Tears of the Kingdom – Sheikah Slate and Towers?

After spending way too much time on my initial analysis (which has received quite some updates) and also watching the excellent analysis by Zeltik, there are ton of things coming together here, where Tears of the Kingdom looks very promising and exciting, especially the prospect of the Seven Sages and the titular tears.

There is one thing that I have completely overlooked in the trailer and maybe that's because I didn't want to see it.

Link is holding a Sheikah Slate in his right hand. It is connected to a spool, which was given to him by the Guardian arms around this platform in the previous trailer.

Generally, I'm very interested in why all the shrines, towers, and Divine Beasts have disappeared since Breath of the Wild. It's a good thing they did, because it's really the identity of the previous title and having all of this again would be boring. The identity of Tears of the Kingdom is clearly the Zonai stuff.

But it looks like Nintendo couldn't let go of the tower idea after all. According to Zeltik the runes in the elevator shaft translate to "transport" (on the platform) and "tower" (on the walls). So, we very likely are looking at the inside of one of the new Sheikah Towers here, which were raised all over Hyrule in different locations. These ones received an upgrade, however, where you don't have to climb them any longer.

We also have seen the new Sheikah Slate before, which looks more like a Nintendo Switch now. It was in Zelda's artwork for the game:

It might be that Robbie and Purah have invented replacements for the things that have disappeared since Breath of the Wild, which most likely includes the old Sheikah Slate. This would explain why it all looks completely improvised.

The new Sheikah Slate might not even be capable of using any of the major runes. So, no Stasis, no Magnesis, no Cryonis, and no Bombs. But Sheikah Slate was also used for your map, a scope, and Hyrule Compendium, where we have yet to see what will replace this in Tears of the Kingdom. But maybe this will not be replaced at all?

The UI for the map, temperature, and sound in the bottom right corner still looks mostly the same, except for the added coordinates. This also indicates that Link still has a Sheikah Slate with him all this time, just an inferior model, to let him use part of these features.

This way Nintendo didn't have to come up with something that does the same things, but works with his new hand powers. It really would have been hard to explain how the Zonai magic gives him access to an interactive map. And if you simply had a map still, then this would raise the question why Link needed the Sheikah Slate in the previous game to use a map. So, I guess, this was mostly a practical decision by Nintendo.

The new Sheikah Slate might get modified to resonate with the Zonai technology, even. Those vortex stones, which most likely will be some sort of warp point, appear on the map in the same style as the Sheikah Shrines did. The new Sheikah Slate might recognize them as warp points and let you transport in the same way as in Breath of the Wild.

It's also possible that the Sheikah Slate will receive the old abilities later in the game as additional upgrades. But I personally hope that they won't go too far with this, because they should let have Breath of the Wild as many things of its own as possible. And I'm already getting OCD nightmares from the prospect of having Hyrule Compendium and Fuse in the same game...

Tears of the Kingdom – Where is Zelda?

The final trailer ends with Zelda's words that Link must find her. But where is she really? And why might it be a challenge for Link to find her? During this scene she stands on a platform, which is located at the Great Plateau. It feels even a little bit like Maz Koshia's arena, but it's much closer to the surface. In fact, it's about the view that you get from the Temple of Time (see Looygi Bros.). Now, we can spot a similar platform at the beginning of the trailer when Link is sky diving into the logo:

It's like an entrance to the huge shrine that we keep seeing on the golden sky islands and the general architecture seems to be the same. But it looks a lot more withered. This also seems to be the spot where Link is receiving the Recall ability with a golden light, which we saw in the early 2022 teaser, where we know that the ability is connected to the tear that Zelda is holding, because it has the same symbol.

I call it the Tear of Time and it might have more usage than simply reverting an object's path in time. It even looks like Zelda is tending to the Master Sword in her shots, where she might try to use these time powers to revert the damage done to it. Obviously, it hasn't fully worked, but Link draws the sword in front of the glowing light:

We don't really know what is happening, but we can also see in the previous trailer how Link reaches for Zelda with his Zonai arm, while she is wearing her new Zonai dress:

Something tells me that he is not actually able to grab her. This could be projection where you can communicate to Zelda on this special platform, but she is somewhere else.

And there are two possible explanations here. One is that she is stranded in a different time. If her tear allows for time manipulation, then she might have saved herself by traveling through time, ending up in a completely different era.

It could be the time where Ganondorf was last sealed and the last battle of Ganondorf against the sages took place. We will most likely see this in some sort of the flashback, as indicated by the shot of the Zonai character's face:

He's in a battle situation and around him you can spot other warriors, where one to the left appears to be a Rito warrior. This could likely be the other sages from that time. And the blonde women with the same dress and golden tear as Zelda's could be the Princess Zelda from that era.

