 One of my favorite kinds of news on this channel are, well, news about the Legend of Zelda, especially upcoming Legend of Zelda games. Now look, when we went crazy over Tears of the Kingdom before it came out and even a little bit earlier this year, a lot of that was just because of how excited I was for the game. Any 1.5 seconds of brand new footage we got in the commercial was big news for me. I couldn't get enough of Tears of the Kingdom before it came out and honestly I still can't get enough. That's why I'm still playing the damn game to this very day. But if you remember back when they announced that they weren't going to be making DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, which upset quite a few people, they did mention or at least Fujiwabayashi did that they are going to be actually working on the next Legend of Zelda game very soon. Now this was months ago, they're probably already working on that new Zelda game at this point, but he mentioned that he already had ideas, concepts, he sort of knew where he wanted to go with the next Zelda game. Now there's been some little tidbits and interviews here and there, little nuggets that have sort of suggested that, hey, anyone expecting this to like feel like Breath of the Wild in Tears of the Kingdom with the next game, that's not what it's going to be. They are going to stick with the open air, open world concept, that's not going to be going anywhere, wouldn't be surprised that the climbing mechanics don't go anywhere. But recently, you know, we heard from an interview with Game Informer that Ultra Hand isn't going to come back. And I know some people feel a little disappointed about Ultra Hand not returning in the Zelda series, but I will remind you that, hey, that's part of what makes Tears of the Kingdom so great. And if you look back at the rest of the Zelda series, there's always these unique things to each game that just stay with that game. And that's what makes that game special. And what that also means is we should totally trust Nintendo and Fujibayashi and Aonuma with whatever crazy ideas are going to happen in the future. Well, with the round of interviews they did recently, thanks to them being in town for the Game Awards, it turns out that an interview with IGN has uncovered potentially more details on the next Zelda game. Now, we're going to say potential because it covers an idea and Aonuma himself injects the real possibility of this idea happening. And my lord, this could be something explored with the next Zelda game. But we're going to talk about this in depth because this isn't necessarily a new idea, but it's one that maybe deserves more attention based on what Aonuma said today. So before we dive into that, I just want to thank you for being here. If you're not subscribed to the channel, go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you can be smacked in the face with some lovely donuts raining from the heavens today. And why not wringling that dingaling so you're notified of all future live streams and videos. Alright, so what are we getting into here? Well, I literally in my document, you know, I usually have like this prime news document I put all of my research into and I number the stories by one, two, three, and we're only doing one story today. The funny thing is I am so taken aback by what happened. The headline in it says, whoa, whoa, whoa. No one was going to see that but me. But that's how crazy this is for me and how excited I am just by the idea. So they were asking about Zelda a lot in their interview. There was a ton of stuff about Zelda and tears of the kingdom, the relationship and all of that. And no, they don't confirm Z-Link. They say they'll leave that up to the imagination to the players. Any intent was already put into the game and they're not going to confirm one way or another if Z-Link is a thing. But that's not the hero there. We're here to talk about the next Zelda game. That's right. I can't believe we're even, we're not even to the end of 2023. We're talking about the next Zelda game, officially with real news. Here we go. They were talking about the idea of maybe Zelda being a more playable character in the future. Here's what Aonuma said. Yeah, it is interesting when you think about the name of the series, the legend of Zelda. But Link is always the main character. Now Aonuma admitted this when asked about the potential for Zelda to be playable in the future. Then he went on to say this. And Link has been the main character and Zelda has always been involved and they have a relationship and their own rules in each of the games. But it is true that I think there's always room for thinking about this type of thing and Zelda's role. And there may be some sort of possibility for something like that in the future. Now, if that was it, look, we've heard about them tease and talk about the idea of a playable Zelda in the Zelda series before. It is an idea that they have admittedly explored. They just haven't found the right way to do it yet. Maybe Fujibayashi, maybe that is one of his core ideas for the next game is, sure, we're Link, but maybe there are segments that we could play as Zelda. Some people thought we might actually get that in Tears of the Kingdom that there was sort of a prediction that Zelda might go to the past and maybe we could play as her in the past. Now instead, it was just a bunch of cutscenes and memories we got to experience from the past. But what if in the next game they actually give us some segments, not the entire game, but just certain sections where we need to play as Zelda with her own unique moveset, magic abilities and her own story narrative driving that forward. Now, no one, well, I shouldn't say no one, some of you just want the entire game to be a playable Zelda. I don't think that's in the cards, but I could see them doing something like Imajora's Mask when we got to play