Tears of the Kingdom



The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the twentieth installment in the The Legend of Zelda series, released in 2023 for the Nintendo Switch. It is preceded by Breath of the Wild. The Hero of the Wild is the main protagonist and Ganondorf is the main antagonist. Ganon's minions are the villainous faction.

It is the twentieth game in the series, and the second and final in the Reunified Timeline. A direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, set several years later, the story tells of Link and Zelda venturing below Hyrule Castle investigating gloom coming from underneath, and discovering the mummified corpse of Ganondorf. He awakens in front of them, and Link's arm is destroyed, and Zelda is sent back in time. Link's arm is healed and replaced with the Zonai Rauru's, and Link journeys throughout Hyrule investigating the mysterious Gloom and attempting to solve the mystery of where Zelda went, and how to defeat Ganondorf for good.

Synopsis
''Link's victory over Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild has allowed Hyrule's residents to begin reconstruction of the kingdom. Several years after Ganon's defeat, an unknown substance causing illnesses seep out from beneath Hyrule Castle, with Link and Zelda investigating a cavern beneath the castle where the substance originated. There, they find Zonai ruins telling the story of a great battle, and witness a mummified Ganondorf's awakening. Ganondorf's powers corrupt Link's right arm and shatter the Master Sword, with Hyrule Castle being sent floating upwards into the sky. Link and Zelda fall below; Zelda vanishes with a mysterious artifact, while Link is rescued by a disembodied arm, which had been restraining Ganondorf. Link awakens in the newly appeared Sky Islands with the shattered Master Sword and meets the spirit of Rauru, a Zonai, who gave Link his right arm to replace the latter's corrupted organic right arm. Rauru's spirit assists Link to navigate the Sky Island, with the shattered Master Sword vanishing at the end. Link also receives a vision of Zelda receiving the sword.''

Summary
After an unknown period of time after the events of Breath of the Wild, Link and Zelda are exploring a secret passage hidden beneath Hyrule Castle. Although King Rhoam had warned Zelda in the past that not even the royal family was to go there, she believes that what lies beneath is connected to the strange phenomenon spreading throughout Hyrule known only as "Gloom". As they travel, they find ancient ruins that Zelda identifies as being of Zonai origin. They eventually find a mural depicting a great war against the being called "the Demon King", the stories of which had been passed down by the royal family. Another mural shows the Zonai descending from the sky, which causes Zelda to realize that the "gods" that descended from the heavens to found the royal family must have been the Zonai.

In the deepest chamber, Link and Zelda find a mummified Ganondorf emanating Gloom bound by a disembodied arm. As they enter, the arm falls off and drops a teardrop-shaped gem. As Zelda picks it up, Ganondorf comes to life and strikes with a surge of Gloom. Link blocks the attack with the Master Sword, but Ganondorf's dark power decays the blade, saps Link's strength, and leaves his right arm blackened and lifeless. Ganondorf reveals that he knows Link and Zelda and mocks the former's inability to harm him, mentioning that someone called "Rauru" had entrusted him with Faith.

Ganondorf sends a surge of Gloom that causes Hyrule Castle to rise into the sky before falling deep underground. Zelda falls into a chasm as well, only to disappear in a flash of light. Link nearly falls in as well, but he is grabbed by the disembodied arm and teleported away. When he reawakens, he finds that the arm has replaced his own. A voice says that Zelda had told him about Link, and that Link's arm had to be replaced to ensure he did not die from his injuries. Recovering the Decayed Master Sword, he leaves the chamber he woke up in to find himself on an island floating in the sky. He descends to another island, meeting a Steward Construct who gives him Zelda's Purah Pad at her request. It directs Link to the Temple of Time, but upon reaching it Link finds that he cannot enter. He then meets a ghostly figure identifying himself as Rauru, who informs Link that the arm he now possesses was once his own and that its power might be restored if Link visits three of the shrines on the island and gain their sacred light. After opening the gate, Link finds a larger teardrop-shaped gem that changes into an apparition of Zelda, granting him the Recall power before vanishing. Link's path is then blocked by a second sealed door, which he lacks the vitality to open. Rauru advises Link to visit the island's last shrine and offer it to their Goddess Statue, which will restore some of the vitality he lost to the Gloom. After doing so, Link is able to open the door. Rauru advises Link to continue visiting shrines to recover his strength before passing on, telling Link that it will be up to him to aid Zelda.

