In the wee hours, Nintendo dropped a new gameplay demonstration for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Producer Mr. Aonuma-san walking us through some exciting new gameplay elements and mechanics.
At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking you were looking at Breath of the Wild gameplay, the art style and fidelity of TOTK look almost identical to BOTW and I think it’s clear the Nintendo Switch has already peaked in terms of hardware capability.
BUT there is clearly a LOT more going on under the hood in this new game. Not only is the map just as expansive as BOTW but there is now also a tonne of verticality added with the addition of the ‘sky islands’.
Honestly looking at how enormous the world looked as Link skydived through the air, gave me anxiety!
Where the new game will really shine though is in it’s new abilities. I got more and more excited with each one Mr. Aonuma-san showed off.
RECALL
The Recall ability allows you to rewind movement for a specific object.
In the trailer we see a large rock fall from the heavens, Link uses recall to send the boulder back where it came from and hitch a ride up to the sky islands in the process.
There are a lot of questions surrounding this ability. Can it be used to send a projectile back at an enemy? Can it rebuild whole collapsed structures? Can you keep those structures stuck together with Ultrahand?
I’m excited to experiment and find the answers.
FUSE
Fuse was the ability that surprised me most from the trailer. Essentially acting as a glue to stick objects together and create a new weapons/shields/items.
Mr. Aonuma-san showed off a comically large hammer, crafted from a branch and a boulder, then really surprised me when fusing a long stick with a pitchfork to create a ridiculously long forked weapon.
We also saw a Puffshroom stuck to a shield that releases a cloud of smoke when struck, allowing Link to slip behind an enemy and perform a sneakstrike.
Though perhaps the most exciting for me was the ability to craft custom arrows on the fly.
We saw Link combine normal arrows with a White Chuchu Jelly to create an ice arrow, then do the same with a Keese Eyeball to create a homing arrow!
It’s not clear what limitations there’ll be on the ability, I doubt I can stick the Master Sword on the end of a broom handle, but the possibilities seem almost endless!
ULTRAHAND
The most creative of the new abilities is Ultrahand. Similar to Fuse, it can be used to stick objects together to create different structures and vehicles.
Objects can also be detached and rearranged.
We saw a raft constructed from three big logs, then given propulsion in the form of two electric fans stuck on the back.
Another raft took to the skies when four fans were glued to the corners and positioned to blow downward.
From what we’ve seen so far; boats, cars, hot air balloons and hovercraft are all constructable.
Makes you wonder what other inventions genius tinkerers will be able to come up with!
ASCEND
When Ascend is used inside a cave or structure with a ceiling, Link will rise upwards and swim through solid matter, popping up into the world above!
This is going to make traversal a whole lot quicker and easier!
Mr. Aonuma-san also mentioned that it’ll even work if Link finds himself trapped inside a cage.
The Houdini of Hyrule!
The new abilities are a literal game changer, Ultrahand and Fuse giving the player the freedom of design normally reserved for sandbox style games.
It’s going to be a blast seeing what the community comes up with when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12th
