With the most recent trailer which Nintendo released for Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda-fans are even more hyped for the release in 2023. Here is everything we know about the new Zelda game so far!
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is Nintendo's upcoming action-adventure game, the latest entry in the legendary game series. The sequel to Breath of the Wild is right on our door step with only a few days before release. Here is everything we know so far about Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
Tears of the Kingdom Release Date
After years of waiting, Zelda Tears of Kingdom is practically upon us and we only have to wait a few more days until it is released for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. Until then, you can already pre-order it on Amazon so that it gets to you in time.
Storyline Explained
Storyline-wise, we can guess quite a bit already, because there are a lot of little tid bits that were shown in the various trailers. As usual, the trailers are full of hints and tiny details about the new game, leaving an open space for all the nerds to analyze it all. Here is what we think, what the Zelda Tears of the Kingdom storyline might look like.
If we put everything together it seems like our journey will start beneath Hyrule Castle with Link and Zelda exploring old ruins. The carvings on the wall seem to be Zonai in origin. Somehow they will find a corpse that looks to be a version of Ganondorf imprisoned there. He gets releases and Zelda disappears in a dark hole, while Link now has a mysterious glowing hand and new powers.
You can find more on the Zonai in our deep dive into the mysterious tribe.
All of this causes huge chunks of Hyrule to rise into the sky in strange formations. Now the goal of the journey is of course to save Zelda and Hyrule from impending doom. We will be aided by different characters from BotW, but there's more!
In the last trailer, we found mysterious crystal teardrops on multiple characters. Are they the Tears of the Kingdom? Further, a dark skinned lady with large fae ears makes an appearance, which many hypothesize to be the goddess Hylia herself. Also, a male voice is heard talking to Zelda and praising the hero Link. Most likely, this is one of the Zonai.
Gameplay & Setting – Back to the Wild?
What we can conclude from the trailers, is that Zelda Tears of the Kingdom seems to play in the same world as Breath of the Wild , but with a touch of Skyward Sword. Floating islands are now covering the skies above Hyrule, expanding the map to a third dimension.
Abilities
Let's address the big glowing hand in the room. Link got himself a new accessory, if we cnn call it that, and with it come a bunch of old and new abilities.
To start with, is the Ultrahand, which is your all-purpose tool to move objects around. Think the magnet of BotW, but no longer restricted to magnetic things. This will probably be your most used ability, as it is also vital to the new crafting system. There are already some crazy clips out there from the previews, like a giant robot and makeshift planes.
Closely connected to the previous one is Fuse. Honestly, the name pretty much gives away, what it does. With it, you can also strengthen your weapons or give it interesting effects. Who needs ice arrows, when i can simply fuse my arrows with an ice jelly? This also let's us create sheer infinite new weapons by combining two objects or weapons to make something new.
An ability that will be a huge puzzle solver is Recall. This ability can rewind time on an object. So for example turn a lever down to pass through a gate and then use Recall, so the gate will close again. You can imagine, how useful this can be for the typical Zelda puzzles.
Last but not least is Ascend. This ability blew our minds, when we first saw it in a trailer. So essentially, as long as you have surface above you, Link can rise up and even go through the ground onto the platform. Now this will make exploration a lot more interesting! Of course, climbing will still be pretty important, as this only works with limitations.
In the previews, people were able to use another ability. Sadly, it is locked behind an embargo and we only have limited information on it.
Dungeons
Zelda Breath of the Wild was a great game, but there is one thing it was lacking, and that were the Zelda-typical dungeons. In the history of Zelda games, we have seen a variety of outstanding and unique dungeons such as the Sandship from Skyward Sword, the Forest Temple from Ocarina of Time or one of our personal favorites: Snowpeak Ruins from Twilight Princess.
But Breath of the Wild didn't really have that... Well, Link had to free four Divine Beasts, which kind of represented dungeons, but they were all pretty similar to each other and to be honest, not that spectacular. Hopefully, Tears of the Kingdom is going to improve on that weakness of BOTW.
While dungeons aren't fully confirmed yet, multiple preview players commented on structures in their versions, that they were explicitly not allowed into. From their descriptions one can surmise, we will probably get dungeons back. Or at least something very similar.
Where is the Master Sword?
After taking a look at the new title, we see that the Master Sword has absorbed this mysterious green matter, which we've already seen in the trailer. What does that mean? Will the Master Sword have different powers now? Does Link have it from the beginning? We are dying to know what all of these hints are leading to!
Crafting Feature and Customizable Cars
One feature that is getting massively expanded is crafting of any kind. Anything is possible in TotK with just a bit of imagination.
In the last few months, we got to see some really nice new features. One of them is the ability to merge different items together. For example, have you ever wanted to put a piece of meat on your arrow? Well the answer is probably no, but the game will still allow you to do it and just maybe you could use it to lure animals to a specific location.
And that is only one of the many possibilities the game will give us. BotW has become famous for people finding the most interesting little exploits by crafting and using different abilities. You can see that especially in the speed running scene, so we can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!
One especially cool part of this new expanded crafting is the chance to craft transportation devices like this little...car in the preview. Just image how much you might be able to customize it to your taste. Afterward you can just cruise through Hyrule looking cool.
Exploration
Hyrule has been completely revamped during our years of waiting. In TotK both up in the skies and down below is a world for us to explore. Of course, it is fulled to the brim with new puzzles and mysteries to uncover. And with our new variety of transportation, exploring it will be more fun than ever.
One really cool addition to the exploration is the Travel Medallion. Just chuck this on the ground and you will have a new teleport point. This can be especially useful, if there is a place for a side quest you have to visit multiple times. And when you're done simply pick it up on the map for another use later.
New Creatures
Every teaser and trailer for Zelda TOTK which Nintendo has published so far revealed something new every time. Most of them showed us a lot of creatures that Link will have to face in the new Zelda.
One of the new enemies is someone Link has already dealt with in several Zelda generations. Many of us will know it from Zelda Ocarina of Time because it was the most terrifying creature of them all. Find out more here:
The game will definitely not disappoint when it comes to enemy bosses. One trailer showed some clips of Link encountering a ginormous stone creature that looks quite similar to Eox, an ancient soldier who Link faced in the final dungeon of Phantom Hourglass.
The new Zelda will be heavily inspired by Skyward Sword. We have seen several allusions to it in the trailers and since the game now expands into the sky, there must also be new creatures connected to this aspect. Therefore, we got to see a new "dragon-like" enemy that Link might encounter more often on his forays through Hyrule.
And that is all we know of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. What are you looking most forward to? Make sure you have the game pre-ordered , and let's all get hyped for the Game of the Year!