At the highest point of the Temple, Link finds a glowing light that reacts with the Master Sword. Placing it into the light, the Sword vanishes and is received by Zelda in an unknown location. Link spots a dragon, which parts the clouds beneath the island to reveal the kingdom of Hyrule beneath it. He receives a telepathic message from Zelda asking him to find her, beginning his quest to save Hyrule once again.

Link returns to Hyrule, learning that the earlier events, the "Upheaval", has caused chaos in Hyrule. Link then goes to investigate the mysterious reports of disturbances and Zelda's appearance throughout Hyrule. In the process, Link defeats four monsters occupying ancient Zonai temples with the aid of four acquaintances – Tulin of the avian Rito tribe, Sidon of the aquatic Zora tribe, Riju of the desert-dwelling Gerudo tribe, and Yunobo of the mountain-dwelling Gorons. With each defeated monster, Link finds Secret Stones, Zonai artifacts that increase the innate power of their users. Spiritual forms of ancient sages appear to Link and his companions, appointing Link's companions as new sages and passing down the Stones. After handling the monsters, Link tracks down "Zelda" to Hyrule Castle. At the castle, "Zelda" reveals itself to be an impostor in Ganondorf's service before being defeated by Link and his companions. Link further encounters Mineru, an ancient sage utilizing spiritual projection to stay in the physical world, and provides her with an artificially constructed mechanical body.

Through Mineru, the sages' spirits, and a number of dragon tears scattered throughout Hyrule, Link learns of Zelda's fate. The mysterious artifact which vanished with Zelda was a Secret Stone, and she was transported through time through the distant past. There, she met Rauru who was revealed to be the first king of Hyrule. In the past, Ganondorf had managed to acquire a Secret Stone, turning himself into the "Demon King". Rauru sacrifices himself to seal Ganondorf. Zelda then receives the Master Sword, and in order to restore it she transformed into a dragon by consuming her Secret Stone. Prior to her transformation, she tasked the past sages to provide aid to Link in the future.

In the present, Link retrieves the Master Sword from Zelda's dragon form, and heads to Ganondorf's location far beneath the castle. There, Link fights Ganondorf's army with the aid of the Sages' successors and Mineru before engaging in combat with Ganondorf himself. Nearing defeat, Ganondorf transforms himself into a demonic dragon in an attempt to beat Link. Zelda's draconic form assists Link in defeating Ganondorf. Zelda then regains her true physical appearance and the two fall onto the surface of Hyrule.

Sometime later, on the Sky Island where Link had awakened, Mineru bids goodbye to Zelda and Link (who has regained his right arm) before her spirit dispersed, while the Sages' successors vow to protect Hyrule.

Trivia

 * Before the game was announced during E3's 2019 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo went to great lengths to keep the game's development a secret. Not only were the press kept in the dark, but even some of Nintendo's employees didn't learn about the game's existence until it was announced in the Direct.


