Why TOTK reuses BOTW's Hyrule Map
Channel: Video Game Story Time
Date: 2023-05-15

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is built on the same Hyrule world map as Breath of the Wild, but why? Why not simply make a new game world from scratch? 

In a recent Nintendo Ask the Developer interview, the developers behind the game, including longtime series producer Eiji Aonuma, spoke at length about the decision to make TOTK on top of what they'd already built for BOTW. While this might sound like an easy job, it turns out that stripping away all the relevant stuff from the Nintendo Switch launch title and replacing it with new, intricated systems and opportunities for exploration actually ended up being more work than starting from scratch.

This just goes to show how much love, care, and attention to detail went into making Link's latest adventure. Turns out, game development is hard no matter how many assets you can get away with reusing!

Lots of love,
BretonStripes and Kotor

Source for this video:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/May/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-9-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Tears-of-the-Kingdom-Chapter-1-2383804.html