Hands-on with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The agonisingly long wait is nearly over. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is only weeks away. Recently Nintendo gave the world a glimpse of the follow-up to Breath of the Wild. Last week Vooks was invited to get an extended hands-on to share with you. 

Let’s get straight into it. 

Linking logs

To kick off the preview session, I watched a quick demo of how the Ultrahand ability works, much like the Direct demonstration of building a boat. Why not just swim across? There’s a strong current, and your stamina won’t last, so you need a boat that can go upstream. I saw how to connect resources from the environment, such as wooden logs, to the new Zonai devices, creating vehicles to help traverse the many obstacles in this dangerous world (if you watched the Direct, you’d have seen this too). After seeing the different abilities, including Fuse and Ascend, it’s quick to see how vital they will be for solving puzzles and moving the game forward. The sheer potential is exciting.

Fusing is much quicker to get the hang of, as you must select a viable item and assign it to your sword or shield. When you pull up the bow, you can also choose what items from your inventory you want to fuse with your arrows. As seen in the demonstration, fusing a monster’s eye turns them into homing arrows or fusing Keese wings to make them travel further. Some gems give the arrows elemental properties, removing the need for keeping different arrow types.

It’s no secret weapon degradation is back; it was one of my biggest issues with Breath of the Wild. The fuse ability looks like it might alleviate the concern about being stuck with nothing helpful to fight with. Even a stick and rock can become a hammer; it makes it more resilient than a stick and can even help break weak points in the floor or wall. You can even use dropped items to Fuse, with some of the Bokoblin resources handy for a short blade that can also chop down a few trees. Ideally, it will extend the life of your well-worn weapons too. The other interesting use was fusing items with your shield. Slap a fan on there, and you can send enemies flying, fuse a flame emitter, and roast your foes. 

It’s not all about offence either; you can strap a rocket to your shield that sends you blasting up, ideal for reaching high hard to reach places. It might not have the same degree of versatility as Ultrahand. Still, between the two abilities, there is so much versatility and the sheer possibility that I imagine we will see clips of people finding new and interesting ways to bend and break the game for years to come.    

I’m not forgetting the Recall ability. I didn’t get the opportunity to try it out. Still, I did watch a demo showing its usefulness in recalling vehicles should they get away. Set up a glider but don’t hop on in time? Recall it and give it another go. 

While there were Zonai items lying about the environment, they won’t always be available like that. Generally, you keep your own Zonai items in your inventory and open them from their capsule when needed. This allows you to get out the items to make your vehicle when needed or set up a one-time-use frying pan to cook up a meal before tackling the next big baddie.

While I don’t know how many ways there are to get Zonai devices, there is a Zonai dispenser, a large Gachapon-style device that you feed Zonaite to for random capsules, which will help bolster your stock. The more you feed into the machine, the more capsules you get. The preview provided a fair variety of devices for your supplies. 

Minecart Madness

During my time with the game, there were basic puzzles to demonstrate how the Zonai devices can be used with existing vehicles to help navigate the islands in this region of the sky. In this case, someone needed help getting across to a neighbouring island to their friend. For the sake of doing the right thing, it was time to reunite with my new buddy. The first part was easy enough with getting a nearby minecart back onto some convenient tracks between the two islands. All it took was connecting a fan or two to the back, and you’re now on island two, remembering to get your friend into the cart before you go. Success!

Now the third sky island was nearby, but this time there weren’t the necessary two tracks to get across, just the one. I was told there were multiple ways to solve this puzzle. At the time, I was still trying to get my brain to realise the limitless possibility, so I went with the obvious solution. There was a large hook nearby, which looks like it could be attached to a minecart, with the hook keeping the cart on the solitary railing. The next island was uphill, and besides, I didn’t have anything to move the minecart forward, so it was time for another fan.

 I don’t quite remember how, but I also had gotten a Zonai flame emitter out of inventory. In my scramble to assemble my minecart/gondola, I accidentally attached it to the side of my cart and couldn’t be bothered removing it. I hadn’t accounted for the flame emitter activating when I activated the fan, so I had a cool little flamethrower as I moved forward. Until the flames set the grass nearby on fire! I inadvertently created an updraft of wind, knocking my precariously placed hook off the railing and crashing back down.

The second time I kept the optional extras off the gondola and got to the next island. After my mishap, I ran low on time in this area, but I still got to check out a cave, make a hammer and break through some weakened rock. If you do find yourself a bit high up and a deathly drop in front of you, there is the option of going into a dive, which I recommend doing over some water. Not only did it feel cool doing it, but you also didn’t take any damage if you found yourself stuck high up. 

Rocketman

Next, in Hyrule Field, I had the opportunity to storm a fortress to get to a tower where there are multiple ways to progress. Near the starting point were the fixings for building something like a wagon, but the entrance wasn’t at ground level, and I needed to deal with a Moblin at the very least. 

