We are a little over a month away from the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK). This is the much-anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BOTW) which was released in March 2017.
The sequel was initially announced with a teaser back in 2019 and a full reveal in 2021. The title was announced in September 2022 and there have been several trailers released for the game at this point.
The second official trailer shows TOTK picking up after BOTW’s storyline with malice overcoming Hyrule once again. The malice also takes over and deforms Link’s arm as he tries to save Zelda from the malice taking over Hyrule Castle. It was shown that his ‘new arm’ is going to drastically change gameplay and enhance Link’s abilities.
Cost Breakdown
TOTK is set to release for the Nintendo Switch on May 12th, 2023 with a retail price of $69.99. To top it off, there is also a collector’s edition available for preorder that costs $129.99 and includes some physical merchandise for the game.
Typically, big titles release at a price point of $59.99 for a physical copy, and at the same price point for a digital download of the base game. Games have been selling at a max of $60 for years and this is the first time in Nintendo History that a stand alone base game is being sold at $70. Video game news outlet, Game Informer, managed to get a statement from Nintendo of them attempting to justify the cost jump, by saying that the cost of a game is determined “on a case-by-case basis.”
The official TOTK website confirms that there will be downloadable content (DLC) which is typical additional content available for purchase to enhance the gameplay and add additional storylines or quests. The website also confirms that there will be amiibo, which are physical items or ‘toys’ sold by Nintendo that can be purchased and wirelessly connect to your gaming system. The amiibo are set to release at the same time as the base game.
Additionally, like Nintendo has been doing for the past few years now, they are releasing an OLED version of the Switch which included joy-cons and Switch dock, themed around the game for $359.99, that is set to be released on April 28th, according to Nintendo’s website. They are also releasing another pro controller and carrying case to match.
None of these items are needed by any means, but they can enhance gameplay and allow the player to further immerse themselves into Hyrule.
Gameplay
Transitioning into the gameplay, on March 28th, Nintendo shared a video with almost 14 minutes of actual gameplay and (translated) commentary from Eiji Aounuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda series.
The video starts off by sharing that the development of the game is finally complete, which is kind of refreshing to hear, since the release of the game was pushed back several months from the initial, anticipated release.
Based on the video, the world map looks similar to the game we already love, but there are a lot of new features that aren’t limited to the ones shown in the video. After all, they still need more content to tease as we grow nearer to the release. As fans of the series, we would want to be able to discover these features on our own during our playthroughs.
First off, as seen in the trailers and in the gameplay video, are “sky islands,” and one of the ways they can be reached is through one of Link’s new abilities, “recall” along with the paraglider. There are even new enemies like “The Construct” and new ways to fight them.
The game lets players “fuse” items together and craft items with the “ultrahand” ability. While there is great reasoning behind it, many were left upset by the fact you can’t repair or build your own weapons, like in the game’s predecessor, BOTW, and this is likely a result of that.
There are other features such as “ascend” that are shown in this teaser video.
It is also said throughout the game that even though you can do something one way, there are still many different ways to approach things, and they encourage the gamer to explore all of them, similarly to the play style of BOTW.
Our Thoughts – Bennett
I am fairly certain that this game will include a scavenger hunt for a hidden item that will span the entire breadth of the world map. We’ve seen this in every Zelda game so far, like Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time, Korok seeds in BOTW and Kinstones in Minish Cap. I can imagine it being around 900 items to find, similar to the 900 Korok seeds to discover in the expansive map of BOTW. I personally had fun collecting all 900 of them, and I look forward to getting all the collectibles in TOTK.
BOTW had a pretty good armor system but it had a lot of potential for improvement. I hope for a system that allows for crafting new armors with materials, and hopefully a return of using great fairies to enhance gear to increase their effectiveness and add set bonuses to leveled sets. I would be disappointed if they don’t innovate and expand on that system.
In BOTW, the more you play and the more enemies you defeat, the stronger the weapon buffs are on the weapons you find. I would like to see a mechanic where you can improve weapons by using materials to add buffs, or otherwise change the stats. This would require that the weapon durability system changes, to make it worthwhile to spend your hard earned materials. Side note: I personally am a big fan of the way durability works in BOTW.
I really enjoyed the DLC for BOTW. Replaying the game in Master Mode gave me a second chance to complete the game while also being challenged. I also enjoyed collecting more armor for Link and doing a difficult endgame quest line to unlock the master cycle. I am anticipating that TOTK will also have Master Mode as a DLC, and possibly some post game quest lines too.
Our Thoughts – Kaytlyn
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the game that truly made me love my Nintendo Switch, casual gaming, and the Zelda franchise. A year ago I wrote an article about my experiences with the game as a “non gamer.” However, I would now coin myself as a “casual gamer.” After beating the game and the main story lines, I rarely went back to it because I’m generally not interested in completionist tasks.
Even so, this game still has such a strong hold over me. I even named one of my cats: “Princess Zelda,” after the game. She was previously known as Link, but that’s a different story involving confusion on our end and with the vet.
I remember being so obsessed with the game and initially downloading the DLC, and that obsession transitioning into watching countless Twitch streams and Youtube videos about every aspect of the game.
While I probably won’t get through an entire play through of the game this close to release, I would like to revisit BOTW once more in anticipation of the release of the sequel. I plan to preorder my copy this week and hopefully I will receive it in the few days following the release.
I can’t wait to rediscover Hyrule once again, and I already know I’m going to be putting countless hours into this game.
Preorder
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is currently available for preorder through various platforms and will be available to play starting on Friday, May 12th.