BOTW 2 Can Have A Trial Of The Sword Challenge Mode At Launch

The still untitled sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a chance to modify many of its predecessor’s features, such as including a Trial of the Sword type challenge mode at launch. The series has had combat gauntlets like the Trial of the Sword before, albeit with some differences, and those earlier iterations show how such a mini-dungeon can be implemented more effectively. BOTW 2 should have better DLC than the first game, and part of that could come from making any planned challenge modes similar to the Trial of the Sword part of the base game instead.

Since it comes as part of Breath of the Wild‘s expansion content, the Trial of the Sword is entirely optional, but it can be of great help to those far into the game. The Trial of the Sword is a set of 54 levels, referred to as floors, that contain a variety of combat challenges that will reward the player with a better Master Sword. The floors are broken up int0 three tiers: the Beginning, Middle, and Final Trials. Once all the floors in one tier have been completed, they can be skipped for later Trials since the three are not connected in a single gauntlet. This means once players have conquered the Beginning Trials, which rewards them with a permanent 10 bonus damage for The Legend of Zelda‘s Master Sword, they will then start from the Middle Trials’ first level.

The caveat to the Trial of the Sword is that players are unable to use any of their obtained items in the challenge mode. The Master Sword is put into its pedestal to be teleported into the Sword Monk’s Shrine, and Link will spawn in without any armor, melee weapons, bows, shields, food, etc. Champion Abilities are similarly disabled, but all of the Shiekah Slate Runes still work. Players have to rely on stealth a lot more than usual, and the Trial of the Sword challenges players to come up with creative solutions to each encounter. It’s essentially a larger, more rewarding version of Eventide Island, which some players have made more difficult in one of Zelda: BOTW‘s strange and interesting challenge runs by completing the side quest without actually touching the island itself.

A BOTW 2 Trial Of The Sword Challenge Mode Can Be Required

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker had a location comparable to Breath of the Wild‘s Trial of the Sword called the Savage Labyrinth. Once Link obtains the Power Bracelets in Wind Waker, he is able to lift the giant stone head on the ledge behind his grandmother’s house on Outset Island, revealing a hidden hole that players can jump into. What players land in is a combat gauntlet with 51 floors, but only 31 of them need to be reached. In the original GameCube release, the 31st floor held a chart that would lead to the location of a shard of the Triforce hidden on Wind Waker‘s island map. This was changed to the Triforce Shard itself in the HD rerelease in order to reduce the tedium of the game’s excessively long treasure hunt sequence. Reaching the bottom will reward the player with a Piece of Heart or, in Wind Waker HD, the Hero’s Charm.

The Savage Labyrinth has the same concept as the Trial of the Sword – defeat every enemy on a floor to move on to the next – but doesn’t strip the player of all the items they’ve gathered thus far. Breath of the Wild‘s sequel could similarly require players to progress through a gauntlet for a required item. Even if BOTW 2 does bring back more traditional Zelda dungeons, it could be a nice change of pace, offering enemy encounters that are more tailored than those found in the open world. The Trial of the Sword would have been a great way to earn the Master Sword in the first BOTW, rather than pulling the Master Sword requiring a certain number of hearts. If the sequel continues to feature the Sheikah Monks, another Trial could be used to attain some milestone item.

A BOTW 2 Trial Of The Sword Challenge Mode Can Be Recurring

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the only other game in the series to feature a similarly structured mini-dungeon, called the Cave of Ordeals. Twilight Princess HD also has the Cave of Shadows, which is traversed exclusively as Wolf Link, but accessing it requires an additional purchase of an Amiibo. Unlike the Savage Labyrinth, the Cave of Ordeals is completely optional. Once players have reached Gerudo Desert and warped the missing section of the Bridge of Eldin back to where it belongs, the Cave of Ordeals can be entered. The basic premise is the exact same as the Trial of the Sword and the Savage Labyrinth, with the ultimate reward on the 50th floor being Great Fairy’s Tears, one of the rarer Zelda items Link can catch in a bottle. The only major difference is that some floors require certain items to complete, meaning players will have to return to the Cave of Ordeals once they’ve beaten various dungeons.

An engaging way of iterating on the Trial of the Sword in BOTW 2 could be to emulate the Cave of Ordeals. The first Breath of the Wild didn’t really have classic Zelda items, but if they’re reimplemented the sequel, a Trial of the Sword-like location could become recurring, with players gradually advancing through it as they unlock more key items throughout the game. The only issue is that the Cave of Ordeals requires players to restart from the first level if they leave at any time. This feature could be dropped if something like the Cave of Ordeals is put into BOTW 2, though, since having to do the first sections multiple times would be unnecessarily receptive. BOTW 2 wasn’t at Nintendo’s February Direct, so even though it’s slated to release this year, there are still very few details about it. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an incredible reinvention of the series, but it missed an opportunity by not having the Trial of the Sword be a more integral part of the game – something the sequel can do by having a similar challenge at launch.

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