The New Legend Of Zelda Game Has Been Revealed
The new Legend of Zelda game has been revealed, and it is called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Nintendo has finally revealed the sequel to its massively popular 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Tuesday, during the Nintendo Direct presentation. Nintendo revealed the game via a trailer cinematic, which reveals the game’s name — previously held under tight wraps to avoid spoilers — and the new game’s official release date. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is now expected to launch on May 12, 2023.
As reported by IGN, Nintendo’s trailer did a masterful job of revealing all the gaming features fans could expect in the upcoming The Legend of Zelda video game. This includes Link soaring through the skies of Hyrule in new and interesting ways. It also opened ways to floating islands above the land, offering new, vertical depth to in-game exploration, allowing gamers to explore the skies of Hyrule and an expanded world beyond.
The trailer above starts with a series of wall carvings that presumably offer clues about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s backstory. We also see Link running across the plains of what ended up being a massive floating island, only to leap off the edge skydiving and land on a glider. Flying boulders appear to be another traversal method, as well as climbing the tree roots and vines at the sides of a flying island.
Originally titled Breath of the Wild 2, the recently revealed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was originally expected to launch at the end of this year before it was delayed to 2023. The reasons behind the delay are the usual talk of the gaming industry, in which each developer needs more time “to polish up the game.” Apparently, everyone took a page out of CD Projekt RED’s book on how not to develop a game — though the company did a great job of polishing up their Cyberpunk 2077, from a rough cut to a pretty-looking gaming gem.
Still, it’s interesting to see how an entirely new game has sprouted from the developers having too many ideas for a DLC. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was actually intended as a DLC release for Breath of the Wild, but the overall scope of additional features and content warranted a sequel instead. Something similar happened with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla — the developers wanted to make a DLC that focuses on one of the game’s deuteragonists but ended up with so much content that they decided to make Assassin’s Creed Mirage instead.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a massive success that masterfully combined classic gaming elements of the broader Zelda canon and placed them in an open-world setting. Though it may sound overwhelming, the developers actually made the game incredibly welcoming to newcomers and franchise veterans, which resulted in the game selling over 27 million copies. The game’s massive success, brought by the expansive lore, delightful characters, and fantastic design, warranted some form of expansion.
In the gaming market that’s now dominated by downloadable content and never-ending gaming experiences, it’s actually nice that Nintendo is actually developing a sequel to one of the world’s best games instead of merely complementing it with a downloadable expansion.
