foliage, in an attempt to pull BOTW closer to its reveal trailer. The reveal trailer contained much thicker, denser foliage, and the launch state obviously had to tone down texture quality and density in order to optimize for Switch's capabilities.

Online videos demonstrating BOTW running with improved resolution and frame rate look great, but a dedicated port has the potential to go much farther. With a proper Switch 2 port, Nintendo could improve texture quality, but more importantly density. There were many areas within Hyrule that revealed the Switch's limitations.

If this is real, then I hope Nintendo takes this opportunity to make a Switch 2 port of BOTW appear more like a remake than a remaster.

Just going to add to my previous comment after some, ahh, experimentation. I would say that if you ran a game like BotW or TotK on the hardware reported to be on the Switch 2 with no changes at all? You should be able to achieve a native 4K with a 30fps target. A 60fps target is probably achievable at something around 1440p but certainly at 1080p you should be able to comfortably go above it

In terms of loading performance? I mean, that's a bit harder for me to judge what the Switch 2 would be capable of here. I don't really have the ability to make that comparison. But if you give it more than an eMMC card and a 10 year old mobile CPU.... it certainly goes faster. I think all of these things should be achievable without a new version and, frankly, it'd be a nice upgrade right here. The jump to 60fps in particular is very nice. But this should all be just standard backwards compatibility stuff. IMO.

With that said, is there more that could be done to this game beyond this? I'd say yes. I think if you look at some of the texture work on environmental stuff in particular it's all fairly low resolution. Character models and such all look good but when you look at a cliffside (which is honestly most of these games) then the compromise is certainly more noticeable at higher resolutions. I think there's also a fair amount of room for significant improvements to things like lighting, water, all sorts

Would all of that be enough for me to fork out full retail for the game again? .... maybe not. But if would be nice if it was to exist and, frankly, I probably would pay an upgrade fee for it. Would I buy it if there was some new content also? ..... probably yes. Especially if the new content was more than a shirt and hat

....... with all that said, it might be nice if the pre-rendered cutscenes were rendered on device. Or at the very least less compressed and rendered at a higher resolution

I really do think BotW could have a pretty substantial director’s cut edition. I know some would suggest that that sort of content would have gone into TotK, but I’m confident there would be plenty of things that were not included anywhere due to constraints on various fronts such as development going from Wii U to Switch