On May 12th, 2023, the highly anticipated sequel of Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally releases. Fans have been looking forward to this game for a long time and release is only a few short months away.
What we Know so Far About Tears of the Kingdom
The short response to this is that we actually do not know very much. There have been a few trailers that have shown off some cinematics and gameplay footage, but not that much. It is clear that the game is running the same engine as Breath of the Wild and that it takes place in the same world, but that is about it.
There has been much speculation about the timeline of the game and whether the game takes place before Breath of the Wild or after – which brings into question a lot of other things like NPCs, whether Zelda will be a playable character, etc. There are a lot of mysteries still to uncover about this game.
We do know, however, that Link will have a few new abilities this time around, especially around traversal. There are mechanical vehicles shown off that seem to be customizable and different paragliders that Link now possesses. Also, Link seems to have some sort of strange bionic, energy-ridden arm and hand that interacts with the world in mysterious ways.
Some malevolent force that resembles Ganondorf seems to live under the Castle and Link and Zelda are thrown into an adventure to stop it from destroying Hyrule Kingdom.
Verticality
Tears of the Kingdom definitely has more verticality than Breath of the Wild, which already had so much. Breath of the Wild employed the legendary “climb anywhere on any surface” mechanic and opened the world up so much just from that. Now, in Tears of the Kingdom, it gets even bigger.
The trailers of Tears of the Kingdom show the skies littered with huge landmasses and floating islands. Link uses some sort of time power to reverse the falling of rubble and use it to travel up to these islands. The Legend of Zelda games are always big on the time travel mechanic.
Link even employs a massive flying machine that he rides on from island to island. It looks like a customizable vehicle as it has a lot of the same parts as the cart/tractor that he drives around on the surface in one of the trailers as well.
New Enemies
The trailers of Tears of the Kingdom showed off a slew of new enemies for Link to take on as he traverses Hyrule. There are different varieties of the enemies that were already present in Breath of the Wild, but there are also entirely new enemies like the massive stone cube golem or the flying Kargaroc-like bird enemies.
Not only are there new enemies, but these enemies have new weapons and even new interactions with the environment and with one another that will cause players to establish new tactics to take them on. The trailer even revealed the presence of one of the most reviled Zelda monsters of all time – redeads.
Bokoblins seem to have mob/tribe leaders that are in the form of giant bokoblins now. The Kargaroc enemies seem to be able to carry bokoblins around in their talons. All of these things seem to be posing a heightened threat to Hyrule. However, Link looks to be ready to face the challenge.
The Hero Link
The trailers of Tears of the Kingdom shows a confident and capable Link that seems to take on the challenge of these new enemies and threats in a noble way. Not only that, he seems outfitted with more gear and weapons that will allow him to triumph over these challenges again and again.
One part of the most recent trailer shows Link shooting an arrow that seems to home in on his target. Another part shows Link jumping and flipping with a rock-smasher like weapon in his hands. However, there seems to be a bomb attached to it, which flies off and explodes a Stone Talus enemy.
Then, of course, there is Link’s new arm. His arm seems to have all the abilities that his Sheikah Slate had and more. It may be this arm that also allows him to build, manage, and pilot the many different vehicles that he does in the trailers.