I had a rocket in my inventory and a flame emitter, which so far has proven to be my undoing. After chopping down a tree, I made myself a projectile, a rocket to propel the trunk and a flame emitter just because I could and it would do some extra damage. Now I had my Mobin destroyer ready; I just needed to launch it, which means I needed a way to aim it. One makeshift ramp later, I had the rocket aimed and ready to fire. One tap with a sword and the rocket was off! Only it didn’t follow the intended path, and the rocket shot the tree trunk across the field with the flame emitter setting all the grass on fire..much like my earlier attempt. 

Tri-Tri again

I wasn’t going to let this setback stop me. Sure, I could just run up to the base and fight with my sword and shield, but I wanted to see what I could make these devices do. I had a Balloon Zonai in my inventory and a flame emitter. You can bring some levity to the situation, uplifting my rocket strategy to new heights (hopefully the height of the Moblin).

I got myself a new piece of a wooden beam. I armed it with my traitorous flame emitter and unpredictable rocket at the back. I added the balloon and flame combo in the middle of the beam this time. Being cautious about hitting the emitter connected to the balloon only, I discovered activating any one Zonai device will activate them all. My Moblin destroyer MkII never stood a chance. Still, with it, I learnt the limitation of not being able to activate Zonai devices in stages.

So after two failed attempts at roasting the Moblin, it was time to get out the sword and shield and storm the gates. In short, I got rid of the Moblin and a Bokoblin or two. To get to the central part of the base was a ramp. I found myself in a bad way after a spiked metal ball rolled down after me. In hindsight, situations like this are likely where the Recall ability would come into use. Now with the ramp clear, there was still Bokoblin waiting for me. Seeing an explosive barrel nearby, I wanted to take the chance to see if I could make some kind of hammer that does explosive damage to the enemies.

Just a heads up: don’t fuse an explosive barrel with your weapon, well don’t hit anyone with it…but now I’m wondering if I could’ve thrown it instead…and I only had a limited time with it, and since then, I’ve spent more time than I care to admit thinking about possibilities!

Octopath Traveller

While my attempts didn’t bear fruit, as curiosity killed my Link (with the explosive barrel playing a significant part in that), I was told there are multiple ways to get through the base (not exploding myself will only increase those chances). The spiked logs outlining the base would make it pretty hard to Ascend through any jutting sections of rock, but maybe I could stick something to the edge to give myself a viable point to ascend. For the sake of time, I was recommended to Fuse a rocket to my shield as it could rocket me up reasonably high into the sky, and I could glide safely down past the enemies. This approach worked and got me past the waiting enemy. From there, it was time to take to the skies!

Head in the clouds

Being back in the sky, the last section I played was solving a few puzzles, with a few new and deadly Construct enemies thrown in for good measure. Two puzzles that came to mind involved the Ultrahand ability used differently. However, the projectile attacks were getting annoying, so it was an excellent chance to test some of the arrow fusions while the constructs were out of reach.  

On this sky island, a spot appeared impassable with an incomplete platform. Initially, I’d need to attach something to create an extra path. It wasn’t so complex. There was a device I could grab with the Ultrahand to turn and move to adjust the platform, making a complete path. There was a fun physics puzzle with trying to turn the platform around so you could access it. I was so close to getting it too! 

Next up was a section with two pools of water, whose water levels were controlled by liftable gates. To drain it entirely for the reward, you need to keep both gates open, so you need more than the Ultrahand ability to hold it up. The first gate was easy enough, you need to attach something to lift it up, but the second required finding a shape that can be made through attaching. There will be so many different ways to solve all of these puzzles. 

Given that the islands can be quite some distance apart, you won’t just be able to use your personal glider to get there. This is when flying vehicles will become very useful. The primary vehicle shown off was the rideable glider or Wing. On its own, it’s just a board shaped to glide; you can even use it as it is. Without all the bells and whistles (in the preview, there were no bells and whistles), you are limited to steering by shifting where you stand on the glider. However, once you start bringing the Zonai items to the party, you can make yourself a steerable plane that can travel as far as you have enough Zonai Charge. So far, another form of stamina, although you can attach a battery (or multiple), so you aren’t using Link’s Zonai meter. 

I enjoyed putting together contraptions more than I expected, and it feels like an evolution from Breath of the Wild. Those abilities will be vital to surviving this world from the little glimpse I’ve seen with the game and the trailers Nintendo has released. 

If spending the time building all of these different vehicles/contraptions feels like something other than a good fit with your play style, there is an ability that can help with that. I can’t say anything else about it now, and I only got a glimpse at how it works, but there will be a way to streamline building so you can get back to the adventure.

From my time with Tears of the Kingdom, it very much feels like its own game while building on the world Breath of the Wild fans have loved for years. Between how the new abilities change your approach to exploration, puzzles and combat, new enemies, mysterious floating islands and more! I can’t wait for May to immerse myself in the land of Hyrule to experience a whole new story with familiar faces and new foes.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out May 12th, check out our bargain guide for the best price. Thanks to Nintendo Australia for inviting us to play the game early.