The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom received a new long gameplay video today, and it revealed many of Link’s new abilities. He can now fuse objects to create weapons and vehicles, as well as rewind objects and ascend through ceilings.
Yes ok Tears of the Kingdom first revealed in June 2019, we didn’t even know the official name of the game until last September, nor did we see much gameplay before the Nintendo Direct in February. As such, this gameplay showcase was really our first deep dive into the game and its features. While many of the core mechanics and open world settings are somewhat reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (weapon degradation is making a return), a few key differences stand out, namely Link’s ability to fuse objects.
During the video, series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed this feature by adding a rock to a stick to create a more powerful hammer. He went on to show many other examples, such as adding a pitchfork to a club to make a longer range attack weapon, adding different items to arrows to create arrows that can attack or freeze enemies, and adding a mushroom to a shield to create a cloud of gas that Link can hide in when hit. This not only seems like a clever way to counter weapon degradation, but it opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities for people to experiment with.
That sentiment came doubly true when Aonuma revealed that players can also combine Fuse and another ability called Ultrahand to build vehicles. The video shows Aonuma fusing multiple logs and a fan together to make a boat that can carry Link across a lake. He also confirmed that this is how the vehicles we saw in the February trailer came together. “In this game, you can do a lot of things just by thinking about what’s possible,” says Aonuma.
While Fuse is the biggest new game draw of Tears of the Kingdom, this video also confirmed a couple of other new abilities. These include Recall, which allows players to rewind time on certain items. The gameplay showcase showed Link finding a piece of rock that fell from the sky, standing on it, and rewinding time to reach the sky islands above Hyrule.
Ascend is also another new tool that players can use to get through ceilings that block their path while exploring the world. Aonuma also confirmed that the development of Tears of the Kingdom is complete, so we don’t have to worry about more delays.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch on May 12. It will be the first game published by Nintendo for the Switch that will cost $70.
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