The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of the Kingdom retains the open world action-adventure gameplay of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). Tears of the Kingdom introduces Zonai devices, which can be used for combat, exploration, or solving puzzles and to construct vehicles, such as rockets, sleds, and fans. Breath of the Wild's Sheikah Slate-based abilities have been replaced with five new powers: Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, Recall, and Autobuild. Like in Breath of the Wild, Korok seeds and Shrines can be found across Hyrule. Korok seeds can be traded to increase his inventory capacity, allowing him to hold more melee weapons, shields, or bows. The new recipe system allows the player to keep track of ingredients needed to make meals or elixirs. == Plot ==

Tears of the Kingdom takes place a number of years after Breath of the Wild, at the end of the Zelda timeline. Link and Zelda explore a cavern beneath Hyrule Castle, from which a poisonous substance called "gloom" has been seeping out and causing people to fall ill. There, they find murals depicting the founding of Hyrule and a subsequent conflict known as the Imprisoning War—an ancient battle against a being referred to as the "Demon King"—which Zelda believes to be related to the mysterious Zonai race. Upon venturing deeper, they discover a mummy being restrained by a disembodied arm. The mummy awakens and attacks Link and Zelda; in the aftermath, Link's right arm is wounded and the Master Sword is shattered. Hyrule Castle is raised into the sky, and Zelda falls into the depths below; as Link tries to catch her, she vanishes along with a mysterious artifact. Link is rescued by the arm, awakening later on the Great Sky Island to find that it has replaced his damaged limb. He meets the spirit of Rauru, a Zonai and the source of his new arm, who helps him traverse the island. Once Link reaches his destination, the shattered Master Sword vanishes and he returns to the surface below. Link learns that the event in the cavern, known as the Upheaval, has wrought chaos upon Hyrule, and he sets out to investigate reports of strange phenomena throughout the kingdom. He ventures into ancient Zonai temples after reuniting with his allies: Sidon, the prince and, later, king of the Zora; Tulin, a young Rito archer and son of Teba, a past ally of Link's; Yunobo, a Goron, now the president of the YunoboCo mining company; and Riju, the young chief of the Gerudo. After defeating the monsters that have taken over the temples, Link and his allies find artifacts called secret stones and meet the spirits of ancient sages, who appoint Link's allies as their successors and pass down their secret stones. After numerous sightings of Zelda throughout Hyrule, Link finds her at Hyrule Castle, where she reveals herself to be an illusion created by Phantom Ganon, a servant of the Demon King, Ganondorf, the mummy whom Link previously encountered. After defeating Phantom Ganon, Link sets out to find Mineru, the last of the ancient sages, who remains in the physical world via spiritual projection. He assembles a mechanical body for her spirit to inhabit. Through Mineru, the ancient sages, and items called Dragon's Tears scattered across Hyrule, Link learns of Zelda's fate. The artifact she found was a secret stone that transported her to the distant past, where she met Rauru, Hyrule's first king, and Sonia, its first queen. After Ganondorf killed Sonia and used her secret stone to become the Demon King, Rauru appointed his older sister Mineru, Zelda, and the leaders of the Zora, Rito, Gorons, and Gerudo as sages. With their help, Rauru fought Ganondorf and sacrificed himself to seal him away. Later, Zelda received the shattered Master Sword from the future and tasked the sages with aiding Link once Ganondorf reawakened. To repair the Master Sword and bring it to Link in the present, she swallowed her secret stone and underwent "draconification", becoming the immortal Light Dragon and losing her sense of self. In the present, after ridding the Great Deku Tree of gloom in Korok Forest, Link retrieves the repaired Master Sword from the Light Dragon and heads below Hyrule Castle to confront Ganondorf. With aid from Sidon, Tulin, Yunobo, Riju, and Mineru, Link battles an army of monsters before engaging Ganondorf himself. Nearing defeat, Ganondorf swallows his secret stone, becoming the Demon Dragon in a final attempt to kill Link. With help from the Light Dragon, Link uses the Master Sword to shatter the Demon Dragon's secret stone, killing it. The spirits of Rauru and Sonia help Link return Zelda to normal and restore his right arm before fading away; he and Zelda fall to the surface, where they reunite. Some time later, on the Great Sky Island, Mineru bids farewell to Zelda and Link before fading away, while the new sages vow to protect Hyrule. == Development and release ==

