The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will feature an alternate ending for players to unlock

The Legend Of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed that Breath of the Wild will include an alternate ending - a first for the series. In an interview with IGN Portugal (via Nintendo Life), Aonuma confirmed that players can unlock it if they manage to meet "certain criteria."

"Yes, there is an alternate ending if you meet certain criteria," Aonuma said. "If you do a few things, you may see a different ending." He did not provide any additional details about the criteria or what that alternate ending may entail.

One popular theory is that the ending will be unlocked if players complete each of the game's Shrines - mini-dungeons of which there are around 100 on the map.

The latest instalment in the Zelda series marks a significant departure from previous games in one of Nintendo's most popular franchises, with new survival features and greater depth in combat mechanics.

Breath of the Wild follows the story of Link, who awakens after a 100-year slumber to discover that the kingdom of Hyrule has drastically changed due to antagonist Calamity Ganon.

The game was first revealed in 2013 as a Wii U title that would "rethink the conventions of Zelda." However, it suffered multiple delays before Nintendo announced in April 2016 that the game's release date would be pushed back to 2017 "because the developers need more time in polish the game."

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Aonuma shed some light on the massive game's lengthy development process "where on numerous occasions we've had to say, 'Sorry, we need more time.'"

"One of the major problems we faced on a game of this size was actually coordinating everything, and by that I mean creating this huge open world by lots of development staff," Aonuma said. "Each individual person might be working on just one part of that world, but if they're working without a broader context, within isolation, then they might think, 'I'm creating this particular area or feature or object.'

"But if they don't know how that fits into the broader world and context of the game, things won't tie together very well."

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will release on 3 March for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.