The sequel to Breath of the Wild is inching ever closer and thanks to the newest trailer we now know a whole lot more. We know it’s officially called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, we know it’s coming out on May 12, 2023, and we’ve been given some intriguing hints about the game’s story, world and mechanics. Here are 18 things we think are worth calling out in the new trailer.
1) Link Has Glowing Vials in Place of the Sheikah Slate
As Link runs towards the ledge of a floating island, you can see his right arm has already been altered like in previous trailers. But what’s new is that he’s carrying something on his belt in place of the Sheikah Slate: a small set of vials, half of which are filled with a green glowing light. This object is extremely reminiscent of the Vessel of Light that Link and Midna used to collect Tears of Light in Twilight Princess, which would fit the new title nicely, though you do also collect tears in Skyward Sword. It could also just be a new type of resource that’s consumed to use powers.
Either way, it’s prominently featured on the official art that accompanied this trailer and is surely an important part of this game.
2) Dungeons in the Sky?
When Link jumps off we can see a large structure in the background that was spotted in previous trailers. Does this house a dungeon? Some kind of artificial trial? He also seems to be incredibly high up, as it takes a few seconds before the ground below even comes into view.
3) Rewind Theater
We’ve already seen Link’s new ability to seemingly rewind the path an object has taken, but this trailer shows another example of how this can be used, as Link sends a chunk of ruins back up into the sky, gripping the side as it rises. This looks to be in the Faron region, incidentally, which is covered in ruins from the Zonai – an ancient civilization only hinted at through the environment of the first game, but one that seems to have more relevance in this one. More on that shortly.
4) Traversal Challenges
As Link ascends, you can catch a glimpse of some floating islands covered by storm clouds, which could possibly hint that not all floating areas are easily accessible at first.
This could also be true of the next shot, which shows Link climbing up roots on the side of a floating island, the rest of which has a black texture that could be similar to the artificial, unclimbable surfaces in Breath of the Wild.
5) The Power of Flight!
Dropping down onto a glider has to be one of the highlights of this trailer. It’s not clear whether Link will actually be able to control the glider or simply hitch a ride, but it seems to be heading towards a neon green pattern of lines on the Illumeni Plateau - previously the location of a stone Talus fight.
It’s also worth taking a look at the cryptic symbols on the glider itself (on the bronze section of the tail) - it's a little hard to make them out but they could easily an insignia of some sort.
6) Death Mountain Malice?
From the glider we get a really clear view of a floating Hyrule Castle. We’ve seen the floating castle and the red tendrils of malice or energy powering it in previous trailers, but we get a good look at it here. And interestingly, the same stuff seems to be spewing out of Death Mountain too.
7) A Shrine-free Landscape
From this vantage point we can also see plenty of sky islands (including a notably large one high above either the Lanayru or Faron region) as well the familiar - but altered - landscape of Hyrule.
For example, there’s some sort of large cube on the ground visible just below the right wing of the glider that definitely wasn’t there in Breath of the Wild.
In the image below, Ridgeland Tower is also nowhere to be seen (although interestingly, if you look just under the arrows there's another neon green pattern on the ground). In fact, any shrines and towers that were previously visible from here have vanished along with Link’s Sheikah Slate. Could this setting pre-date the Sheikah? Or be set during the early period of their civilisation?
8) Stairway to Heaven
Last but not least from this shot, take a look at this glowing green spiral at the bottom left of the screen.
We’ve seen quite a lot of green energy around Link in previous trailers, and in particular, the shot where he dives up and into the bottom of a sky island before popping out the top is all about luminous green energy.
Our bet is that this is an elevator point or launch activator to allow Link to reach the lands above. Presumably these are dotted across Hyrule.
9) A Link to the Sheikah
We see a number of Sheikah-like symbols in the new trailer, from the shield on Link’s back in the opening scene (which we’ve seen in other trailers too) through to the depiction of Zelda and another figure in the wall mural.
It’s worth pointing out for the latter that the three arrows under their eyes are actually facing down, like the upside down Sheikah symbol used by the Yiga clan in Breath of the Wild. Could this indicate some kind of corruption or opposition to the Sheikah?
10) A Glimpse Into (Presumably) Ancient Times
The events of Breath of the Wild were actually set in motion 10,000 years earlier, with the creation of the Divine Beasts and Guardians during the height of Sheikah civilisation to protect Hyrule from Calamity Ganon. The game told this story through Impa’s tapestry, which depicted this epic saga.
