We love Link, but waiting for him to reappear in a new game can be a long and disappointing process.
So by way of explanation, leading voices in Nintendo have spoken out about the near-ubiquitous delays when making Zelda games.
Breath of the Wild was originally scheduled for a 2015 debut, and has since been shunted back to 2017. Series producer Eiji Aonuma puts the blame for this delay on the game's high technical demands.
"In terms of Breath of the Wild, we implemented many things like the physics engine and the AI and the type of graphics that we use," he told Kotaku.
"We had to make sure that design has enough time to create that. It just dawned on us that we're not able to do that in this schedule."
It's hard to deny that what the team has produced for BoTW so far is impressive. According to chief game designer Shigery Miyamoto, this brilliance takes time.
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"Every time we make a Zelda, we want to make something new. It's hard to gauge how long that's going to take. And it's also hard to gauge at what point whatever we consider to be new is done."
It's done when it's done – not an answer most publishers would be thrilled to hear, but Nintendo is no ordinary publisher.
In fact, Miyamoto isn't a fan of scheduling full stop, saying: "It would be great if I didn't have to put a release date out at all."
Zelda's devoted fanbase would undoubtedly have some strong words to respond to that particular statement.
So there we are – mystery solved. If you're going to create an award-winning franchise that spans decades and consistently garners adulation, just don't rush it.