Maybe this is where Zelda has ended up. But the Zonai talks to her about the situation in the present, with Link and the Master Sword as their last line of defense. And how is Link supposed to find her if she is truly lost in time? Even if he could use the tear for time traveling somehow, it might not be easy to find her. Also, I don't think the game will go into such territories. Breath of the Wild stayed entirely in the present, outside of the memories, and I think that this will be true for this game also, unless Nintendo wanted to make three different versions of the same Hyrule. But it just complicates things.

A different explanation is that both she and the Zonai are inside the actual Sacred Realm. I kept theorizing that the golden islands are the Sacred Realm, but maybe they are more something like the remains of that realm within the real world.

The large shrine could even be like a new version of the Temple of Time, an entrance to the Sacred Realm, which is still sealed. And maybe you need to unite all the tears to open it, similar to the Spiritual Stones in Ocarina of Time, which would be yet another connection to that game.

Given that this shrine seemingly was located on the Great Plateau at some point in time, right where the current Temple of Time resides, this adds additional meaning. Maybe the Zelda / Hylia from that era has used her powers to lift the entrance to the Sacred Realm into the sky and hid it behind a cloud barrier, just like Skyloft in Skyward Sword. This was to prevent from anyone ever finding it again, but now Ganondorf came and blew the skies wide open, causing the "Upheaval", but also revealing the hidden sky islands.

Tears of the Kingdom – Tear of Time?

After studying the different abilities in Tears of the Kingdom, we already could notice that Recall is different from the others. It glows in a golden light and it is represented by a stylized kanji, instead of the green Zonai magic and a straight-forward symbol used for Ascend, Fuse, and Master Hand. Well, and if we look at the tear that Zelda is holding in the last trailer, we can see that it has the Recall symbol on it, which stands for time:

We can also see how Zelda activates the same glowing light when she falls, probably to save herself (thanks to Zeltik's analysis for this one, I didn't spot this myself). Fans of the theory that the Goddess of Time mentioned in Majora's Mask and Hylia could be one and the same will certainly enjoy this connection.

We also have seen how Link obtains this glowing light at what appears to be the large temple structure that we saw time and time again at the large group of sky islands, which is probably the tutorial area.

Perhaps this is the final reward that you will obtain there, like the Paraglider at the Great Plateau, instead that this is given to you by Zelda, or at least left by her. And then you will move on to collect the remaining tears, where each of them will give you a new ability.

It would be the best of both worlds. You get a starting kit of abilities, like in Breath of the Wild, which are enabled by his Zonai arm. But the golden gauntlet he wears will let him use the tears in addition, and with them you will collect new "items" throughout the game, which will let you progress in different ways. And this could mean that these are more much significant than expected.

The "wind" ability for example most likely will be a replacement for Revali's Gale, where you obtain this from Tulin or together with Tulin. If these characters are truly the new Seven Sages, then these tears could be what the Medallions originally were originally supposed to be in Ocarina of Time. In earlier versions of the game you could assign them to the C-buttons and use them for abilities, where the Fire Medallion would have worked like Din's Fire for example. And perhaps now, 25 years later, we finally get to have this idea in action.

Tears of the Kingdom – Start Confirmed

Nintendo has revealed on their official website how the game will start... and it's as we have already expected:

Link begins his journey on one of the many mysterious floating islands that have suddenly appeared in the skies high above Hyrule. It’s there our hero will have to gain new abilities before returning to the surface world to begin his epic adventure.

The big set of golden sky islands is probably going to the "Great Plateau" of this game, the tutorial area. It's also where most of the gameplay demonstration took place, so it makes sense. Here you will obtain and master the new abilities – Ascend, Ultrahand, and Fuse (I'm still thinking that Recall will be handled differently) – before getting a new Paraglider somehow and returning to the surface.

 

Timeline of Events?

Now, throughout the game you will learn what happened since the end of Breath of the Wild and the beginning of this game, where in the very least a couple of months have passed. Of course Riju and Tulin have grown quite a lot, but Rito have short lives (ironically the opposite of the Zora) and Gerudo grow quite tall, so this doesn't mean that years have passed necessarily. But there is a period of time where Link has been unavailable to recover from his Malice injury.

Since I believe that this game will mirror the story of Ocarina of Time in multiple ways, it adds up with the theory that the golden sky islands are supposed to be the Sacred Realm. He was resting inside the Sacred Realm, while Ganondorf went and did evil things all over Hyrule.

Now either you will find memories again or there is some other mechanic in place, but many of the things that we saw in all five trailers are probably from visions of the past that you encounter, just like in Breath of the Wild.