This new Tears of the Kingdom trailer employs a similar technique, using a mural embedded in a stone wall. Is this depiction similarly historic? Or is it more contemporary to the game’s setting? (Or both, if players can visit different time periods.) We’ll have to wait and see, but for now, here are some of the things depicted and their relevance…
11) Princess Zelda’s Ascension
A figure that is most likely Princess Zelda (or a version of her) appears in at least a couple of places in the mural. We see her apparently being raised up into the air, perhaps after a fall (as seen in the previous trailers), or perhaps rising up to the floating platform upon which a mysterious figure sits.
We also see her standing, touching hands with that same figure, with two teardrop-like shapes above them, a pattern emanating out from them like a radiant glow.
12) Is That the Goddess Hylia?
Who is this mysterious person with Zelda? Given the interaction above, as well as the fact that both characters are depicted with triangles under their eyes and in extremely similar outfits, our best guess is that this figure could represent the goddess Hylia herself. Zelda is actually the mortal reincarnation of Hylia in Skyward Sword, and the goddess is said to have raised a chunk of the world up to the clouds in that game, in much the same way she is first shown here. This would create a definite connection between the presence of floating landmasses in both Skyward Sword and Tears of the Kingdom.
13) The Titular Tears
Taking another look at the image of this figure on the floating platform, they’re surrounded by seven objects that look a bit like spiraly, inverted tear drops.
These objects are extremely similar to the Amber Relics in Skyward Sword, but they could also be the titular “tears” of this game.
Seven has always been a significant number throughout Zelda’s history: for example, there were seven sages with seven medallions in Ocarina of Time, as well as seven maidens trapped in crystals in A Link to the Past. While Breath of the Wild had just four divine beasts and a lack of Zelda’s usual dungeon structure, this motif of seven objects around a central figure could mean Tears of the Kingdom will have you on a quest to collect them more like those earlier Zelda titles.
14) Bokos and Moblins Consumed By Malice?
Another scene that’s worth examining from the stone mural shows Bokoblins and Moblins surrounded by what we assume is malice, attacking soldiers armed with swords and shields.
The shields bear an unfamiliar insignia – it’s close to a couple other symbols we’ve seen in Zelda before, perhaps most similar to the Skyloft Crest from Skyward Sword, but also quite distinct.
15) An Unknown Script
There is also some writing on the sides of this mural, but it doesn’t seem to be any script from the Zelda series that we know about as yet.
It looks very similar to the script on the ouroboros on the gigantic door at the start of the trailer.
16) In the Zonai
One of the most mysterious ancient civilisations in Breath of the Wild were the Zonai, described as “an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region” in the Barbarian Armor text. All that remained of them were some ancient ruins in the jungle and a hint that they had some level of contact with the Sheikah, given Link obtains their armor set within three Sheikah shrines... each contained within an ancient labyrinth. We may not know a lot about them, but dragon imagery is absolutely everywhere in that part of the game world.
Why is that relevant? Because Tears of the Kingdom’s world also appears to be deeply connected to dragons. Take a look at the twin dragons that are featured as an ouroboros in the game’s logo - they’re almost identical to large Zonai statues that can be found in Breath of the Wild.
We see them again on the massive door at the start of the trailer too (back up the page a bit). And outside this trailer, we’ve also seen Zonai-like structures in the cave system Link and Zelda were in in the reveal trailer, and a weapon with a very Zonai-like design in the second one.
Perhaps these dragon references have nothing to do with the Zonai, but imagining for a moment that they do, could this game be set at a time when the Zonai were still around? One of Link’s outfits - the one with sandals and almost a toga-like robe - certainly feels pretty ancient. Perhaps - as mentioned earlier - this game jumps between time periods?
17) An Altered Master Sword
We already know something pretty serious is going on with the Master Sword, thanks to the shot of it looking completely corrupted in the video announcing the game's delay.
Here, however, we get a look at the Master Sword as part of the game logo, where the corrosion transitions into a stylised, green (of course) rendition of the iconic weapon. Could this be a hint about how the Master Sword will be repaired? It’s similar, after all, to both the green line symbols that are visible from the glider and the general aesthetic of Twilight Princess.
18) Tears of Unspeakable Sadness or Rip & Tear, Doom-style?
Lastly, just to address the elephant in the room, we compared the English and Japanese versions of the logo and are fairly confident the title is intended to be Tears of the Kingdom, as in crying, not Tears of the Kingdom as in ripping – however, the potentially intentional double meaning there could be cool to look out for, as Hyrule certainly seems to be tearing itself apart.
No matter how you pronounce it, we’ll have lots more coverage of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leading up through its launch on May 12th 2023. In the meantime, why not check out some of our Breath of the Wild content? Five years on and we're still obsessed...
Cam Shea has worked at IGN since before the before times, and has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game. When he's not playing games he's mixing records.
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https://www.ign.com/articles/the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-18-things-to-pay-attention-to-in-the-new-trailer
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