The Legend of Zelda is one of the most iconic series in gaming and the launch of Tears of the Kingdom is set to be even bigger than that of Breath of the Wild. Many players are eager to learn as much as they can about the game leading up to its release on May 12, with little being known outside of the return of the series’ big bad, Ganondorf.
Here’s all the information we know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom so far from the information released so far, not including leaks and spoilers.
What do we know about Tears of the Kingdom‘s story?
Before you launch into TotK, you should be aware of the story of its predecessor, Zelda: BotW, which has been regarded as the best Zelda game of our generation. It has its own backstory and lore that takes place over a hundred years before TotK, which is an unknown amount of time after BotW.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild recap
Princess Zelda in BotW is the latest in a long line of Hyrulian royalty meant to defend their home and its inhabitants from the malicious force known as Calamity Ganon. This lineage has the unique powers of the Triforce of Wisdom running through their family, but this iteration of Zelda has a hard time finding her powers.
As she tries to figure it out, she travels across Hyrule and discovers a large variety of Sheikah machines and monuments, including the four Divine Beasts. These large machines and the network of towers were meant to help ward off the evil of Ganon that had been tormenting Hyrule in an endless cycle. When the Sheikah were forced out of Hyrule by a scared king, the monuments fell to ruin and were buried until discovered by Zelda.
When Calamity Ganon strikes and Zelda’s sworn protector, Link, has his life threatened, Zelda is able to summon her powers and trap the monster inside Hyrule Castle with herself. An injured Link is carried by what allies remained to the Tomb of Resurrection where he rests for 100 years before waking up at the very beginning of BotW.
What happens after that is Link traveling across Hyrule, reestablishing the Sheikah network, and working to reunite all the scattered tribes and races. Alongside the four beasts, he is able to take down Calamity Ganon and seemingly free Zelda from the castle she was imprisoned in for 100 years.
What we know about Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom‘s story
The unfortunate answer is that we don’t know a whole lot about what we can expect from TotK‘s story, only that it is not common for Nintendo to put out a direct sequel to a Zelda game. Not only that, but this game will take place in the same location, with some of the same characters, as well as a return of many of the mechanics of the previous game. TotK is 38-percent bigger than BotW, but those additional assets could be anything.
Related: All the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom characters so far
One of the last trailers revealed gave players a closer look at some of the story elements but didn’t prove anything definitive. It seems that Zelda will once again be in danger as she falls out of reach, with Link seemingly having a severely injured arm as he tries to reach her. We also get a look at the new big bad of TotK, Ganondorf.
Ganondorf refers to his return as a “King’s revival,” so it could be that the infamous baddie is returning after the other form was defeated. Wherever this iteration of Ganondorf comes from, he looks like he wants to cause some serious damage to the land of Hyrule.
While unclear how it will relate to the story, Hyrule also looks to be more populated than it was in BotW, where much of the landscape had been destroyed by Calamity Ganon a century earlier and the people dispersed. It could be that in the time after Calamity Ganon was killed, more of the citizens of Hyrule were able to rebuild after the great evil had been defeated.
This is all speculation based on what’s been shown so far in trailers, with Nintendo clearly being more interested in showing off the cool new sky and fusing mechanics than the story. More will likely be revealed in the coming day when Nintendo releases a launch trailer and players access the game legally for the first time.
Related: How to play The Legend of Zelda games in release order from Gamepur
