“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” can be credited for helping push sales of the Nintendo Switch hybrid game system in its first year. Now, a sequel for the game has been announced to be in development at E3 2019. That is notable because Nintendo rarely makes direct sequels to mainline “Zelda” titles.

But perhaps that is just as well. “Breath of the Wild” was a breath of fresh air for the “Legend of Zelda” playing experience because of its evolution of the open-world adventure game genre.

It is fitting then that Nintendo will want to continue the storyline of this 2017 title.

E3 teasers reveal new foe

The Verge has it that Nintendo made known to the public that a “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” sequel was in the works, during the company’s keynote presentation at E3 2019 on Tuesday, June 11. This was punctuated by a short trailer showing teaser footage of the graphics quality of a sequel, if not an actual story sequence. The trailer showcases player character Link accompanied by Princess Zelda, as they explore an expansive underground cavern. After encountering strange creatures along the way, the two find a decayed corpse, trapped in dark living vines, that suddenly springs to life.

Speculation now abounds on what this new enemy for the “Breath of the Wild” teaser might be. And that is what the E3 video could only be since it announced through a text display that the game was in development towards the end. One likely suspect according to social media speculation is that this living corpse is Ganondorf, the original mortal form of the evil being Ganon who is the constant big bad of the “Zelda” franchise. It is notable that the Switch title only featured the Ganon form and not the Ganondorf persona (which has been nearly a “Zelda” staple since “Ocarina of Time” on the old N64 console).

Direct sequel to best-selling ‘Zelda’

For Nintendo, almost every “Legend of Zelda” game, despite being connected through a nebulous semi-official timeline, are detached from one another to avoid being true storyline sequels.

USA Today notes, however, the new Nintendo Switch title will continue from where “Breath of the Wild” left off. The fact that only two years have passed since the first “Zelda” Switch game was released lends credence to the straight sequel idea. The company would certainly want a strong connection to the best-seller that sold over 12 million copies worldwide, the largest amount of any “Zelda” game in the franchise’s history.

So far, Nintendo has not announced a release date for “Breath of the Wild 2” during E3. It is possible that the game will arrive not long after the introduction of some new hardware variants for the basic Switch console.