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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom[b] is a 2023 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. A sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), Tears of the Kingdom retains many aspects of its predecessor, including the open world environment of Hyrule, which has been expanded to allow for more vertical exploration. Link, the protagonist of Tears of the Kingdom, is joined by Zelda and is opposed by a malevolent force that seeks to destroy Hyrule.

Tears of the Kingdom was conceived after ideas for Breath of the Wild downloadable content (DLC) had exceeded its scope. Its development was led by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) division, with Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma reprising their roles. A teaser was shown at E3 2019 with a full reveal at E3 2021. Tears of the Kingdom was initially planned for release in 2022 before being delayed to May 2023. It received acclaim, with praise for its expanded open world and features encouraging exploration and experimentation.

Gameplay
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This section is missing information about the basic gameplay. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (May 2023)
Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the 2017 game Breath of the Wild. It adds abilities including Recall, which reverses time for an object; Fuse, allowing the combination of weapons and materials found to form custom weapons; Ultrahand, which sticks objects together to allow for the modular construction of devices, vehicles and other structures; Ascend, with lets the player travel through surfaces above them;[1][2][3] and Autobuild, an ability which consumes a currency known as Zonaite to summon any structure that the player has built using Ultrahand.[4]

Development
Development of Tears of the Kingdom started in 2017 after Breath of the Wild was completed.[5] It was announced at E3 2019 as a sequel to Breath of the Wild.[6][7] At E3 2021, Nintendo debuted a trailer revealing gameplay, story elements and a 2022 release window,[8] but Nintendo later changed the release window to Q2 2023.[9][10] More information was revealed in the Nintendo Direct presentation held in September 2022, including the title Tears of the Kingdom and a release date of May 12, 2023,[11][12] and another Nintendo Direct in February 2023 teased more gameplay elements.[13]

Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma are reprising their roles.[14] The game was conceived after the team was unable to use every idea planned for Breath of the Wild's downloadable content.[15] New elements include floating islands above Hyrule, with players able to soar between them in a style similar to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011).[16][17][18]

Aonuma stated that the open world games Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was an inspiration.[19][20][21] In February 2023, pages from an art book containing character and location designs leaked online.[22] A playable build of the game also leaked online two weeks before release.

Several critics praised the expansion in the scope of the open world setting introduced in Breath of the Wild. Tom Marks of IGN praised the addition of the sky islands and caves as "massive" and "brilliant complements to the more traditional surface activities."[32] Edwin Evans-Thirwell of Eurogamer praised the seamlessness of the "loop between underworld and sky", noting that while the game's "caverns aren't always worth the toil of discovery, none of the sky islands feel dispensable", praising the "irresistible, toylike specificity" of their design.[28] On the differences from Breath of the Wild, Steve Watts of GameSpot praised the "subtle ways" the game's world had changed, stating "not everything is exactly the same or where you'd expect it to be, and the map is marked with myriad opportunities for exploration and curiosity."[30]

Critics praised the addition of powers and building features to traverse and interact with the game's environment. Tom Marks of IGN stated "The sandbox is bigger, richer, and somehow even more ambitious", praising the game's building system as "walking the line of powerful but approachable extremely well", "tons of fun", and "woven into every part of (the game)."[32] Steve Watts of GameSpot described the powers as "much more flexible" than its predecessor and a "beautifully implemented evolution of what made Breath of the Wild so special", stating "these tools give Tears of the Kingdom a particular flow that feels unique to the Zelda franchise."[30] Mike Mahardy of Polygon similarly praised the game's emphasis on "self-driven experimentation" as "paramount in traversal, combat, and discovery (...) experimenting with each of (the) powers and discovering how they interact is the game."[40]

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