I’ve never looked forward to a video game more than The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
When the game was initially revealed as “The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” during Nintendo’s E3 2019 virtual conference, I physically jumped off the couch with excitement. Breath of the Wild was not only widely considered to be a revolutionary masterclass in game design, but it was also my favourite game of all time.
After years of largely mediocre Nintendo releases during the Wii U’s less-than-ideal run, Breath of the Wild, released alongside the Nintendo Switch, was the company’s moment to show that they hadn’t lost their magic. The game redefined the open-world genre, tearing down any restrictions or roadblocks that players might expect from a traditional video game. The game’s emphasis on exploration and freedom skyrocketed it to universal acclaim, and even today it is considered amongst the greatest games of all time.
When series producer Eiji Aonuma said that the sequel was born of the team having an overabundance of ideas for the original game’s downloadable content, it could only be a good sign. Breath of the Wild was already bursting with creativity, and a sequel expanding upon its ideas would surely revolutionize the genre all over again.
But that’s all fans had to go off, and it would stay that way for a long time.
With a story-based teaser clocking in at less than 90 seconds, Zelda players were left with far more questions than answers.
The announcement was followed by an endless amount of speculation and hype. While the teaser showed that the sequel would likely have darker themes than its predecessor, its gameplay – the biggest draw of Breath of the Wild – was a complete mystery.
Fans began looking into the smallest of details for clues about their next adventure in the world of Zelda. Some viewers wondered if Princess Zelda herself might be playable for the first time in a mainline Zelda game because she and Link were seen “hanging out a lot together” in the teaser.
Other fans took this theory a step further. Because Zelda appeared to have shorter hair in the teaser than she did in Breath of the Wild, fans speculated that it was perhaps in order to make it easier to equip armour and customise her character model.
In hindsight, this theory might seem ridiculous, but it’s a testament to the undying excitement alongside an exhausting wait that fans like me were facing three years ago.
It’s reasonable to assume that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the sequel’s development. While not too much is known regarding the title’s development timeline, it’s no secret that Nintendo had a bit of a quieter year in 2020. Their announcements slowed down and, for the first time in several years, the company did not hold a general Nintendo Direct video presentation. The company would find amazing success in the cosy Animal Crossing: New Horizons throughout the pandemic, but this didn’t make a lack of information on Breath of the Wild’s sequel any easier.
2020 would see the release of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a prequel to Breath of the Wild played like a quasi-crossover with the Dynasty Warriors franchise. The release was surprising but welcome. In no way would it scratch the itch left by the promise of a Breath of the Wild sequel due to its vastly different gameplay, but it was still a nice opportunity to revisit the land of Hyrule in a new way.
Speaking in the announcement video for Age of Calamity, Aonuma would address the mysterious sequel, saying that fans would have to “wait a bit longer” before they could know more about the game.
Aonuma’s next video appearance would be in the February 2021 Nintendo Direct, where he announced an HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Yet, when he appeared on the livestream, his very first statement would address the Breath of the Wild sequel.
“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,” said Aonuma. “Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to share right now. We apologise. 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.”
The reason for this opening isn’t because Aonuma felt some sort of undying guilt about the wait; rather, Nintendo was well aware of the massive excitement surrounding the sequel. Opening a shot with Aonuma’s presence undeniably shot fan hopes high into the air, so failing to address the absence of news on the sequel – only to then discuss a remaster of a 2011 Wii title – would be a death wish.
Every time Nintendo wanted to show off a new Zelda project, they’d need to first mention the sequel. The side projects were nice distractions, but Nintendo knew they couldn’t reference anything related to the franchise without first addressing the titanic elephant in the room.
Finally, after two years of waiting, fans were treated to their second real look at the title at the end of Nintendo’s E3 2021 Direct presentation. The game looked triumphant, showing Link barrelling through the air as he descended through a series of floating islands. The video showed off some of the long-awaited gameplay that fans had been yearning for, with Link reversing the flow of time, seemingly spewing fire from his hand and ascending through floors. It was undeniable that the game looked incredible, but after two years of waiting, it still didn’t feel like it showed quite enough.
