After years of showing only teaser trailers, Nintendo has finally released a 13-minute gameplay showcase for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. With the Breath of the Wild sequel coming out in just over a month and a half, many Nintendo fans are surprised to see so little of what is set to be his one of 2023’s biggest games.
Thanks to today’s Gameplay Showcase, we were able to clear a few questions. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma showed off a quartet of major new abilities for Link, including a new fuse mechanic that easily stole the show. We also saw gameplay from Tears of the Kingdom’s newly dubbed Sky Islands.
The biggest gameplay reveal from today’s Teas of the Kingdom showcase, plus some secrets Nintendo quietly sneaked into the footage.
Weapon durability is back
Breath of the Wild’s most controversial feature is weapon durability, with Link’s sword, shield, and bow breaking permanently if overused. While fighting the first enemy Link encountered in the gameplay footage, Link’s tree branch snapped immediately, so Aonuma quickly confirmed the mechanic’s resurrection. Players seem to once again have to accept that nothing in the world of Hyrule is permanent. This is explained below.
fusion frenzy
Link has four new abilities in Tears of the Kingdom. Bombs, Magnesis, Stasis, and Crionis were nowhere to be seen today, but Link’s mysterious new corrupted arm appears to be host to new mechanics in Tears of the Kingdom.
A power that is making waves on the internet today is the new fuse ability. This allows Link to combine different objects to create entirely new combinations. The first example of Fuse was combining rocks and tree branches to create a makeshift hammer with increased durability compared to tree branches alone. This seems to be the primary way to improve weapon durability and keep favorites in your inventory longer. It’s all very Nintendo in the best way.Zelda team against controversial durability mechanic What’s the solution? Just throw a rock in there. genius.
Combine sticks and stones.
Other examples of fuses shown include Keith Eyeballs attached to arrows to give them homing power, White Tutu Jelly to give arrows freezing properties, and Puff Shroom added to shields for a smokescreen effect. or attach a stick to a pitchfork for a comically long weapon. The possibilities are endless, and Fuse seems to be the main extension of the already impressive Breath of the Wild sandbox. Part of the reason Tears of the Kingdom has been in development for so long may be explained by the Fuse mechanics. Just thinking about the tests you need is a lot of work.
New material menu
To facilitate the new Fuse mechanic, Nintendo introduced a new Material menu shortcut. Breath of the Wild required players to navigate a pause menu in order to access their collected materials. But now holding down the d-pad opens the materials menu. This appears to work similarly to the back weapon and shield shortcuts. The new arm mechanics are assigned to the L button, but I’m not sure what swapping the arm you have equipped looks like. I did.
Tears of the Kingdom’s new material menu is unveiled for the first time.
Ultra Hand is Link’s Power Glove
Next to Link’s new weapon is the Ultra Hand ability. This is a nod to Nintendo’s history. For Link’s purposes, the Ultra Hand allows you to lift objects in the world, similar to Magnesis. It’s not restricted to just metal objects.
Aonuma uses the Ultra Hand to build a boat that allows Link to easily cross the river. This is the main way Link builds the vehicle seen in the latest Tears of the Kingdom trailer. And just like Breath of the Wild’s stellar emergent gameplay, Ultra Hand stretches the limits of your imagination.
The Ultra Hand segment is where Nintendo hides a little tease about what’s in store for Tears of the Kingdom.discerning fan reddit I quickly realized that the large platform behind the Ultra Hand demonstration was also subject to Link to Grab. This means Link can rearrange parts of Sky Island in ways never seen before.
Look at the huge movable objects in the background.
Recall Is Tears of the Kingdom’s Take on Time Travel
The Zelda series often plays with time travel, but the mechanic was absent in Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom introduces subtle time manipulation in the form of the new Recall ability. This allows Link to rewind the object’s timeline. In a gameplay demonstration, Recall was used to unwind a fallen rock into the air and reach Sky Island. Traversal is only one of the recall possibilities. A previous Tears of the Kingdom trailer showed Link rewinding a spiky ball to climb a hill and eliminate a line of enemies.
Ascend is a way to avoid climbing
The last major mechanic shown is called Ascend. This was also teased before, but now it turns out that Link can use it to move across any ceiling and proceed to the floor above. You can use it anywhere as long as you have it.” In many cases, Ascend’s presence means that climbing can be a thing of the past. This could help give Tears of the Kingdom its own identity, different from Breath of the Wild, given that its predecessor focused on climbing and stamina.
Goodbye Seeker, Hello Zonai?
So far, it seems that Seekers have completely disappeared from Tears of the Kingdom. The shrine is nowhere to be seen, the Sheikah Slate appears to have been replaced by Link’s green arm, and the newly revealed Construct appears to assume the role of Guardian.
Fans speculated that the ancient Zonai tribe would be featured in Tears of the Kingdom, and today’s short clip essentially confirms that. When Skye defeated a new Construct enemy on the Island, Link looted the dropped Zonai his charge his materials. This means that the origin of the new construct is Zonai, and the green color shared between the materials and Link’s arms means that this story revolves around an ancient tribe.
The Zonai are an ancient tribe alluded to in Breath of the Wild.
Miscellaneous An ancient, invisible tribe in Breath of the Wild. So far, little is known about them, but from places like the Zonai ruins and the Barbarian armor set, they had a big presence in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdoms Hyrule. is clear.
There is also a peaceful composition
Essentially, the entire demo took place on one of the kingdom’s many Sky Islands, a landmass floating above Hyrule. These areas are where Constructs live and although Link was fighting multiple hostile Constructs in the demo, there also seem to be peaceful Constructs.Gameplay at his 9:05 in his video , Link passes by a lizard-like Ranger Construct. Its name appears above his head as if Link could stop and talk to him instead of fighting. If you keep an eye on your minimap, you’ll see his icon for Breath of the Wild’s shop on Sky Island.
It looks like you can talk to the Ranger Construct.
Mysterious UI icon and X, Y, Z coordinates
Speaking of icons, there are some mysterious symbols on the minimap throughout the demo. A quick glance at the same 9:05 mark on the minimap reveals a battery icon resembling the meter shown on a fan, a blue icon resembling the Shrine fast travel symbol from Breath of the Wild, and several brown icons. It shows. Tunnel-like markers that can be checked. It’s clear Sky Islands has a purpose that Nintendo hasn’t talked about yet. Another nice new feature is that the minimap shows X, Y, and Z coordinates. This makes sharing discoveries (and reading guides) a lot easier.
New and returning icons for the Tears of the Kingdom minimap.
New glowing towers on the surface
Many longtime Zelda fans (myself included) still have their fingers crossed for the inclusion of classic Zelda dungeons. No, but there’s no doubt that there are some mysterious man-made structures that haven’t been answered yet.On the surface of Hyrule, you can see a glowing tower with a different design than the Seeker’s Tower in Breath of the Wild. . They are scattered throughout Hyrule, and their purpose is still unknown. It could be used to discover the map again, but it’s also possible that these could be the dungeon-like experiences we want.
What are these mysterious glowing towers?
While there are certainly more secrets waiting to be revealed in this meaty gameplay chunk, Tears of the Kingdom doubles down on the sandbox structure that made Breath of the Wild a hit. It is clear that It won’t be long before we explore this redesigned Hyrule for ourselves when Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12th. Check out the newly revealed Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model for more info.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over 6 years of experience in the games industry and has bylines for IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
