The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) Preview

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is just around the corner. So, what’s in store for Link’s latest adventure?

Since the colorful and outrageous decade of the 1980s, Zelda has captivated the hearts of millions as we loaded up our Nintendos and settled in for a magical escape to the mystical lands of Hyrule.

With nineteen games in its core series and a number of lesser-known spin-offs still flying off the shelves, Nintendo are poised and ready to release their most anticipated game of the year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

With the almost tangible excitement in the air, we thought it to be the perfect time to take a look at what’s to come from Nintendo’s favorite elven hero, Link.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – When is it Landing?

It was back in ’21 at the E3 convention that a sequel to the popular Breath of the Wild was in the pipeline and due for a release in the following year. Such is the tradition with monumentally anticipated games, this was later pushed forward to a concreted release date of May 12.

The Story Behind The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

There’s very little information out there surrounding the story behind The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. We can, however, confirm that Link will once again be going head-to-head with his long-time nemesis, Ganon. This can be confirmed by the trailer, where Ganon makes an appearance at around the 1:03 mark, with a far clearer shot of the incarnation of greed and evil, Ganondorf, rearing his ugly head at 3:18.

We can also surmise from the trailer that Hyrule Castle has been raised from the ground and floating islands dot the skies. Without wandering into the realms of speculation, it’s hard to say much more about the story behind The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the King.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is Packed with New Features

Tears of the Kingdom (or Breath of the Wild 2 ) promises to come jam-packed full of new features that give the Breath of the Wild sequel a lot of fresh mechanics to get your teeth stuck into.

Schematics can now be used to build machines, vehicles, and contraptions to assist you on your journey. Named ‘Autobuild’, this new feature will open up the vast lands of Hyrule as you’re given the incentive to seek out useful blueprints and unlock the many developer-designed creations.

Completing Dungeons Now Unlocks New Abilities for Link

To even further improve on its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom will allow you to unlock a bevy of new abilities you will be able to access using a radial menu.

Fuse: The Fuse ability lives up to its name by allowing Link to fuse two items together. This can be done with many items found in Hyrule, including weapons, shields, and arrows. There’s no telling how much this will open the game up. It seems the perfect excuse for some franchise-mandatory puzzles.

Ultrahand: The Ultrahand ability will allow Link to move overworld objects. It seems very reminiscent of Breath of the Wild’s Magnesis rune, but more will be revealed when the cards are out on the table.

Recall: The Recall ability will allow Link to cast objects back in time, returning them from whence they came.

Ascend: This ability’s name speaks for itself. Ascend will allow Link to jump through platforms to easily scale high areas.

Aside from these exciting new abilities, The Tears of the Kingdom will allow you to pull a cart and other objects around on horseback, new armor sets have been added and you can now bling out your glider with full customization.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Summary

With franchises as loved as Zelda, it’s always exciting news when a new game is announced. Tears of the Kingdom is looking to be a heavily improved-upon sequel, full of new features and innovative ideas. Only time will tell for sure (what little of that is left for waiting) but we have every faith in the people at Nintendo.