New The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay reveals new abilities, vehicles, and areas

Nintendo has revealed 10 minutes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay during a presentation featuring Eiji Aonuma.

The gameplay focused heavily around Link’s new abilities, which give players even more creative power than in Breath of the Wild. Nintendo is clearly leaning into a sandbox-style experience for Tears of the Kingdom, letting players build vehicles and weapons for an individually tailored experience.

The gameplay also showed off the floating areas that were teased in the last trailer. These areas, which we now know are called Sky Islands, have new enemies and provide a new way to survey the world.

Eiji Aonuma also confirmed that development on the game had officially finished.

What new gameplay was revealed for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?

The first change that was revealed, and one that players have been speculating about for years, were the sky islands, which are accessible in multiple different ways. The way that Eiji Aonuma showed in the footage involved one of Link’s new abilities: Recall.

Recall allows players to rewind items in space and time, returning them to where they once were. Link can interact with these items while they move backward, allowing him to ride rocks that fall from the sky islands back up to where they fell from.

This is likely also the ability that we saw Link use to reverse a boulder into enemies in one of the trailers.

The sky islands are home to a new type of enemy called Constructs, which come in many different shapes and sizes. Some of them also appear to have weapons, which they can use to knock Link off of the islands.

The biggest reveal we saw were Link’s new crafting abilities. Through a new rune called Fuse, Link can combine random items together, giving them the combined attributes of both. This increases durability, damage, and even grants new elemental effects.

This is a massive expansion of what players are capable of experimenting with and gives a new value to previously mundane items such as eyeballs, which can now be fused to an arrow to make it seek enemies, or mushrooms, which can now stick to shields to create a smokescreen.

Link’s other new crafting ability, Ultrahand, does a similar thing but for larger objects. By sticking machines, platforms, and other objects together, Link can create specific vehicles to overcome any obstacle. These can range from cars, to vehicles that can fly, like balloons.

The last new ability revealed in this gameplay was Ascend, which can be used anywhere that has a ceiling. This lets Link phase through any walls above him to pop out on the surface. It can be used to escape buildings, but it can also get players out of caves, or reach the top of mountains.

When does The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release?

Tears of the Kingdom is arriving on May 12, 2023, six years after Breath of the Wild came to the Switch.

It’s one of the most widely-anticipated games of the year, and Nintendo has been slowly revealing information to keep fans on tenterhooks for years.

If you’re eager to dive into Hyrule again, the game is now available to pre-order.

For more news and updates on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, check out our coverage here.