• There is a scene in the newest trailer where Link draws the Master Sword from its pedestal in Korok Forest. His hand is not dark here, where this is probably the start of their journey. But he still carried the sword at the end of Breath of the Wild, where there must be a reason why he put it away.
• At some point most of the Sheikah technology has vanished.
  
• Link and Zelda explore the underground world of Hyrule together. This is what we have seen in the first trailer and where they encounter the sealed Ganondorf, who then breaks out of his seal, destroys the Master Sword and Link's right arm with his Malice. Zelda falls into some void and Link can't catch her, but he gets saved by the mysterious hand, which has sealed Ganondorf up until now.
• The "Upheaval" happens, where many landmasses and structures in Hyrule are taken into the sky, including Hyrule Castle.
  
• Ganondorf starts his new reign over Hyrule by taking over Hyrule Castle. He also summons new monsters all over Hyrule.
• Zelda is in the care of the mysterious Zonai character, where he explains the situation to her and they prepare things for Link's awakening. Some of this is happening near the Great Plateau, on some sort of new temple.
• The mysterious Zonai figure restores Link right arm, making him part Zonai, but this is what lets him use the green Zonai magic.
  

The Zonai may also give us flashbacks to the very distant past, long before the battles against Calamity Ganon, where they could show us how Ganondorf was sealed the last time. Perhaps the "Hylia" we briefly see in the final trailer could be the Zelda from that era, and we may even get to see all of the Seven Sages from that time.

Tears of the Sages

That final trailer for Tears of the Kingdom, which is just super addicting, is talking in riddles about what's happening in the game, but it's showing us so much at the same time that Zelda fans sure will put the pieces together.

Well, I'm a fan, and to me it looks like we're getting a scenario very close to that of Ocarina of Time. Link and Zelda found Ganondorf as the source of the Malice. Reawakened he takes over Hyrule Castle and reigns with terror over the land. To defeat him it needs the Blade of Evil's Bane, as well as the power of seven Sages, where each of them is holding on to a tear, which looks a bit like the Amber and Dusk Relics from Skyward Sword with that yin and yang form.

We have seen a couple of these potential sages in the trailer, all equipped with such a tear at some point:

• Zelda
• Riju
• Sidon
• Tulin
• The Zonai figure
  

About the last one, his name is mentioned in the leaked artbook. Diving enthusiastically back into the Zelda community after the new trailer, I happened to pick up this info by "accident"... And his name actually gives away quite a lot. You don't have to read the following if you don't want to:

He is Rauru. Yes, you've heard right. And if you look at the mysterious figure on the carvings, it does look a bit like an owl, doesn't it? But this essentially confirms that they are going with the idea of the sages here.

It's also nice that Rauru is now a Zonai, presumably, so that each sage comes from a different tribe, while in Ocarina of Time there were two Hylians as sages with Zelda and Rauru. Of course in that game you weren't meant to know that Zelda is the final sage until the very end...

Anyway, there is certainly going to be a Goron sage, where we already could see someone with Daruk's Boulder Breaker in the trailer. It's likely Yunobo, but for some reason Nintendo doesn't want to reveal this character yet.

And naturally the last sage is probably going to be a Sheikah, where I would place my bets on Paya, who is basically a young Impa. If Riju could learn how to properly fight since Breath of the Wild, then so can she.

Well, but what do the tears mean? They don't have them from the beginning, where you first can see Sidon without it and later with it. But it seems that some of these sages have faced a loss in the recent past. With Tulin it's likely that something has happened to his father, Teba, or else we probably would be accompanied by him instead. And Sidon will seemingly lose his father during the game as well, because not only has he this tear on his hand, but also the Zora crown on his head, making him the new Zora king. Maybe these tears represent their grief?

The only thing that Riju has lost so far is her hair, which is sad enough, but certainly not on the same level. But with what's happening in Gerudo Desert, she might have lost her home... (As long as it's not Patricia, it's fine, because they will need that secret weapon of mass destruction.)

And if Paya is truly one of the last sages, then this probably won't bode well for Impa, but this is getting very hypothetical at this point. Of course, this doesn't mean that something bad has to happen to these characters, because they are the sages. But it might be that their grief is ultimately what lets them become sages in the first place.

Maybe Ganondorf is even targeting certain individuals, because he is afraid that they will become the sages that he still knows from the past. In that case Impa would certainly be one of those targets, because it wouldn't be the first Impa to cross him... It does make sense and would make for a much better villain.

