Tears of the Kingdom – More Abilities?

The recent gameplay demonstration showed us four of Link's upcoming abilities in Tears of the Kingdom, which are seemingly replacing the Sheikah Slate Runes from Breath of the Wild. These are:

• Recall
• Fuse
• Ultrahand
• Ascend
  

Now, one of these abilities sticks out from the others and that is Recall. It doesn't have the same green magic effect to it, where instead it comes from a golden glow. And its symbol also represented by an actual rune.

We have seen this type of symbol before with the pins from the Collector's Edition and on the back of the Joy-Cons. In fact, it's the exact same symbol that can be found on the right Joy-Con. In the comments, vance has pointed out last month how all these symbols are stylized kanjis, where a part was replaced with an eye:

• 時 time (right Joy-Con)
• 光 light (left Joy-Con)
  
• 風 wind (first pin)

A recent video by Zelda Lore now dives deeper into this topic and adds two more interpretations, one of them an alternative:

• 見 look (left Joy-Con)
• 造 create (second pin)
  

At this point it is safe to say that these pin symbols in fact represent a set of abilities. In addition, Zelda Lore has spotted what appears to be an "Ultrafeet" symbol on the gilder from last year's trailer, where maybe this is some sort of magnetic attachment to surfaces.

It may even be something to replace the Iron Boots, where it lets you walk underwater as well. At the end of the gameplay demonstration you can see how the Ascend ability briefly gets enabled while Link is submerged into the rivers, which indicates that it potentially could be used to quickly resurface as well. But if there was no way of truly going underwater, like in Breath of the Wild, then this would appear to be quite pointless.

But overall it seems like there will be two different sets of abilities with potentially a different origin, where there is the golden power with the kanji runes and the green magic power with the more "basic" symbols. Don't get too excited, however, because I think they've already shown us the biggest game changers and some of it will probably just replace the secondary Runes.

Like, the "Look" ability might simply be the replacement for the Camera Rune. You don't necessarily need the full photo feature, since the Nintendo Switch comes with its own integrated screenshot system. In that sense, it even feels deliberate that they've put this symbol on the left Joy-Con, which is where you have the screenshot button... But there will probably be something else to it, maybe like a "scanning" mechanism similar to the Metroid Prime games.

And the "Create" ability could just be your amiibo Rune this time, which let you summon things out of nowhere. Yes, this sounds a bit underwhelming, but we know for a fact that amiibo will still be used in the same way as in Breath of the Wild and this means it needs a new rune. And since these new runes appear to be more "mythical" and less technological, they probably didn't just want the amiibo symbol in there. But let's see, maybe it's also another crafting ability, where you can throw together materials to create something, like the campfires in Breath of the Wild, only more streamlined.

At least the "Wind" ability should give you something with utility. It might simply be a way to change the direction of the wind, like in The Wind Waker. Or it could be a replacement for Revali's Gale, where it doesn't look like the Champion abilities will return. In both cases it would be something familiar, where they didn't want or need to show this... But it will certainly be useful within the sky world nonetheless.

I'm personally hoping that we will finally see the Hookshot, because this always sounded like it could be a lot of fun. But they might have decided against it once more, maybe in favor of the new Ascend ability...