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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom received a special ten-minute feature today with series producer Eiji Auonuma hosting. The game is set to launch on May 12, but fans still have many questions about what the game will do to differentiate itself from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild was something of a watershed moment in video game history, taking open-world gameplay to a whole new level of creativity and immersion. Will Tears of the Kingdom follow suit? Let’s break it down.
First off, Link has multiple new abilities in this game to take advantage of. The first shown today is called Recall. It seems to allow Link to force an object to follow in reverse the trajectory of an object that was in motion. In the trailer, he climbs atop some kind of stone or rock that has fallen from the sky, applies Recall to it, and then it zoom upward in exactly the opposite arch from which it fell. This seems to be at least one way in which Link will hurtle skyward to explore the world above.
Next up was Fuse. With this ability, Link is able to combine different items in the game world to form new ones. In this instance, he combines a boulder and a stick to create a makeshift hammer. It looks like this ability will be very versatile, even letting Link do things like combine various elementals to produce an array of arrow types, stick mushrooms to his shield to create a diversionary puff cloud, and even shoot arrows that chase foes, for instance. Fuse will surely factor heavily into puzzle solving throughout Tears of the Kingdom.
Ultrahand, meanwhile, is a nice little shoutout to Gunpei Yokoi and another ability highlighted during the video. With it, Link can combine larger materials like logs and motorized components to produce things like rafts and flying platforms. Auonuma seemed adamant that players will be able to experiment quite a bit with Ultrahand to produce all sorts of contraptions to help Link make his way across Hyrule.
Finally, the last ability shown off today is called Ascend. When beneath a ceiling or overhead covering that Link can pass through, when activated he will rise upwards and melt or teleport (it’s hard to say which based on the footage) right through it. This can even be used to allow Link to burrow his way from the depths of a mountainside all the way up to its peak. Combined with Recall, Fuse, and Ultrahand, Tears of the Kingdom is really striving to mix things up and give players all new ways of thinking about how to traverse Hyrule, fight foes, and solve puzzles.
Did any of the new abilities get you excited to play Tears of the Kingdom? Which ones? Tell us down below and on social media!
Source: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Mr. Aonuma Gameplay Demonstration