. Development of Tears of the Kingdom began after the completion of Breath of the Wild. The developers had thought of several features to include as downloadable content (DLC) for Breath of the Wild, but the sheer number of ideas inspired them to create a new game instead. As with its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom was developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) division, Production Group Number 3, and was directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi and produced by Eiji Aonuma. While he was shown early demos, the role of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto was minimized due to scheduling conflicts as he was producing The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). He was credited as "general producer", the same position he had held in the series since the late 2000s. Due to its similarity to Breath of the Wild, the developers experienced "strong déjà vu". Aonuma reiterated that the development team wanted to create something original while also being similar to the previous game, realizing some aspects "were already as they should be". The dungeons were created to maximize the gameplay by showcasing the range of Link's powers and gadgets. Additionally, they were designed to be accessed seamlessly rather than being closed off, allowing the player to descend from the sky into the dungeon and conveniently enter and exit. Technical director Takuhiro Dohta cited Wii Sports Resort as an inspiration when adding new mechanics, also noting that using familiar locations is useful for players when skydiving. Aonuma also cited the open world games Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The team expanded the world to include the sky and underground. Aonuma referred to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, noting that its hardware limitations prevented a seamless descent from the sky to the surface; instead, Link was limited to diving from specific points. With the capabilities of the Nintendo Switch, Tears of the Kingdom allowed players to traverse a world connected both horizontally and vertically, and with greater player agency. A theme of hands was introduced as a way to express the concept of connecting, which is present in the mechanics, story, visuals, and sound; Aonuma stated that the theme was present in the plot, which involves connecting to Hyrule's history. Dohta explained that joining hands and cooperating with other characters is a major element, along with Link's ability to create items with his hands, with his right arm being a way to distinguish him from previous iterations of the character. The Ascend ability was developed from a debug feature that Aonuma and Fujibayashi used to exit the caves, which they implemented as a feature because they wanted a quick way to get to the surface. Its implementation presented several challenges, such as ensuring that a player would not land on an empty space due to loading issues. Tears of the Kingdom was first announced at E3 2019 as an untitled sequel to Breath of the Wild. Nintendo debuted a trailer revealing gameplay, story elements, and a 2022 release window at E3 2021. By March 2022, Tears of the Kingdom was completed, but Nintendo delayed the release for a year to refine it. Nintendo later changed the release window to 2 2023. More information was revealed in the Nintendo Direct presentation held in September 2022, including the title Tears of the Kingdom and a release date of May 12, 2023. A Nintendo Direct in February 2023 teased more gameplay elements. Two weeks before release, a playable version of the game leaked online as a disk image. The enhanced Nintendo Switch 2 edition features improved resolution, framerate, HDR support, and additional functionality with the Nintendo Switch App. A spin-off, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, was released for the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 6, 2025. == Reception ==

According to the review aggregator platform Metacritic, the Switch version of Tears of the Kingdom received "universal acclaim". While feeling that it did not replicate the experience of playing through its predecessor, Game Informer wrote that Tears of the Kingdom evoked a compelling response by how it revisited previous locations. The new powers received praise. GamesRadar+ called these abilities well-designed, saying that they offered creative solutions to problems and highlighting Ultrahand in particular. The reviewer mentioned that some of the abilities felt like gaming the system, and would make the game less enticing when the player could use them to break its rules. The Guardian felt that the powers allowed for the player to circumvent every object in multiple potential ways, writing that this freedom to progress was novel and fun. GameSpot described the powers as superior to those featured in Breath of the Wild, and contributed to an experience that the reviewer considered creative and distinct. More than 10 million copies of Tears of the Kingdom were sold in its first three days of release, making it the fastest-selling game in The Legend of Zelda franchise, as well as the fastest selling Nintendo game in the Americas with over four million copies sold in the US alone. Tears of the Kingdom sold over 2.24 million copies within its first three days of release in Japan, 1.1 million being physical copies. In August 2023, it was reported that the sales of Tears of the Kingdom may have boosted the gross domestic product of Japan, with a 2.8% increase in consumer spending in the semi-durable goods sector during April to August 2023, which included video games. It was the fifth best-selling video game in the US in 2023. By December 2025, it had sold 22.40 million copies worldwide. Accolades The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was selected by Famitsu, IGN, Edge, Game Informer, Giant Bomb, Destructoid, ComicBook.com, Polygon, Shacknews, The Guardian, and Siliconera as their Game of the Year. == Notes ==