Another Nintendo Direct, another scintillating look at Tears of the Kingdom. The latest trailer for the upcoming Switch adventure closed out the February Direct and has reignited The Legend of Zelda fan’s hype as we sit just over three months away from the May 12th release. This time, things started out with a bang and never let up as we saw chaos sweep across Hyrule, a slew of new enemies, several new items and abilities that Link will wield, and plenty of other exciting moments. We even heard a certain someone utter some very ominous words that spell dark days ahead for Hyrule.
Things go from bad to worse real quick it would seem in Tears of the Kingdom.
The tone was decidedly different this time around from the last two Tears of the Kingdom teasers, which were filled with majestic, sweeping views of the skies above Hyrule and stirring music renditions. We eventually got those here, but before it was a very hellish look at Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule. Dark skies, teeming rain, lightning streaking through the clouds — and that was all before the monsters and Malice started showing up!
A lot of bad things seem to happen very quickly once the figure colloquially known among Legend of Zelda fans as “Zombiedorf” reawakens. Hyrule Castle rises, the Blood Moon returns, Malice goes streaming across the land, and a new army of monsters emerges to spread destruction. Less terrifying, but still very mysterious, are a number of odd sights like ghostly green light displays, and tall, blood-red spires with what resemble spotlights at their bases randomly dotting the countryside.
One of the green light displays appears at Hateno Village, and upon closer inspection, it looks almost identical to the same phenomena as what Link and Zelda find apparently holding Zombiedorf in place deep below the earth. Amid all of the harrowing sights and sounds, these spectral, swirling columns might actually be the last thing that Hyrule’s inhabitants have to worry about. Given how that greenish glow has frequently been associated with the magic that Link has at his disposal in Tears of the Kingdom, we’re predicting that those swirls turn out to be a means of protection for Hyrulean settlements, or at the very least, a beacon signaling a source of that same magic, which can be used against the forces of evil.
A voiceover from who we can only assume is Zombiedorf plays over the nightmarish scenes, uttering this grim command —
“Rise! Rise, my servants! Sweep over Hyrule! Eliminate this kingdom and her allies! Leave no survivors!”
What lies beneath
Dating back to Tears of the Kingdom’ssurprising debut at E3 2019, there has always been an assumption that a lot of adventuring will be done underground in the game. After Breath of the Wild featured almost nothing in the way of subterranean environments, fans hoping to explore beneath the earth are getting their wish. Early in the trailer is one particularly interesting shot of an ashen, dreary location where several Lizalfos and Bokoblins are mining for an unknown substance. It’s a truly strange environment, because it at least looks like there are a number of objects that vaguely resemble withered trees, yet there are also stalactites hanging from some of the rock surfaces, there is no view of the sky, and there is a distinct echo from the Bokoblin’s hammer, the kind of sound that would occur in an enclosed space. Whatever the place is, it’s also polluted by concentrated Malice, adding another sinister element to an already alien and eerie environment.
Later in the trailer, we see Link encountering two familiar monsters from Breath of the Wild. In one shot, a Hinox chases after him through a tunnel, recalling the famous, unused clip from early Twilight Princess footage of Gohma pursuing Link. Fighting a Hinox in such tight quarters where you have little room to evade its great reach will be a very different, and much more hair raising experience than it was before. In another shot, Link does battle with a Talus inside a spacious cavern, using some type of new weapon that we can only describe right now as The Legend of Zelda’s take on a grenade launcher.
Plenty of fresh opponents
A variety of new foes to take on in Tears of the Kingdom was to be expected, and we got a glimpse at several of them in this latest trailer. Some of them are suitably hideous, some are a little bizarre, and at least one is delightfully, frighteningly enormous.
Some manner of flying creatures were seen on multiple occasions (and we’re pretty sure that we’ve already seen them before in a fleeting moment from the September 2022 trailer). It’s hard to pin down exactly what they are: they have leathery wings like bats, antenna-like appendages on their bulbous heads, and long tails. Whatever these winged beasts may be, they were shown both confronting Link on their own, and carrying Bokoblins into battle, just as the Kargarocs did in The Wind Waker.
