The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player thinks they've spotted a clue to underwater exploration

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom new Switch screenshots

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may have underwater exploration, as one fan discovered following yesterday's gameplay demonstration.

Over on the Tears of the Kingdom subreddit, one observant fan has spotted a potential hint towards Link doing some underwater exploration in the Breath of the Wild sequel. As pointed out in the post, it appears Link can use his new Ascend ability whilst submerged underwater, meaning it could come in handy when exploring the ocean's depths.

In the screenshots, taken from yesterday's Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration, we see Link free-falling through the sky, where his Ascend ability is greyed out - meaning players can't activate it when falling. It does, however, briefly light up again once Link hits the water and his head goes under the surface. Once he pops back up though, the ability is greyed out again. This tiny detail has convinced fans that we'll be able to explore the depths of Hyrule this time.

Possible evidence for underwater exploration ? from r/tearsofthekingdom

There are already a lot of new features in Tears of the Kingdom that we didn't have in Breath of the Wild, so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think a new diving mechanic could be introduced in the sequel.

We also discovered that Link can build rafts with the other new ability Ultrahand - which appears to be a pretty clear reference to the 1960s Nintendo toy of the same name - so who's to say that he won't be able to build a submarine of some kind? Okay, that part is probably a stretch, but we do think this Reddit user might be onto something.

Find out the best place to get your hands on the game with our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-order guide. You can treat yourself even further by checking out our where to pre-order the Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch OLED guide too.

CATEGORIES

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.