Nintendo announced a 10-minute Tears of the Kingdom gameplay video for today and they did not disappoint, as fans got a very small glimpse at a massive Hyrule.
The new gameplay video promised by Nintendo for Tears of the Kingdom indeed aired today, and it gave fans a lot to look forward to when it comes to the highly anticipated sequel to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The gameplay video highlighted some of the new abilities Link will be able to utilize when solving problems or puzzles while inadvertently showcasing how small Link is in relation to the massive Hyrule the player will be able to explore in Tears of the Kingdom. The gameplay video can be seen below.
While exploring, Eiji Aonuma (said through a translator) explained how this is a different Hyrule than BotW. Eiji Aonuma explained there will be new ways to explore and utilize surroundings this time around, and the demonstration showcased four new abilities Link can use to his advantage in Tears of the Kingdom.
New Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Abilities
- Recall – allows the player to reverse time for objects. In the gameplay video, the demonstrator used this to make a piece of fallen debris from a sky island go back into the sky, allowing link further atmospheric exploration, but surely there are FAR more ways to use this new ability.
- Fuse – While fighting a new enemy referred to as a ‘Construct,’ Link fuses a branch and a rock together to create a makeshift hammer to fight with. This deals more damage, making short work of the new adversary. This can also be applied to arrows, the demonstrator showed an eyeball retrieved from a monster can attach to an arrow to make them HOMING arrows.
- Ultrahand – Another new ability based on mashing things together. When confronted with a river, Link can paste things together to make a raft that will allow safe passage. Aonuma noted the flying machine seen in the previous Tears of the Kingdom trailer from February, can be created through this new method.
- Ascend – the last showcased ability lets link shoot up into a ceiling and go straight through it. Aonuma notes while there are obvious restrictions, the depth of ceilings don’t seem to matter, as link is seen literally swimming through a ceiling.
So many things were shown off during the brief 10 minutes, but the scope of Hyrule itself is VAST. As the demonstrator falls from the sky near the end of the video, Hyrule from the sky is shown, and there is a huge landscape with MANY sky islands to explore for Link when Tears of the Kingdom launches. After the presentation ended, the Tears of the Kingdom flavoured Switch OLED that was leaked back in December was formally announced, and fans will be able to attempt to get one on April 28. A new Pro-Controller and Carrying Case were also revealed but will launch along with the game instead of the two-week early date of the OLED.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12.
