The Legend of Zelda franchise always built upon exploration and puzzle solving. Breath of the Wild took Zelda to new heights with a truly open world, and because Tears of the Kingdom is a confirmed sequel, many wondered how Nintendo would keep things fresh? Thankfully, Eiji Aonuma played ten minutes of the anticipated title late March to give people a taste of what’s new, such as Ascend, Recall, Fusing, and Ultrahand. Which of these added gameplay mechanics do you think has the most potential to help Tears of the Kingdom stand out from its predecessor?

Although we still don’t know any story, nor what happened to Hyrule (e.g. will there be time travel or alternative version of it), these several gameplay mechanics were admittedly clever. For as far as we know, this is the same map as Breath of the Wild, with the exception of the sky islands, and odds are, if a person played Breath of the Wild, they likely explored every nook and cranny they could. So, what’s left?

The unofficial catch phrase of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seemed to be ‘you can explore anything’. In Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo is pitching, ‘you can build anything’. It is another aspect of an open world game, and one that also addresses breakable weapons to some extent. So, of all the new things that were shown in Aonuma’s demo, I feel that Ultrahand and Fuse have the greatest potential. Ascend will help tackle arduous climbing or perhaps a sneaky escape from imprisonment, and Recall is one way to reach a sky island–both great modes of traversing a massive world, but people can get very creative with fusing weapons of all kinds or their own mode of transportation. Personally, I think Fuse has the slight edge because we already have a plethora of ways to cross Hyrule, but using a puff mushroom on your shield to shroud your enemy in a haze so you can sneak strike it? Let’s go.

What do you think of the new gameplay mechanics, and which do you think will help form Tears of the Kingdom identity best? The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases May 12th, 2023. Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord!

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