The Legend of Zelda:Breathe of the Wild was definitely one of the most anticipated games of E3 2016, and the highlight of Nintendo’s conference.  What made fans excited about Breath of the Wild was the fact that it was open world, and we know that Monolith Studios, the developers behind Xenoblade Chronicles X, is to thank for that.

In an interview with GameInformer last year, the director for Xenoblade Chronicles Tetsuya Takashi said that they were working on the new Zelda game.  Monolith studios also helped on Zelda: Skyward Sword, so their studio have worked directly with Shigeru Miyamoto before.  In a recent interview, Miyamoto clarified that the Nintendo and Monolith teams are working on the game, with Monolith having over 100 team members alone.

From the gameplay we’ve seen, Breath of the Wild definitely takes some inspiration from Xenoblade Chronicles X in terms of how much there is to explore.  Previous Zelda games have had big areas to explore, but the games usually take the player on a linear path going from one dungeon to another.  Breath of the Wild gives the player the freedom to explore the entire area, the game can even be beaten without finishing the story.Breath of the Wild is said to be 12 times larger than the map of Twilight Princess, so it makes sense for Monolith to help Nintendo with such a huge map.  It’s good to know that so much work is being put into Breath of the Wild, and we’ll see just how huge it is when the game is released for Wii U and NX in March 2017.