The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Cost	¥7900 (download) $69.99 (standard), $129.99 (Collector's Edition) £59.99 (standard), £109.99 (CE) €69.99 $89.99 (standard), $174.99 (CE) $89.95 (standard), $189.95 (CE)
Related	Breath of the Wild Age of Calamity
Release
Platform	Date
Nintendo Switch	🌎 May 12, 2023
Credits
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Producer	Eiji Aonuma
Guides
Interactive Map

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to Breath of the Wild, released on May 12, 2023. Initially announced during the Nintendo Direct at E3 2019, the title and release date were finally revealed in the September 13, 2022 Direct.

Development

In the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity announcement video, Eiji Aonuma said:

"Regarding the [Breath of the Wild] sequel, in order to make the vast world you enjoyed exploring in the original game even more impressive, the team is working hard on its development, so you'll have to wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates."

— Eiji Aonuma, September 8, 2020

While this represented the first official mention of the Breath of the Wild sequel since the original announcement, no further details were provided.

In the February 2021 Nintendo Direct Eiji Aonuma announced:

"I'm sure a lot of you saw me and thought there might be news about the sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game. Unfortunately, we don't have anything to share right now. We apologize. Development is proceeding smoothly, and we should be able to bring you some new information this year. For now, we'll have to ask you to wait just a bit longer."

— Eiji Aonuma, February 17th, 2021

A new teaser trailer was included in the E3 2021 Nintendo Direct, which still did not include a title, but said they were "aiming for" a 2022 release date. The title was finally released at the end of the September 2022 Nintendo Direct, along with a May 12, 2023 release date.

A further trailer ended the February 8, 2023 Nintendo Direct, with no change to the release date. A "gameplay demonstration" by Eiji Aonuma followed on March 28, 2023 , and a "final" trailer on April 13, 2023 , with the full reveal of Ganondorf's return.

Story

Link and Zelda are searching for the source of the gloom afflicting Hyrule in the Depths Beneath Hyrule Castle. There, they find murals depicting beings called Zonai and events recalling a battle with a demon king. Traveling further, they see a red-haired corpse held down by a strange Right Arm. A tear-shaped object falls from the arm - apparently weakening it - and as Zelda picks it up, the corpse revives. Still corpse-like, it ravages Link's health, ruins his right arm, shatters the Master Sword and causes a huge Upheaval which raises Hyrule Castle into the air, opening a chasm that Zelda falls into. Link jumps after her, but she is warped away, and only the mysterious hand saves him from the chasm.

Zelda awakens in the distant past, and is found by the first King of Hyrule, the Zonai Rauru, and his Hylian wife, Queen Sonia. The two take her in. Visiting the king's sister, the scholar Mineru, she reveals that finding the tear-shaped object - a Zonai "secret stone" - awakened and amplified her latent power to manipulate time, a power she shares with Sonia; while Rauru possesses the same sacred light she used to defeat Calamity Ganon. Unfortunately, Zelda has neither the knowledge or training required to reverse her trip through time and return to the present. Mineru does bring up one potential alternative, the forbidden art of draconification - which involves swallowing a secret stone and becoming an immortal dragon - but notes that "to become an immortal dragon is to lose yourself", making it an unappealing possibility. Meanwhile, the Gerudo King Ganondorf attacks Hyrule and after seeing the power of Rauru, Sonia and Zelda, decides to pretend fealty to Hyrule as a way to obtain a secret stone of his own.

Time passes, and Zelda becomes close to the ancient royals, while Sonia trains her in the use of her time power. This lasts until Ganondorf kills Sonia in front of Zelda and takes her secret stone, becoming the powerful "Demon King" and summoning a Blood Moon to give himself a monster army. Unable to stem the tide, the grieving Rauru is convinced to give secret stones to the leaders of the Gerudo (who have rejected the Demon King), Gorons, Rito and Zora. Along with Zelda and Mineru, who already have stones, they become powerful sages in Rauru's service. The night before the final battle, Zelda tells Rauru about finding Ganondorf - withered, but still alive and powerful - in the present, and is convinced they can't win; but Rauru tells her they must try anyway. Ultimately, while they cannot kill Ganondorf, they manage to imprison the Demon King at the cost of Rauru's life.

In the aftermath, Zelda fears for Link in the future. As she worries, she feels a pull to a place where there is a strange hole in space, which the Decayed Master Sword emerges from. Hearing from the sword that Link survived Ganondorf's attack, Zelda is relieved, and comes to a decision. To restore the Master Sword, and bathe it in sacred power to make it as strong as it can be, she swallows her secret stone, sacrificing her personality and self to become a Light Dragon. With the Master Sword embedded in her head, she flies high into the sky.

In the present, Link awakens on Great Sky Island; where Rauru's voice explains that he nearly died, and that he had to replace his corrupted necrotic arm with the strange arm, as it was beyond repair. After finding the Decayed Master Sword, he travels to the Island's Temple of Time. However, he is denied access. The ghost of Rauru manifests and explains that the arm - which was originally his own - has weakened; to get through The Closed Door, Link must restore it with Lights of Blessing from the island's three Shrines of Light. Returning to the Temple of Time after receiving the Ultrahand, Fuse and Ascend powers; he receives a vision of Zelda which grants him the Recall power, based on her power to manipulate time. Stymied by a second door which relies on his own strength, waning after Ganondorf's ravaging of his health, Link uses Recall to obtain a fourth Light of Blessing from another shrine, and trades them to a Goddess Statue for a heart container, restoring the first part of what he'd lost.

After exiting through the door, Rauru's ghost says goodbye and disperses into beads of light. At the end of a path, Link finds a mysterious light, and is bade by the Master Sword to place it in. The Master Sword is sent through time to Zelda, standing in the same place; while Link remains, hearing only a message from Zelda to find her. The Light Dragon then disperses the Cloud Barrier keeping him from the Surface, and he dives down to Hyrule Kingdom.

Surviving the fall, Link then travels to Lookout Landing. There, he meets Purah, who is now physically in her twenties after partially reversing her age reduction, and who has become the head of Lookout Landing. She sends him to meet Captain Hoz at the First Gatehouse, who is on a mission to find and recover Link and Zelda. Upon arriving, Link, Hoz and the others see Princess Zelda staring at them from afar, before she flies away, and disappears in a burst of light.

Confused, Link heads back to rendezvous with Purah, where he fills her in on the events that happened at the First Gatehouse. With this knowledge, Purah informs Link that several regional phenomena have been reported by each of the four main races: The Rito, Zora, Goron and Gerudo. After this explanation, Purah activates the Skyview Towers, the equivalent of the Sheikah Towers from the previous game. Purah then gives Link the Paraglider and sends him on his way.

Tulin of the Rito

Link travels to the Rito village and discovers that the area is in the midst of an unprecedented blizzard which has forced many of the Rito adults to leave the village in the hands of their children while they go out to collect food and resources. The local stable has been sold to former rumor researcher Traysi and converted into the headquarters of the new Lucky Clover Gazette. Link gets hired as a reporter and is partnered with a Rito named Finn. Their job is to visit Hyrule's Stables to gather intel on sightings of Princess Zelda. In Rito Village, Link meets up with Teba, who has taken over as the village elder upon the former elder's retirement. Teba is arguing with his young son Tulin, a gifted flyer who wants to investigate the massive storm cluster high above the village, which they believe to be the source of the region's constant heavy snowfall.

Yunobo of the Gorons

Link travels towards Death Mountain and the city of the Gorons. On the way, other travelers warn him about avoiding Gorons with "strange rocks". As he nears the mines and quarries of Death Mountain, Link runs into several Gorons with glowing red eyes lazing about eating Marbled Rock Roasts. The elder and younger of the Gorons who can't eat the tough rock "delicacy" try to stir their bewitched friends and family, who have all but halted regular work and at times turn to scamming travelers in order to get rupees for more Marbled Rock Roast. In Goron City, Link sees the Goron elder Bludo arguing with Yunobo, descendant of Champion Daruk and CEO of the new "Yunobo, Co". Bludo asks Yunobo to quit mining the Marbled Rock Roasts, which have disrupted life in the city. Yunobo, with uncharacteristic bravado insists that Princess Zelda herself told him the Marbled Rock Roast was perfectly safe. He further states that he and his new company are responsible for the success of the Gorons and that Bludo should step aside and let Yunobo run things.

TODO: Rest of story

Care to do so?

Gameplay

Gameplay is heavily based on that of Breath of the Wild. Changes include:

• Most Sheikah technology from Breath of the Wild is either entirely absent or replaced with Zonai technology. The latter includes Zonai Devices, technological tools and weapons fuelled by the new Energy Cell mechanic.
• The main gameplay Runes - Magnesis, Stasis, Cryonis and Remote Bombs - have been replaced with new Right Arm Abilities:
  • Ultrahand is an expanded Magnesis; able to move almost any item which is not locked down, rather than being limited to metallic items. In addition, it can "attach" items to surfaces or other items, allowing for the creation of vehicles and other constructions.
  • Fuse allows weapons and shields to be merged with materials or each other, allowing for the construction of more complex items. It also allows arrows to be fused with any material. As part of this mechanic, most non-fused weapons found are "decayed", reducing their power and durability relative to their Breath of the Wild versions; while non-standard arrows such as fire arrows are no longer purchasable, and can only be created with material fusions.
  • Ascend allows Link to travel vertically upward through solid material. Limits include that the platform must be relatively even, and the base must be within a certain distance of Link. Link can also only use it to travel upward from the Depths through specific columns, such as at the Bridge of Hylia.
  • Recall allows Link to literally rewind the path of an item, including blocks which fall from the Sky.
  • Of the other "lost" runes, Remote Bombs are replaced with Time Bombs and the returning Bomb Flowers, once again making bombs a limited resource; and Cryonis is partially replaced with a new mechanic where any ice weapon, ice arrow or thrown icy material can create a shallow ice platform on water, similar to ice arrows in Majora's Mask. Stasis is not replaced.
• Materials can now be thrown rather than just dropped. Thrown materials work similarly to when they are fused to arrows. While they do not consume arrows or bow durability, they do not travel as far
• The Sheikah Slate is replaced with the Purah Pad. Other than the missing runes, this works largely similarly, housing the map (including the warp system), camera and Hyrule Compendium; but the Adventure Log detailing quests and memories is moved to this from the main pause menu, and it also holds new Character Profiles for key characters as they are encountered.
• In addition to the main "surface" area, which is a modified copy of the Breath of the Wild Hyrule; new areas above in the Sky and below in the Depths have been added. While the Depths mirror the surface, the sky is filled with Sky Islands, mostly small rocky bodies floating unsupported in mid-air.

Gallery

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  Key art

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  Key art (tall)

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  Key art (wide)

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  Key art of Hyrule from the sky

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• Purah TotK Illustration.png
• Rauru TotK Illustration.png
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  Logo (white background)

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  Logo (black background)

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  Collector's Edition box

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  Collector's Edition bundle

Screenshots

Trailer Screenshots

• E3 2019 Reveal Trailer
• E3 2021 trailer
• September 2022 trailer
• February 2023 trailer
• March 2023 gameplay demonstration
• April 2023 trailer

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• Press Kit screenshots
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  Champion's Leathers Fabric paraglider (Tears of the Kingdom Link amiibo)

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  Goddess Fabric paraglider (Skyward Sword Zelda & Loftwing amiibo)

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  Hylian-Hood Fabric paraglider paraglider (Breath of the Wild Link (Rider) amiibo)

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  Majora's Mask Fabric paraglider (Majora's Mask Link amiibo), day

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  Majora's Mask Fabric paraglider (Majora's Mask Link amiibo), night

• Additional screenshots
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• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Mr. Aonuma Gameplay Demonstration
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Videos

E3 2019 Reveal Trailer ( June 11, 2019 )

E3 2021 Teaser ( June 15, 2021 )

Announcement of delay to 2023 ( March 29, 2022

Title Announcement trailer ( September 13, 2022 )

February 2023 trailer ( February 8, 2023 )

March 2023 gameplay demonstration ( March 28, 2023 )

April 2023 trailer ( April 13, 2023 )