Tears of the Kingdom looks great, but I still don't understand what it is

"Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there's still a vast world to explore," explains series producer Eiji Aonuma in the latest Tears of the Kingdom gameplay reveal. " Of course, it's not just the same world as-is – it's changed in many ways. If we talk about all of the changes today, we'll run out of time." Ok, fine, keep your secrets. But I still don't really know what Tears of the Kingdom has to offer.

The gameplay reveal had two main focuses: the mysterious sky islands that have been theorised around for years now, and Link's new abilities. To start with the latter, there are some amazing new toys on show – Ascend offers unparalleled traversal tools; Fuse and Ultrahand turn Zelda into a full-fledged crafting sandbox; I can only begin to imagine what people will do with Rewind. But as excited as I am to get my hands on those toys, I'm still lacking the context as to why I should care about them.

All the gear, no idea

Nintendo's gameplay reveals are usually incredibly detailed, often to a fault. In the past, I've learned huge amounts about the worlds, characters, and systems of upcoming Nintendo games that I have no intention of playing by watching the company's deep dives. With barely six weeks to go before Tears of the Kingdom, I thought today's video might do something similar.

I'd like to know, for instance, what happened to cause those sky islands? Who created the constructs that inhabit them? If there are changes to the surface of Hyrule, why? And how will we come across them? What happened to Ganon? Where's Zelda? What is the actual narrative reasoning behind this unlikely sequel in the series that doesn't really do sequels?

These are questions that Nintendo might have answered for another game. I feel like I was told everything I might ever need to know about the world of Paldea ahead of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The central conceit of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was outlined alongside the deepest desires at the heart of each one of its characters when that game got its big pre-launch reveal. But for Tears of the Kingdom – possibly Nintendo's most anticipated game of this generation, if not ever – I still feel as though I know next to nothing.

It's been clear for a long time that Nintendo has been keeping The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom firmly under wraps. In 2021, it was revealed that even the game's title was too spoiler-y to be revealed at that time. But that was two years ago, at a time when rampant speculation wouldn't have been helpful for a game still a long way from launch. Now, with that release just a few short weeks away, I feel as though I still know as little as I did back then. I'm very excited to get involved in an even-more-sandboxy version of Breath of the Wild, but before I start fusing together spears to proud at Bokoblins from a comically long range, I'd like to have some sense of what's actually going on in Hyrule.

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