Breath of the Wild sequel gets official title

Previously, it was expected that the game would simply be titled Breath of the Wild 2. With the release of the first official trailer, we can now confirm that it will be titled The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The trailer for Tears of the Kingdom itself is rather short, just a little over a minute and a half. Furthermore, not much of the story is revealed. Of the imagery shown, there are hieroglyphs carved on walls depicting a god-like being surrounded by seven tear-shaped objects. These are probably the tears referred to in the title, which may mean the quests will involve finding or collecting them.

As far as the gameplay, what we can take from the bits shown is that there will be quite a bit of vertical travel involved. The locations shown so far sets the open world comprised of floating islands, high above the clouds. According to the description given through Nintendo Direct: In addition to the vast lands of Hyrule, the latest entry in the storied Legend of Zelda series will take you up into the skies and an expanded world that goes beyond that! This does give the indication that there will be more elevated locations and gameplay features that require mastery of it. In the trailer, we see Link traversing upwards, whether by climbing tree roots growing through the sheer cliff sides or by hitching on what appear to be a fantasy-themed elevator. And to add to the apparent sky theme, Link is getting a new and larger glider in the shape of a stone bird totem.

Unlike the paraglider from Breath of the Wild, this new glider is larger than Link himself and the hero of Hyrule can stand on it. In fact, there is sufficient room for additional passengers and for Link to move around while standing on it. It is very likely that this will be a mechanic used at some point, particularly with enemy bosses.

Some fans are asking what features from Breath of the Wild will carry over to Tears of the Kingdom? Will the delays have been worth the wait? Let's all hope the breakable weapons are a thing of the past.

We will all find out on the sequel's release date on May 12, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch.