Legend Of Zelda hit the Switch in a big way. Breath Of The Wild broke standing Zelda traditions but did so in ways we didn’t even think was possible. Now that we are only months away from the release of its sequel, Nintendo dropped a Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer for us to fawn over.
I make no secret of the fact that I’m a massive Legend Of Zelda fan. Breath Of The Wild is an amazing game. If you own a Switch and you don’t have it, well you only have yourself to blame for depriving yourself of one of the best games every made.
Since the sequel to Breath Of The Wild was announced in 2019, we’ve only had a trickle of information on it. A teaser trailer was released at E3 2021, then another in September 2022 along with a release date of 12th May 2023. The last trailer we had came in February 2023 teasing more gameplay elements.
There’s been a lot of talk about the game. I personally have fallen down multiple rabbit holes of theories and speculation about what has been seen in the handful of minutes. But personally I’m super excited to see tonight’s Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer.
The Breakdown
The video started with series producer Eiji Aonuma announcing that development on Tears Of The Kingdom has been completed. He then launched into a video showing the game.
Link started on horseback riding through a field with lots of debris on the ground before panning up to see the sky islands. Something fell from the sky islands. Link travelled towards the rock and used a new ability called Recall that raised the rock back into the sky.
The Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer showed the return of the paraglider and the weapon durability system, along with a new enemy called a Construct. Fans of Zelda theorists will note that one of the items picked up after the defeat of the Construct is called a Zonai Charge. The Zonai were a big mystery in Breath Of The Wild, with all their story told through the environment.
An addition to the weapon durability system is the ability Fuse. This allows Link to combine objects into new weapons, enhancing the features of existing weapons and increasing their durability. Fuse is used to create the homing arrow seen in the last trailer. Combining materials with weapons looks to me an amazing mechanic with lots of potential.
One of the amazing things shown off in the last trailer was the vehicle that Link could ride. We get a glimpse at how this could be achieved with the ability Ultrahand. Link made a raft using three individual logs. Fans were added to the raft (also using Ultrahand) as engines, meaning we don’t have to use Korok leaves to push boats around anymore!
Link need not fear ceilings with the Ascend ability. This lets Link fly to the ceiling, passing through it to the open area above it. The Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer also showed Link jumping off a sky island and landing in the water without the aid of his paraglider.
More Swag Please!
That’s where the Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer ended, but it wasn’t the last surprise. Also announced is a Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Edition OLED Nintendo Switch. A branded Pro Controller and Switch carry case will also be available. All of these accessories will be available on the 12th May, the same release date as Tears Of The Kingdom.
It’s now past 10:30pm for me and honestly I am not getting to bed for at least another hour. Seeing what the Tears Of The Kingdom gameplay trailer had to offer has me more excited than I was, and I was already pretty damn excited. What did you think? Let us know on our socials!
