Breath of the Wild's unused potential inspired Tears of the Kingdom

When Breath of the Wild launched, its focus on player creativity revealed untapped possibilities, and the team moved to expand that approach in Tears of the Kingdom.

Producer Eiji Aonuma said watching what players did with the original confirmed the direction. "After we released the game and saw what people were doing with it, we realized that this was the right direction to head in," he admits. "We saw that people were exploring how to play."

That spirit of experimentation carried into Tears, where fans pushed the systems further and built elaborate contraptions. There's the fan who recreated a Metal Gear Solid 2 aircraft, for instance — a single example of how far players took the tools the game offered.

That player-driven creativity helped convince the team to make a follow-up: "That's why I thought a sequel would be a good idea."

breath, tears, eiji aonuma, player creativity, fan creations, sequel, metal gear, aircraft, contraptions, game systems