Monolith Soft co-developing Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Nintendo has brought in another studio to help with the development of its new Zelda title, Breath of the Wild.

Revealed at E3 2016 last week, the game takes the series in a more traditional RPG direction and introduces an open world more in line with those seen in a significant portion of modern titles.

Drawing on its experience from the Xenoblade Chronicles games, Nintendo has drafted in Japanese studio Monolith Soft to help build Breath of the Wild’s open world, Game Informer reveals.

“Yes, they are involved in this Zelda,” series creator Shigeru Miyamoto told the site. “People from Tokyo and Kyoto are working together on this. There is a team of over 100 helping work on this project, and their work has really been helpful.”

This is the first time a new entry in the main series has been co-developed by a non-Nintendo studio. Capcom previously created a handful of the Game Boy titles, while Grezzo handled the ports of Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time to 3DS, and Team Ninja developed the Dynasty Warriors-style spin-off Hyrule Warriors.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is due for release in March 2017 on both Wii U and NX. The game’s control set-up seems to suggest NX will have a traditional stick-and-buttons set-up and no second screen.