Nintendo has released the third and final pre-launch trailer for the increasingly incredible-looking The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game will launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch on 12th May 2023 – that’s less than a month away!
Nintendo have held a dedicated mini-Direct for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with the highly anticipated Breath of the Wild sequel still set for a 12th May 2023 release date on Nintendo Switch. In fact, Aonuma-san proudly announces that development is complete!
It’s another trailer that is sure to hype up fans of Breath of the Wild, but where the last reveal was full of gameplay details, this is three minutes that’s far more about setting the tone of the adventure and the story of yet another cataclysm striking Hyrule. It feels like this tale is taking a much darker tone.
However, there are some snippets of gameplay that do reveal a little more of what to expect. Huge puzzles, laser dodging, hang gliding, bizarre contraptions, mine cart battles, and more await. Another intriguing element to be revealed is that you can fight alongside allies.
Just a couple weeks ago, Aonuma-san previewed some of the key gameplay enhancements that are coming in Tears of the Kingdom. The Sheikah Slate has been imbued with some new abilities, letting players manipulate the world and objects in different ways, such as rewinding time with Recall to, for example, climb onto a rock fallen from a sky island and then paraglide across. This is just one way to reach a sky island, with Hyrule having been completely torn asunder.
Then there’s brand new vehicular antics, leaning into the physics based shenanigans that players were quick to get up to in Breath of the Wild with new cars, hot air balloons, hovercraft and more. In actual fact, these rely on crafting with Ultrahand, attaching logs to a fan to make a boat, for example.
Ascend is another ability that lets you zip up through ceilings and pop out the other side. This could be a manmade structure or even the roof of a cave!
‘Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ was announced back at E3 2019, as Nintendo decided to expand what was originally planned as a DLC expansion into a full new game. That original trailer focussed on underground elements, but the real adventure expands high above Hyrule, as last seen in Breath of the Wild. While the game had been planned for release in 2022, Nintendo eventually announced that it will be coming to Nintendo Switch on 12th May 2023.
