After a few controlled glimpses in trailers, we’ve finally got a proper look at some new The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay, sequel to the critically acclaimed Breath of the Wild. The 13-minute video, available now on Nintendo of America’s YouTube channel, shows off some exploration around the world, messing around with the new mechanics on offer.
With the vast sky islands on Tears of the Kingdom, players will be able to ascend with the new Recall ability, which rewinds time on objects in the world. You can use this on rocks that have fallen to the ground in order to get up.
On top of that, other objects in the world now have a much greater purpose, as you can create your own weapons on the fly thanks to the Fuse ability. With this, you can stick objects together with all kinds of results. The video showed Link fusing a stick with a giant boulder, turning it into a powerful hammer, then fusing a Puffshroom to Link’s shield, causing it to explode when the enemy strikes it.
Next up is Ultrahand, which you can use to manipulate and assemble larger objects you’ll find scattered around the world. With these, you can create vehicles to traverse all sorts of terrain, like with the examples shown in the previous trailer.
The final ability shown off was Ascend, which you can use to pass through terrain directly above you. On a small scale, this will let you climb structures quickly, but on the larger side, you can traverse a mountain simply by going into a cave at the bottom and Ascending all the way to the top.
This small snapshot of gameplay has already opened the doors to a wide range of possibilities, and it seems like imagination may be the only limiting factor as to what you can create. It’s showing that the formula Breath of the Wild established still has plenty of room to grow, and no doubt sets the hype for Tears of the Kingdom to an all-time high.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.