 * Mineru appears to be heavily based on Yaraxonal from the fangame Hyrule Conquest (formerly Hyrule Total War.), who predates Mineru by a decade. Don't believe it? Compare them side ◊ by side ◊ . It's not just their appearance; they are both thousands of years old Sages of Spirit who were sealed in stone, have a familiar relation to another ancient character (Yaraxonal is the wife of Senturon, who himself has some major overlaps with Rauru), share a color scheme of black, orange and gold, and their height of about two times that of Hylians. Given Tears of the Kingdom 's developement team is composed of many younger and fresh developers, it's possible some of them happen to be fans of Hyrule Conquest and took some of its content as inspiration.
 * While Zelda's sage element in Ocarina of Time was not stated, Zelda being the Sage of Time is a popular piece of fanon since, in that game, she used her abilities as a sage to send Link back in time. While this incarnation of Zelda is not her OoT counterpart, she is made the Sage of Time here, canonizing the theory to an extent.
 * The 2nd Official Trailer ends with Zelda saying "Please...lend him your power". However, there was some initial public confusion over the line, as some thought they heard the line as "Please...lend me your power". The official captions for the 2nd Trailer confirmed it was the former. Even so, some still think Zelda said "lend me" instead of "lend him".
 * Around 3 months before the release the artbook got leaked, showing elements that ranged from outfits, to locations, to materials, to enemies and characters.
 * Shortly after the final trailer a tv advertisement was leaked, showing Link in an underground area, and confirming that the 3 headed dragon seen in the trailers is Gleeok.
 * A couple weeks before release, the entire game was leaked when some people received physical copies early and proceeded to stream it on platforms like Discord and Twitch, and release the ROM for download.
 * The leaks for the game were so widespread, that it even caused the temporary lockdown of this page, along with other Tears of the Kingdom related Tropes pages (Wild Mass Guessing, the Game's main page).
 * Cristina Valenzuela reprises her role as Tulin after playing him in the spinoff game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
 * In earlier versions of the previous game, the Sailcloth was used to glide (possibly removed or simply used as a placeholder until a glider was modeled). In the sequel, there is a version of the glider based on the Sailcloth, bringing things full circle.
 * The announcement trailer at E3 2019 showed Link and Zelda being accompanied by an odd-looking beast of burden that was somewhere between an ox and a dinosaur. While the game begins with Link and Zelda already deep beneath Hyrule castle, the creature seems to still be in the game as the dondons, a rare species of creature in Faron that Zelda set up a sanctuary for; investigating rumors of Zelda riding a 'strange beast' in the Faron region as part of the Lucky Clover Gazette questline points you to this sanctuary.
 * The Nintendo Direct that revealed this game's final title was livestreamed worldwide... except for in the United Kingdom, due to Queen Elizabeth II having passed away a mere five days prior. Instead, the Direct was made available on-demand. A climactic reveal of a game whose subtitle is Tears of the Kingdom would've come off as tasteless during the Royal Family's period of mourning.
 * With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Both are 3rd person action-adventure games focusing on sword-based combat and exploration, with Survivor taking on more Wide-Open Sandbox elements compared to its predecessor which invited comparisons to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Upon its release a few weeks prior to Zelda, Survivor was praised for its story and visuals but was criticized for numerous technical issues including bugs and poor performance despite releasing exclusively on 9th generation consoles and PC, while Tears of the Kingdom received praise for its complex physics engine and mostly smooth performance despite running on under-powered hardware.
 * With Final Fantasy XVI. Both are action-adventure fantasy games releasing in mid-2023 exclusively on competing consoles (Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5), with both of them being the long-awaited latest installments in juggernaut video game series. Even their predecessor games (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy XV) were only released months apart from one another.
 * When the game's announcement trailer dropped, many fans speculated that the mummified corpse shown was in fact Ganondorf, and that he would be revived to his normal form during the game (or "rehydrated", as Memetic Mutation would have it). The April 2023 trailer would confirm this speculation by showing Ganondorf's revived human form. Not only that, but when his voice was heard in the February 2023 Direct and in the final trailer, many fans guessed that Ganondorf was being voiced in English by Matthew Mercer. A tweet from Mercer, released the same day as the final trailer, would confirm this.
 * Due to a greater focus on him in one of the DLC missions in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and his overall gung-ho personality both there and in Breath of the Wild, Tulin was speculated to get an expanded role in the sequel. Sure enough, the April 13, 2023 trailer prominently shows him flying alongside Link in several shots, and in the full game, he helps out Link with getting to the Wind Temple, before becoming the Sage of Wind.
