The highly anticipated final trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted today via a brief livestream event shared on Nintendo’s YouTube account. The game, which debuts on May 12, is a sequel to hit title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that features an open-world design with a focus on travel between the mysterious newly appeared “Sky Islands.”
Previous trailers revealed that Link will gain several new abilities, including fusing items together to create more powerful weapons and even vehicles. This final trailer, which clocked in at nearly four minutes, mostly consisted of brief scenes, but featured a large amount of new content. This included dungeon exploration, flying ships, combat against massive dragons, and even a “mech battle” between Link (riding a presumably player-created vehicle) and several Bokoblins mounted atop a Stone Talos.
This trailer also included a greater focus on characters, including both new and returning faces. Zelda was shown speaking with an unknown figure, whose identity will certainly be the source of much fan speculation in the remaining month. Other new faces included a freckled girl and a young Rito fledgling shown briefly accompanying Link. Fan-favorite characters, including the “New Champions” Yunobo, Riju, and Prince Sidon, were also finally confirmed to return and were even shown fighting alongside Link in battle.
This trailer also confirmed a longstanding fan theory: that recurring series enemy Ganondorf, who appeared only as “Calamity Ganon” in Breath of the Wild, would return in a humanoid form. Ganondorf’s human appearance, resembling his depiction in previous titles such as Super Smash Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, was finally shown as he gleefully threatened Link and Zelda that he would once again claim Hyrule’s crown.
Although this is the final trailer for the game as confirmed by series creator Eiji Aonuma, fans hope that more information may be released in the form of screenshots or Tweets during the remaining month until launch. In the meantime, fans can preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. A tie-in Nintendo Switch console and a Collector’s Edition featuring an artbook and other goodies are also available.