The game was given a release date – well, release year – of 2022, and interestingly, it still didn’t provide an official title. Unfortunately, we’d have to continue referring to it by the awkward, cumbersome working title of “The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (or simply “Breath of the Wild 2” to the vast majority of the fan base) for a while longer.
In March 2022, though, tragedy struck for Zelda fans.
Out of nowhere, Nintendo uploaded a YouTube video revealing that the game had been delayed to Spring 2023. As much as it would have been nice to simply appreciate the development team’s clear dedication to the game’s quality, it’d be a lie to say that this wasn’t a bit of a blow. Fans had already waited over two-and-a-half years with very little footage to digest, and no one knew how the game would handle its core themes and identity. We had been promised a sequel to one of the greatest games of all time, so a difficult wait was to be expected – but even still, it was becoming ridiculous. If Nintendo was (presumably) so early in development when they revealed the original teaser, why didn’t they wait a bit longer to show it off?
Finally, in September 2022, fans would get the game’s final title: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The first official trailer for the game was shown off as the closer for a Nintendo Direct, and it seemed to build on the themes set by the two preceding teasers. The game would also get a release date of May 12, 2023.
But in the grand scheme of things, it still felt like they showed next to nothing.
Breath of the Wild had full-blown marketing far earlier in its marketing cycle than Tears of the Kingdom. For Tears to show yet another 90-second trailer with little gameplay substance was starting to get frustrating. It was obvious that Nintendo had changed their approach since Breath by choosing to keep some secrets about the game’s final build, but their cycle of releasing occasional short, light trailers over the course of three years had become stale. Fans wanted to see more. It was time.
Nintendo apparently disagreed and showed another “nothing-trailer” at the end of their February 2023 Direct. We were now three months away from release, and the trailer focused primarily on out-of-context gameplay clips that felt they had no cohesion with any central theme. Link driving around the open-world on an ATV was clearly supposed to be a huge moment, but without context, it just felt disconnected. Furthermore, the game was looking more and more like a copy-and-paste of its predecessor. It looked like the same world map that fans knew from Breath, with some random new features and contraptions tacked on. The trailer was unimpressive and still provided no justification for the sequel’s existence.
At this point, when hype should have been at an all-time high, it was arguably at its very lowest. Many started to wonder if Nintendo was still hiding more about the game, or if this really was all they had to show for themselves. The release date was nearing and fans still had very little footage to define their expectations.
This negative reaction was so powerful that Nintendo took notice, and they knew they’d have to do something quick if they were going to bring back hype before Tears’ looming release. Apparently, the team hadn’t expected this response from fans, so Aonuma’s next appearance was likely put together fairly quickly.
On March 28, Nintendo would post a video that turned reception around in the way they were hoping for. The video wasn’t some flashy trailer with orchestral music trying to show clips out of context; instead, it was Aonuma sitting down, simply playing the game for 13 minutes. It didn’t try to do anything spectacular – it let the majesty of the game speak for itself.
And finally, after nearly four years of waiting for any substantial info, fans saw the justification for the title’s existence, and most of this was thanks to Link’s new abilities.
The Fuse mechanic would allow the player to combine two objects so they interact with each other in novel ways. The first example Aonuma showed was a boulder attached to the end of a wooden branch, which then became more powerful and durable. Attaching a spear to another spear (as ridiculous as that sounds) would logically create an extra-long spear with an extended reach, and playing with more items to test out their capabilities suggested a wide range of gameplay possibilities.
Arrows worked in a similar fashion. While Breath had basic arrow types like the “Fire Arrow” and “Bomb Arrow,” Tears would allow a player to stick any object to an arrowhead. Attaching an eyeball to an arrow would give it homing capabilities, and an ice jelly would give it the ability to freeze faraway enemies.
