Breath of the Wild 2 really should just give Link a gun already

One of Link’s defining traits, besides his silence for more than 30 years of Legend of Zelda games, is his enormous arsenal of tools, gadgets, and weapons that have helped him save Hyrule from utter demise countless times. Breath of the Wild seriously leveled up the sophistication of Link’s weaponry by giving him remote-activated bombs, the Sheikah Slate (which is basically a magical iPad), and even a motorcycle in the game’s expansion pass.

Now that BotW 2 has been confirmed to be in development for well over a year, the time has come, Nintendo. Just give Link a gun!

The series has been dancing around letting Link pack heat for years now, even though Nintendo has given him items that were basically stand-ins for guns. The most glaring example is the Seed Shooter from Oracle of Ages, which acted like an upgrade to Link’s slingshot.

Besides that instance, Link’s had access to deadly weapons and projectiles — like swords, bows, and bombs — since Legend of Zelda’s inception. So all Nintendo would have to do is take it one step farther, while keeping it with the game’s lore and aesthetic, of course.

The lifelike firearms from something like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare definitely would never be found in Hyrule, but what if the Sheikah Tribe that made Link's tablet also made some kind of steampunk arcane blaster?

This race of people in the Zelda universe are responsible for most of the mysterious machinery found sprinkled around Hyrule. They’re responsible for the Sheikah Slate that gave Link the ability to freeze objects in time. They also created the spider-like Guardians that literally fire laser beams from their eyes. They could probably scrap together a handheld version of the Guardian’s energy-blasting eyeball with ease, so it's actually a bit surprising that they haven't already.

Letting Link wield a Sheikah gun might seem a bit too strong when most of the enemies he encountered in BotW only had melee weapons or basic bows, but Nintendo could simply balance it by making the material or ammunition required to fire it extremely scarce. Either that, or they could make the gun weak and unwieldy, the equivalent of a musket or something like that.

This way the gun could be powerful but players would be encouraged to only use it in crucial boss battles or when they’re on the brink of death. Just like you wouldn’t waste an Ancient Arrow on a group of Bokoblin’s in BotW, making the gun’s ammo sparse would balance how game-changing it might be.

Another possibility: There are rumors and hints that Zelda might be playable in BotW 2, but in this timeline, she's more of an academic scholar than a more combat-ready Sheik like she has been in the past. If there are guns of any kind in the game, it might be interesting if Zelda was styled as some kind of tech-focused artificer wielding an arcane firearm. That seems pretty farfetched, but it's an exciting prospect to consider.

Link’s treasure trove of weapons exponentially expanded in BotW, and they're bound to add even more for the sequel.

So maybe it's high time Nintendo throws a gun into the mix.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is now in development.