I've been burned by IGN before so take this with a grain of salt, but IGN Portugal claims they have a new interview with Aonuma coming that includes confirmation of
Epona
and alternate endings.
Google Translate:
One of the interesting things that the famous producer / director of the series, Eiji Aonuma, revealed to us during a recent conversation in Munich, had to do with the fact that there are at least two endings for the adventure in Breath of the Wild.
It's not as if Zelda suddenly began to offer us alternative choices or paths, but in Breath of the Wild, there will be the normal ending, then another, only achievable if we meet certain type / number of conditions:
"There is an alternate ending if you meet certain criteria. If you do a few things, you may see a different ending," Aonuma revealed.
Makes sense, you could go to the final dungeon straight away, probably skipping that plot weapon needed to fully defeat the final boss and not some pseudo victory
In the events that lead to the true ending it is revealed that Calamity Ganon was being controlled by Tingle the whole time. Boss fight of the generation.
The trailer seemed to show Link meeting and assembling a group of allies. Perhaps there is a way to miss or fail to recruit someone, and it affects the ending.
Makes sense being you don't actually have to progress the story to go to Hyrule Castle. Same can probably be said if you do advance the story and do specific things.
I imagine it's just like Majora's Mask, and it's based on how many dungeons / primary objectives you complete.
I think there will also be a plethora of sidequests, and completing a ton of important ones gives you let's say a better credits roll and a greater sense of fulfillment.
That would be a bad end, which doesn't seem to be what he's talking about. Like the equivalent of attempting to hold back the moon with less than four giants in Majora's Mask.
Like Majora's Mask he seems to be implying a regular ending and then a special ending if you do a bunch of optional shit.
He did say they had a "sneaky" way to make sure that the story is not diminished (or the player lost) by approaching it from different points in the open world during Nintendo Minute. Maybe multiple endings is what he was talking about.
At least we can get a Switch here at launch day by simply walking into almost any decent store without losing our minds with all the pre-ordering bullcrap.
To be fair, Nintendo handhelds (from the Gameboy to the 3DS) and the Wii sold by the metric ton But Sony does a great job with localization (I do honestly prefer the PT voices in Uncharted to the English ones, for example), promotions and regional content/partnerships that neither Nintendo or MS do, so it's no wonder really.
At least we can get a Switch here at launch day by simply walking into almost any decent store without losing our minds with all the pre-ordering bullcrap.
On-topic: Would be nice if true. Multiple endings do give a nice extra layer of every playthrough being your "own" game, per say. Plus it usually means there is a loooooad of content to mess with. Or maybe it's just a couple of endings based on a % completion rather than the specific content being played or not.
Here Aonuma says outright that the final boss (Calamity Ganon?) is approachable from the very start of the game. This sounds like something some Nippon Ichi games have tried before, and has some similarities to Chrono Trigger or SaGa games as well. This could mean that it is up to the player how and when they "complete" the game, which might lead to different conclusions for the world depending on how much you have uncovered or fix aside from just beating the ultimate enemy?
Here Aonuma says outright that the final boss (Calamity Ganon?) is approachable from the very start of the game. This sounds like something some Nippon Ichi games have tried before, and has some similarities to Chrono Trigger or SaGa games as well. This could mean that it is up to the player how and when they "complete" the game, which might lead to different conclusions for the world depending on how much you have uncovered or fix aside from just beating the ultimate enemy?
This game is the timeline split, book it. You wake 100 years in the future of the Ganon won timeline and one possible ending is ending up at the Hero won timeline.