Zelda, Link, and co. have little knowledge about Ganondorf and what has happened in Hyrule prior to the Great Calamity. But Ganondorf knows everything. He knows about the Triforce, he knows about the Goddesses, he knows about the sages, and so on. And he will hopefully use this knowledge to his advantage to become the respectable villain that he is supposed to be.

If you look at the artworks, you can see that the tear on his forehead is red. Naturally, Ganondorf is not one of the sages, but what if he is hunting for the tears himself? The red tear might be related to the Gorons, where he took this from Death Mountain. Perhaps it's even the reason why we haven't seen the Goron sage yet, because something terrible might have happened to him after a confrontation with Ganondorf.

Tears of the Kingdom – Dungeons?

One of the burning questions everyone has about Tears of the Kingdom is, will there be dungeons? I was certain that the last trailer is going to answer this... and the answer might be a no. At least not in a traditional sense.

They might be trying something new here, where absolutely everything is connected seamlessly. Hyrule Castle was the most impressive dungeon in Breath of the Wild, not only because it offered a very different tone, but because it was fully integrated into the normal game world. You didn't need any loading screens, like you had with the shrines or Divine Beasts.

The Sheikah Shrines were really their own mysterious world. It was completely disconnected from the rest of the game world and you couldn't even tell how deep down in the earth they reside. The game had effectively two sides here, the overworld and the mini-dungeon world, both only connected via the shrine entrances.

Arguably, it looked like they also wanted to make the Divine Beasts as an integrated part of the world, where you could just jump off at any time, but there probably where some technical limitations why they couldn't make this happen. You can just jump off from the sky islands, however.

And a big part of the sky islands appear to be flying mini-dungeons, where they are probably going to replace the shrines, only in a completely seamless fashion. During the gameplay demonstration you can also spot cave entrances on the map with checkmarks on them, which may indicate that caves also will serve a similar purpose.

Some of the underground areas also appear to be huge, where they could serve as dungeons as well, but nothing that we've seen so far looks like traditional dungeons, more like gigantic caves. And most of this will probably connected seamlessly as well, where you might be entering the giant lava cave via mineshafts at Death Mountain.

Of course somewhere in there could be something that's supposed to be classic dungeons, if that's even a possibility with all your new abilities, where the biggest indicator so far has been the giant pyramid emerging from the sands of Gerudo Desert. It really depends on how much they've wanted to show us at this point, but it seemed like a lot. And the last trailer for Breath of the Wild also showed us the inside of a Divine Beast for the first time, with Vah Naboris and Vah Ruta.

In the new trailer we have the sequences where Link gets followed by Tulin and Sidon. With Tulin he goes into the storm cloud with the flying Rito ships, while he and Sidon appear to be on Zora-themed sky islands, which are dropping this goo onto Zora's Domain. Both of these could be this game's equivalent of dungeons, even if they don't look the part.

I'm personally not too worried, because I don't necessarily need those Fire and Water Temples back that they've been making again and again. I'd love to see something new and I'm more excited about potentially getting a completely seamless world in a Zelda game for the first time. There could even be "dungeons" or underground areas with many different ways to get inside them, just like Hyrule Castle. And it would be really something else to have dungeons as this giant cage, so to speak, where need to find the best way to the core, instead of doing something formulaic.

The Divine Beasts had this lame approach with the terminals, where you have to activate all of them, which wasn't much fun. I'd love for dungeons to be more like mazes this time, filled with dangers and deadly enemies, where you have to find a way to a goal. But how to get there is really up to you. This way dungeons could also have lots of optional parts, which became a lost art for Zelda games, sadly.

In the very least the theming in the underground caves will already offer more variety than the Divine Beasts and shrines did. With the sky islands it may all feel a bit similar, however.

Tears of the Kingdom – New Character Artworks

 

Say hello to Akumadorf! He looks like a samurai in this one, where it follows the more asian-themed world of Breath of the Wild.

 

Well, you know what these artworks mean: new amiibo coming up! I would be very surprised if they didn't make more amiibo out of these character designs. Breath of the Wild put the Champions from 100 years ago into the spotlight, where now it makes sense for Tears of the Kingdom to do the same for their successors.

All of them are featured with a specific weapon type, like the Champions with their artworks in Breath of the Wild, where those are the same weapons. So, Yunobo will probably have Daruk's Boulder Breaker, which you can even spot in the trailer, but not Yunobo himself.

And this makes me wonder if Riju's dual-wielding might become a new thing in the game, which would be cool. One of the other "Sages" could feature the classic sword and shield fighting style, though this is probably up to Link. But if there are more, then this could mean we're getting some new weapon types / fighting styles, which would have me very excited.

Anyway, you can already place bets on the next Hyrule Warriors to be based on Tears of the Kingdom alone, coming in 2026.