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Sarah here, teaching English around the world. Living life and seeing things.
Have you been thinking “I wish I had another game to take all of my time and destroy my life” recently? Well, we might not have to wait much longer before that wish comes true. On Tuesday 28th March, Eiji Aonuma gave us a little look into some of the new features we can expect from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK), and excitement doesn’t even come close to how we’re feeling about the latest release in the Zelda franchise. The gameplay demonstration not only showed us part of the new map, but a look into some of the new abilities Link will have.
Take to the Skies
One of the first things we notice in this gameplay demonstration is the differences between Hyrule from Breath of the Wild (BotW). Mr Aonuma starts by telling us that there are lots of changes throughout Hyrule, so it’s worth taking a look around and finding all of these new parts of the map. But the biggest difference has to be what he called ‘Sky Islands’.
While things are a little different on the ground, there’s a whole new series of places to explore in the skies. It seems like the landscapes are different in the skies, so it will be interesting to see what new materials we can find there as well.
In addition to this new layout, we’re also getting some new enemies to fight. We see some of the fighting gameplay where Link goes up against a couple of Constructs, which seem to be the replacements for the guardians from BotW.
There’s still very little known about Constructs, but for the eagle-eyed among you, you may have noticed Link looting a Zonai charge after taking down one of the new enemies. The Zonai are an ancient civilization that was long gone by the events of BotW and were only hinted at in the game. The small mentions in the gameplay and other teasers and trailers suggest we might be getting some new lore in the Zelda universe.
Look at What I Can Do!
One of the most exciting parts of the gameplay demonstration would have to be the introduction to Link’s new abilities. The four new abilities seem to offer a whole new level to gameplay and add an extra dimension to what we can do. Some of them might make the most annoying parts of BotW better. Others are completely new and suggest endless possibilities on how to play the game.
Recall
Time and time travel have often been a fun and essential part of the Zelda franchise. BotW didn’t really include this, aside from being able to freeze objects and enemies in time with the stasis rune. But TotK might be changing that somewhat with the new ability Recall. The gameplay demonstration showed Link using Recall to reverse the timeline of a fallen stone so he can make it to one of the islands. I like the idea of reversing the time of an object rather than everything, as it will open up a lot of new ways to solve puzzles, fight monsters, and find hidden areas.
We don’t know yet just how many objects can be affected by this, and I’ll be interested to see if this can be used on monsters as well as static items, but it definitely looks like it will make traveling and fighting that little bit more fun.
Ascend
I’m too embarrassed to admit how much time I’ve spent climbing up mountains, houses, and just about everything else in BotW. All this climbing was due in part to my unwillingness to find a path to get to where I needed to be. It was also due to the fact that there was so much to explore and find, climbing was an essential part of the game. There was nothing more annoying than running out of stamina when you’re just near the top, and the amount of time it took to make it to places could be frustrating. But with the introduction of the new ability Ascend, it seems like we might be able to cut some of the climbing out, at least if there’s a ceiling.
In the gameplay demonstration, we see Link using Ascend to morph through the ceiling of a mountain cave to make his way to the level above. And while Mr Aonuma did say there are some limitations to what this ability can do, he also told us that “as long as there’s a ceiling, you can use it anywhere”. This is one that I’m particularly excited about, as it will take away some of the climbing heaviness and should free up more time for exploring.
Ultrahand
One new ability that might be the most fun outside of the story is the Ultrahand ability. The gameplay demonstration showed Link using this power to pick up logs and fans to create a boat to cross a lake. If you look closely, however, you can see that some of the larger rocks and platforms in the background are glowing orange, meaning we’ll be able to move these around as well. This suggests we’ll be able to change the actual layout of the area, and should make for some interesting ways to solve puzzles and travel around.
Ultrahand seems to be opening up the gameplay a whole lot more and will give people an incredibly unique way to progress through the game. Will it make the storyline and gameplay more interesting? I think it definitely will. Will I also use it to create the most ridiculous and crazy structures I possibly can? Absolutely. One of the things we love most about the Zelda series is just how replayable it is, and with the introduction of an ability like this, I think it will only make the replayability that much better.
Fuse
One of the additions to BotW that divided fans and frustrated us all was weapon durability. And while we may have hoped this would be gone in TotK, sadly, we will still have to keep an eye on our weapons and how strong they are. But Nintendo appears to have listened to our plight somewhat and has given a new way to make stronger weapons. This is where the Fuse ability comes in.
As with all Zelda games, we’re assuming that we’ll start with only weaker weapons. And as we know from BotW, things like tree branches and Korok leaves don’t last very long in battle. But never fear, because now we’re able to fuse our weapons with items around us to make them strong. If your tree branch just isn’t cutting it in battle, do like Mr Aonuma and stick a rock on the end of it. We also saw him merging Keese eyeballs to arrows to give it a homing ability, ideal for hunting and taking out enemies.
It seems like we won’t have to worry too much about running out of elemental arrows anymore, as the demonstration showed us Link fusing White Chuchu Jelly with an arrow to give it freezing abilities. Need to confuse your enemy? We saw how Link could fuse a Puffshroom to his shield to create a smokescreen, giving him a window to sneak up on a Construct.
From what we saw in the gameplay demonstration, it seems like we can fuse anything with everything, and while I’m sure they won’t all have beneficial abilities, you can bet we’ll all be trying to fuse together the most ridiculous items.
Well Worth the Wait?
Since Nintendo announced they would be releasing a sequel to BotW in 2019, we’ve all been waiting with bated breath for even a hint of more information. And when the release date was pushed back, I think we were all a little worried about what would happen with the game. However, after all of the trailers and now the gameplay demonstration, it’s clear to see why the development took so long. The new abilities alone would have taken a long time to perfect, let alone any other new additions.
My only concern at the moment is that those of us with the older version of the Switch may struggle a little with how powerful this game could be, but then we would hope that this has been taken into consideration during the development. Either way, it’s safe to say that Eiji Aonuma, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and the Zelda team at Nintendo fully own my soul, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the game when it’s released.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will start to take over our lives on 12th May 2023. Preorder it on Amazon here!
Sarah here, teaching English around the world. Living life and seeing things.
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