It's easy to forget that Zelda fans were fed up with the formula not too long ago; Twilight Princess was often criticized for being too derivative of Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword—while a critical darling—was frequently called out for its excessive hand-holding. These games are looked back on fondly now, but the series was in need of an update at the time.
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom might already be facing similar complaints, with vocal fans online calling on Nintendo to drop the open world altogether in favor of a more classic Zelda experience, but throwing Link into the expanse of Hyrule is what saved the series. To hear former Nintendo employee Krysta Yang say it, "They were selling like nothing."
"I remember I was going to the focus groups. It was a really dark moment of like, the feedback is the fan base is dwindling," co-host and fellow former Nintendo employee Kit Ellis added. "This is not bringing in new players. We had so much data of every game, it was fewer, the interest in the audience was getting smaller and smaller. They had to do something drastic."
Kit claims the idea...
