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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an upcoming 2023 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. A sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), Tears of the Kingdom retains many aspects of its predecessor, including the open world environment of Hyrule, which has been expanded to allow for more vertical exploration. Link, the protagonist of Tears of the Kingdom, is joined by Zelda and is opposed by a malevolent force that seeks to destroy Hyrule.
Tears of the Kingdom was conceived after ideas for Breath of the Wild downloadable content (DLC) had exceeded its scope. Its development was led by Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) division, with Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma reprising their roles. A teaser for the game was shown at E3 2019 with a full reveal at E3 2021. Tears of the Kingdom was initially planned for release in 2022 before being delayed to May 2023.
Development of Tears of the Kingdoms started in 2017 after its predecessor Breath of the Wild was completed. Tears of the Kingdom was announced at E3 2019 as a sequel to Breath of the Wild. At E3 2021, Nintendo debuted a trailer revealing gameplay, story elements and a 2022 release window, but Nintendo later changed the release window to Q2 2023. More information was revealed in the Nintendo Direct presentation held in September 2022, including the title Tears of the Kingdom and a release date of May 12, 2023, and another Nintendo Direct in February 2023 teased more gameplay elements.
Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma are reprising their roles. The game was conceived after the team was unable to use every idea planned for Breath of the Wild's downloadable content. New elements include floating islands above Hyrule, with players able to soar between them in a style similar to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011).
Aonuma stated that the open world games Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim inspired members of the development team.
On March 28, 2023, Eiji Aonuma announced that development was complete. He demonstrated the new Recall ability, which can reverse time for an object, the Fuse ability, with which the player may combine multiple materials to form new weapons, the Ultrahand ability, which sticks objects together, and the Ascend ability, which allows the player to travel through ceilings. The final pre-launch trailer was released on April 13.
In February 2023, pages from an art book containing character and location designs leaked online. A playable build of the game also leaked online two weeks before release.