What made this so exciting is the knowledge that the game would have a vast array of items to play with, so what Aonuma showed was clearly only a fraction of the full capabilities the final game would offer.
This sense of creativity and exploration of ideas only grew with Link’s next ability, “Ultrahand.” With Ultrahand, players could assemble machines using parts found in the world, and each part was developed to function seamlessly with all the other parts. In other words, the game would not provide blueprints or mandatory solutions for the machines players would build – they just needed to imagine it and bring it to life. There would, without a doubt, be an endless array of machines that the developers themselves never thought of.
This was the hook that fans had been waiting for. Finally, the ATV from February’s trailer made complete sense: it wasn’t some random vehicle found out in the wild, it was constructed through the player’s imagination.
In fact, it was clear that imagination was the game’s core identity. In Breath of the Wild, players would “break the game” by manipulating its physics and skipping puzzles, but in Tears of the Kingdom, players were actively and intentionally given the tools to do so. Players would no longer need a deep understanding of the game’s glitches and physics to skip puzzles and “cheese” solutions – this time, the developers encouraged it.
The game would have a set of previews and one final trailer. Each bit of footage gave fans more to be excited about, with additional parts meaning new combinations to dream up. Fans were seeing rockets attached to shields and large anti-gravity blocks flying through vast skies with fans glued on. The Ultrahand system had proven easy to understand, but difficult to master. Players didn’t need to be concerned that they wouldn’t figure it out. You just need to know what you want to accomplish, and then it’s up to you how you get there.
When the game finally released on May 12, it was everything it promised to be and more.
Ultrahand and Fuse allowed the world to interact with itself in ways that players could have only dreamed of in its predecessor and encouraged players to solve problems (or skip them entirely) in their own way. There’s no better feeling than solving a puzzle in a completely absurd way, leading you to wonder if you’re the only person who’s thought of that particular solution. The laughter that ensues after a seemingly ridiculous idea actually works is unrivalled by any other video game.
Add in Link’s other primary abilities and things only get better from there.
“Ascend” allows players to rise through a floor above them and pop out on top, working beautifully in tandem with the map’s new caves and wells to explore underground. It also opens up a variety of new puzzles, such as ascending into a locked-off room on the mainland from a cave below.
“Recall” allows Link to reverse the flow of time on an object. At first, it may seem like Recall is quite limited, but mastery of this technique opens up many new solutions and ways of traversing the world. If an enemy throws a projectile at Link, he can Recall it to send it right back. If he accidentally drops an item off a cliff, Recall will send it flying back up. If he’s flying a machine through the sky and makes a navigational error, Recall will put him back on track. The game’s abilities build on top of one another, making the experience feel seamless and rewarding.
As if all this weren’t enough, the developers hid the addition of the Depths in their marketing right up until the game’s release. Link can dive through the gaping chasms that have opened across the mainland to explore the Depths, a massive underground area parallel to the overworld. The Depths are much more dangerous than the mainland because of its ability to reduce the player’s maximum health, meaning players have to be a bit more prepared before venturing into the lands below.
Of course, Tears of the Kingdom offers a new story set after the events of its predecessor, and players can revisit familiar locations from Breath of the Wild to see what’s happened to their favourite characters. From its very first teaser, the game was marketed as a sequel, and it maintains that promise.
Tears of the Kingdom might not be as revolutionary as its predecessor was when it launched, but it’s still such a massively expanded experience that fans of Breath are sure to have the times of their lives anyway. The wait for the game was exhausting for many, but ultimately, it was worth every second.
The buildup to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s launch wasn’t perfect. It had its ups and downs along the way. But as you’re flying through the open air on a contraption you designed, proud of what you’ve built and how you dreamt it up – none of that matters. The only things on your mind quickly become the wind in your hair, your undying imagination and the fact that you’ve finally got your hands on The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