A hulking brute of an enemy was briefly shown in command of a Bokoblin squad. It looked every bit the part of a Moblin, but Moblins are already well established in the Era of the Wilds, and with a completely different appearance. This guy seems more like he could be a Big Blin, an enemy who has only appeared in Spirit Tracks and Hyrule Warriors Legends/Definitive Edition. Even more hulking was a golem-like figure that tried to squash Link into a pulp. If you look very closely, this towering automaton’s blocky body has similar patterns to a lot of mysterious technological elements that have frequently popped up in Tears of the Kingdom’s trailers. We’re thinking this big fella is more of a guardian meant to test Link’s skills more than he is a true enemy, not so different from Gohdan’s purpose in The Wind Waker.
It’s brief, but at exactly 0:55 into the trailer we see what is most likely the return of The Legend of Zelda’s creepiest monster. With a humanoid body and a skeletal frame, it could be easy to first identify it as a Stalfos. But that fleshy upper body, those beady eyes, and that decidedly inhuman mouth instead suggests that ReDeads are back to terrify us all over again.
The most exciting baddie is one we didn’t see up close, but is so big that we can recognize it even from afar. A pair of huge wings, a spiky, whip-like tail, and three serpentine heads coated in fire — folks, there is a Gleeok the size of King Ghidorah waiting for us on the Bridge of Hylia. Boss battles against massive foes was one of few things sorely missing in Breath of the Wild, but Tears of the Kingdom is already promising us at least one encounter with a Kaiju-like monster.
That bridge is going to be a little more difficult to cross this time.
An unusual means of conveyance
Link’s outlandish abilities seem to be endless in Tears of the Kingdom, as we see new ones in every trailer. This time he’s doing fun stuff like sliding down a metal rail as if he’s Tony Hawk, firing off what appears to be a guided arrow that homes in on enemies, and using his mysterious arm like he did the Magnesis Rune in Breath of the Wild to move huge structures, and gather large pieces of metal. We’re not sure how Link gets to this next point, but those same chunks of metal can seemingly be heaped together to create our own vehicles. In one shot, Link is ‘driving’ a hilariously cobbled-together car. In others, he’s floating high above Hyrule’s surface via a hot air balloon, or simply a metal grate being propelled by four large fans which have been affixed to its sides. There seems to be a lot of room for creativity with this vehicle construction mechanic, which might make you think back to the gameplay of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
What in the world is Zelda up to?
Princess Zelda’s role in Tears of the Kingdom largely remains a mystery, but there might have been some light shed on what she’s up to in this adventure. At 1:32 of the trailer we see an unknown figure wearing a white dress that’s adorned by blocky patterns in the same style as a lot of mysterious technology that Link regularly encounters. It’s possible that this person is Zelda…but we don’t ever see the person’s face (which one has to imagine was a very deliberate decision by Nintendo when they put this trailer together), so there’s no actual way of knowing that. All we do see is that they and Link join hands at some point. If it’s not Zelda, perhaps it’s that unidentified figure who debuted in the previous Tears of the Kingdom teaser from last September?
Where the trailer leaves no doubt about Zelda’s appearance is in the very last sequence, when Link leaps after her as she plunges into a chasm. This one shot completely flips the script on a lot of the speculation from over the last two years. Previously, there was concern that Zelda would fall away by herself into that abyss, and that either: she would be missing for much of the game, and Link’s quest was to rescue her; or, in a much more gruesome and unlikely twist, Zelda would actually die. It didn’t help that the September 2022 trailer showed a figure resembling her in a very distressing state as part of some ancient mural.
That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Judging by this trailer’s final shot, Link goes tumbling into the void right alongside Zelda. What’s more, that portion of the trailer features dialogue from Zelda, where she states — “Please…lend him your power.”
Be safe, you kids!
Our take? Somehow Link and Zelda both survive the fall, probably because they are saved by that enigmatic figure from the previous trailer. But Link gets knocked out cold for quite a while as he recovers from his injuries sustained in that first encounter with Zombiedorf. Zelda’s plea is directed to that aforementioned mysterious character, who then heals Link and grants him the numerous abilities he has shown off in gameplay. Link heads off to do whatever is needed to save Hyrule once again, while Zelda handles some business on her own at the site where Link wakes up, or somewhere else across the kingdom.
We’ll find out for sure in just a few short months.
Jeffrey Pawlak
Jeffrey Pawlak is the Features Director for Zelda Universe, and has been a member of the website's community for more than 20 years. He is also a high fantasy author and an aspiring comic book artist.
by Jeffrey Pawlak on February 9, 2023
