Tears of the Kingdom – Preview

Finally! Nintendo gave us a sweet sweet glimpse at Tears of the Kingdom, the Breath of the Wild sequel. The next major release in the Legend of Zelda series.

Tears of the Kingdom has been highly anticipated for a long time. But apart from a few trailers and clips we’ve been left wanting for quite a while!

Well that changed today (28th March 2023) with a special video from Nintendo, giving us approximately ten minutes of Tears of the Kingdom footage and information.

No doubt sites and content creators are poring over every detail, ready to flood the internet with speculation. Who can blame them? Tears of the Kingdom is a major release for Nintendo and fans of the Legend of Zelda series, like me.

Here’s a few take-aways from the video.

 

Tears of the Kingdom

Ok, so we see a very familiar art style and version of Hyrule. Perfect. One of the greatest games ever made gets more of the same!

Weapon damage and shattering is obviously still a thing. A big point of contention for a lot of people. I’m indifferent to be honest, and didn’t expect it to be removed for Tears of the Kingdom. No surprise.

There’s a look at new abilities:

Recall – reverse the time of objects (one thing falls, get on it and reverse time to take it, and you, back up!). This is guaranteed to be a in a host of puzzles, right? Assuming we still have shrines, I’d expect to see a lot of it? Wonder what other practical applications it may have?

Fuse – merge items together to create new weapons! The demo shows branch and a rock for some kind of crazy club. Then a stick and pitchfork for an extra long range weapon. Then, a mushroom (yep!) attached to a shield, which created a smokescreen when attacked. Anyone want to merge the Master Sword and a hoe to create a Master Hoe?

Weapon crafting from random object must surely help those worried about weapons breaking in Tears of the Kingdom?

Ultrahand – Fuse objects together to make vehicles. Fan objects, ancient technology laying around, use to fly high, or merge to make them propellors on a boat! I suspect that there will be many, many penis rockets and boats early doors. But the potential here is phenomenal. I wonder what creations people will come up with to traverse Hyrule. Very cool!

Ascend – We’ve seen a small glimpse of this in trailers. But now we know that Link can use Ascend to get through the ceiling of any room he’s in. Including caves! The demo showed Link taking longer to go through a hill top from a cave, than it would take to go through a thinner roof. Looking like he’s somehow swimming between the physical spaces, through space/time or something else.

 

Not long now!

With a May release, Tears of The Kingdom is only weeks away. I’ve got my pre-order in, and I’m keen.

More of the same is exactly what the doctor ordered. Mixed-up with these new abilities. It feels like Nintendo wants players to explore the world of Hyrule with a different perspective. Sky islands, free-falling, new enemies and abilities.

This is Breath of the Wild 2, sure. But it’s not Breath of the Wild.

At worst it’s no different to the best game ever made, with some new story beats. Consider that for a minute. That’s the worst-case scenario!

Tears of the Kingdom isn’t being created for the Nintendo Switch at the same time as the Wii U, so presumably there’s some improvements in the game engine and use of resource. Despite the age of the Switch, it’s being given a better run at it than perhaps Breath of the Wild got. So that will be interesting, too!

Here’s the video if you missed it!