as certain other side characters in some of the side quests. I think in the main quest, they can maybe have us play as Zelda for certain segments. And then maybe who knows after you beat the game, maybe that's something you can unlock is just being able to play as Zelda anytime you want. I'm just throwing that out there. I don't really know if they're going to do that, but it would be quite interesting. Now, that would also be a bonus for beating the game. It would actually drive people to want to beat the game. Maybe it's something that you have a reward for 100% in the game as an example. Maybe you get rewarded with being able to play as Zelda anytime you want. Now that being said, this is something that we need to dive deeper into because Aonuma did something that he never does. This was all through a translator, right? He said this, a translator said it. And as the translator got to the end, Aonuma interjected in English and said, maybe, maybe, maybe, like he didn't want to necessarily give something away. It felt like Aonuma was like, I'm talking too much. I'm either telling people that this is going to happen and oh no, I don't want people like thinking it's going to happen or or he realized he said something that he shouldn't have said. And when he talks about it, the possibility of something like that in the future, maybe he realized in that moment, oh crap, this is one of the things Fujibayashi was talking to me about with his ideas for the next game. And I basically just told people it's happening and it's like, oh no, maybe, maybe, like I don't want to give this away. Maybe, maybe, maybe. That's what's actually driving a lot of this hype because we don't understand what Aonuma meant by the maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe he thought he was guaranteeing something that isn't going to happen. So he's like, oh no, I need to calm that down or he realized, oh crap, I just gave away one of the ideas that Fujibayashi had for the next Zelda game. And I got to make sure that like people aren't, you know, finding out things about this next game too soon. They don't like to do that. It's probably at least two years away at minimum before they even show the game, maybe three years. So again, it's quite interesting thinking about that quote. So again, yeah, he interjected literally in English. It's insane to me because he never does that. This felt like an oops moment. Like he said something he wasn't supposed to say one way or another. So talking about Zelda being playable is a very interesting aspect. And I think in general, a majority of the fan base of Zelda would be okay if Zelda's playable just for sections of the game. Obviously, Link's the main protagonist and that's what it's always been. And I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel here and not have Link be that main protagonist. But just like we got to do with some side quests in, you know, there's actually a really famous side quest in Majora's Mask that you get to play as another character as, I think that that is something they could explore here in this next game. It doesn't have to be something where you're playing as Zelda for 30 hours or something crazy. It literally could be like a small segment in a dungeon. And look, we got to do that a smidge if you want to count spirit tracks because Zelda is the phantom. So you control the phantom for certain puzzles. So then it kind of sort of you're controlling Zelda. But it's not the same thing, right? You're still controlling Link. I can see there being a dichotomy where certain aspects of specific dungeons require you to play as Zelda. I think that is something that would be absolutely fascinating and could actually be a really, really cool thing. And also doesn't tie them to having to make Zelda playable for the whole game. It could just be sections. Now obviously, I mentioned it would be cool to have like a 100% where suddenly now you could play as Zelda. Again, I don't know if that's even an idea they would consider. But I do think that they because assessment talked about so much and they've talked about it publicly so much before prior games, it is clearly an idea I think that they have continuously explored. And they're just trying to find the right way to do it. And again, as I said, I think the right way to do it is just certain sections of very specific dungeons you need Zelda to be able to get past. Imagine if we could go back to Ocarina of Time and when Sheik helps Link and appears in certain areas of the dungeons, well instead of Sheik just appearing there, we got to play as Sheik entering the dungeon through a different entrance and had to go through our own things to get to Link to give him that advice. Imagine that we got to do that. That's what I'm talking about here. It just adds something to the game that in the past, you would just not have a full explanation for. So to me, that is the direction I think they should take it. And I think it is something they're exploring. I don't know that it's going to happen in this next game. But again, I'll name a man, there may be a possibility for something like that in the future. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, like, hey, maybe, maybe, let's not, let's not give away something just yet. Thank you so much, I'll name it for driving the hype for the next Zelda game. I hope you guys are having an amazing weekend. I actually wasn't planning to make this video over the weekend, but I decided, you know what, we got some good momentum going at the channel. We were going to save this for Monday. I can't save Zelda news for Monday. What, what, then I really think I could just sit on a brand new piece of Zelda news for the next Zelda game all weekend. Then I really think that I could do that. Of course I couldn't. Guys, you know me. I got to get you this news ASAP. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video.