 * Some were skeptical of Master Kohga's death in Breath of the Wild due to its overly comedic nature and the fact that we didn't actually see him die. This game shows that he's still alive and had been living in the Depths the entire time.
 * The trailers only seem to focus on Tulin, Sidon and Riju, making fans believe that Yunobo was hidden because of his significance to the plot. Turns out, he ends up being controlled due to a mask he gets from the fake Zelda, and thus he is very significant to the Death Mountain plot.
 * Several shots from the initial E3 2019 teaser are not present or are changed in the final game, though given the four years between the releases, it's surprising that the overall structure of the scene was still the same.
 * Zelda was shown riding on a bull-like creature while exploring the depths of Hyrule Castle, with later shots showing the creature drinking from a pond and the three traveling across a bridge. By the final game, the creature in question has been scrapped and is nowhere to be seen in the prologue. The bridge scene is also not present. The creature itself is present in the game as the Dondon.
 * The entirety of the Mystical Cave is absent, and Link and Zelda are instead only shown in a strange temple like area.
 * The spectral hand holding down Ganondorf's corpse is not shown grabbing Link's hand in the same way as in the teaser, and the shot itself is not present.
 * The flash of light that splayed the wall with Ganondorf's mummified shadow is not present.
 * The Gloom consuming a rat is never shown in the game.
 * You can clearly see that the secret stones are not present on either Ganondorf's head or on Rauru's spectral hand.
 * The spectral hand fusing to Link's own hand is not present in the trailer, and you can clearly that his arm is not dessicated by the Gloom.
 * Ganondorf's finger twitch foreshadowing his revival is absent.
 * Yunobo was voiced by Kumiko Watanabe in the Japanese version of Breath of the Wild, but here he is now voiced by Miyuki Kobori.
 * In the Japanese version, Ganondorf is now voiced by Kosuke Takaguchi instead of either Takashi Nagasako or Hironori Miyata, who voiced him in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess respectively.
 * While Matthew Mercer is a Man of a Thousand Voices, he's better known for playing heroic figures like Chrom, Yusuke Kitagawa and Jotaro Kujo. Playing Ganondorf, one of the most iconic Evil Overlord characters in all of fiction, is very rare.
 * Matthew Mercer has been a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda series since he was a child, and got his start playing Ganondorf in his webseries There Will Be Brawl. A decade and a half later, he'd go on to officially voice Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom.
 * Link having an artificial arm that gives him powers was initially thought up during ◊ the planning stages of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
 * In a manner very similar to that of Super Mario Galaxy 2, the game was the result of the development team having too many ideas for Breath of the Wild DLC, some of which would have required significant changes to the overworld in order to realize.
 * Link building a party of Sage Avatars to assist him on his adventure recalls an unused party system concept planned for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
 * The first game's original concept for Tarrey Town was that you were able to create each building's layout from scratch, hence why every house has a cubical "building block" design. This scrapped mechanic was finally implemented for a side quest in this game, in which you get to design your own house in the style of the town’s architecture.
 * This game was released a little over six years after its predecessor, which is the longest gap between the two mainline games in the series.
 * The Rito bard NPC Kass was subject to this during the the Content Leak period before the official release. Due to his popularity, many people took his return for granted, only for that to not be the case. This led to many "leakers" claiming Kass was indeed in the game, but never with any visual proof to corroborate their words. Related to this, a screenshot circulated that showed Penn (another Rito NPC) claiming to be Kass ◊ . While Penn does have a connection to Kass in the game (after completing the Lucky Clover Gazette questline, he calls Kass an inspiration and relocates to the bard's outpost on Washa's Bluff) this piece of dialog never appears in the game. That said, people still think Kass is out there somewhere as several characters, including the aforementioned Penn, confirm he's still around, and that he's just well-hidden thanks to the game's sheer size.
 * Initially, Patricia Summersett stated in an interview with The Gamer that Link and Zelda "are in a relationship with each other". However, Summersett would later add that her comment was being misinterpreted  and clarified that the relationship was deliberately ambiguous.
 * TotK became the second best-selling Zelda game of all time, selling 10 million copies in only three days.

Continuity

 * The events of Tears of the Kingdom take place during an era long after the events of earlier games, which have since become myths and take place at the end of a timeline branch, but which timeline branch is up to the player's interpretation. It is impossible to tell which myths are historical fact and which are mere legends. The Zonai descend from Sky Islands far above, appearing to the people of Hyrule as though gods. long before the founding of Hyrule by King Rauru and Queen Sonia.