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We’ve watched Link and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom beginner guide live out the roles of Princess and Knight again and again for decades, and this story gives them a chance to reclaim what it means to serve that destiny and take power into their own hands to change things. Zelda isn’t playable here, and I wish she was, but given all the discoverable memories scattered across the open world focus on her arc, she is still given room to shine and comes across as inquisitively capable in recruiting new allies and setting the stage for Link to vanquish evil once and for all. Link’s silent demeanour speaks volumes, expressing equal parts grief and hope in the search for his charge. When it comes to this series, none have ever gone this hard on storytelling, and it works beautifully.

Tears of the Kingdom is weakest when it abides by traditions many of us begged for in the face of its predecessor’s unrestrained freedom. Temples return and replace the polarising Divine Beasts from Breath of the Wild. While the latter felt like airborne puzzle labyrinths which lived and breathed, temples this time around are defined by stellar mythology and character work, but are otherwise underpinned by formulaic design.

It’s understandable to be frustrated when your powerful sword breaks in the throes of combat, leaving Link scrambling around for an alternative on the ground or flipping through his inventory hoping that something can help finish this job. You choose a preferred weapon or three and don’t tend to deviate, so when they’re forcibly taken away from you to help service experimentation you’re not even that interested in, the game feels unfair. It’s why so many of us loved the Master Sword, because it recharged instead of exploding into little pieces. Frustrating though it is, without degradation Breath of the Wild would be awfully boring, and spit in the face of its own design philosophy. Weapons fading away and returning also reflects the disposition of Hyrule, which itself remains in a cycle of death and rebirth at the whims of the rising Blood Moon.

With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releasing later this week, I want to crack open a particular chestnut that is bound to spread across the internet soon enough. I am, of course, talking about weapon degradation, a mechanic in Breath of the Wild that sees swords, spears, bows, shields, sticks, and basically anything Link can use to kill things break after enough use. If you throw them at enemies in their final moments, weapons disintegrate, granting you a hefty damage bonus in exchange for your favourite broadsword. Some people love it. Some people hate it. And I get it.

Tears of the Kingdom focuses on Link's journey to find his own group of Sages, inheritors to an ancient magic that previously saved Hyrule from ruin . He's guided by Zelda, who, within the first ten minutes of the game, is transported back in time and forced to witness the Demon King Ganondorf's rise to power. There's an interesting tension between voiceless Link and Zelda's desperate attempts to understand the chasm between their time periods and how she can help him in the present, and it's one that lends a lot of emotion to the story. Zelda's situation is dire and her wish to improve Hyrule is a noble one, while Link's journey is almost comical in how little he knows of what's going on, piecing together the mystery slowly while the game offers glimpses into the p

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Zelda frequently reuses visual and musical motifs from past titles; many iconic characters, locations, and items have their very own themes that appear throughout the series. This helps to establish the series' identity and flesh out its world, but can also provide opportunities to set or subvert player expectations. In the case of the last trailer for TOTK , the reuse of the Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past could suggest Demise's presence, Ganondorf's power, or merely hard times for Hyrule Castle. The true significance of this musical cue won't become clear until _The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom _ is released on May 12, 2

Link was always left-handed. In early games, he was nearly always depicted carrying his sword in his left hand, it was outright written in the handbook for The Adventure of Link that he picked up his sword in his left hand, and the only changes to this were when his little 2D sprite flipped over to face backwards. That all changed with Twilight Princess, and not without good reason. Word has it that Shigeru Miyamoto himself noticed that most players at the Zelda E3 booth that year, testing out hacking and slashing with WIimote and Nunchuck, were right-handed. He thought it would be confusing for right-handed players (the majority) to control Link’s left hand with their right. And so, the entire game was mirrored before release. Link was right-han