The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, formerly known as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, is almost here. Initially scheduled for 2022, Nintendo rejected the game, eventually setting a release date in the first half of 2023. As a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom has an incredible, and perhaps impossible, task. in front of him. How can you improve what was essentially a perfect game?
While we won’t know the answer until the game is released, we actually know quite a lot about Tears of the Kingdom. We know when the game will debut; we know how you can protect your copy right now; we know some key details of the story. Read on for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release date, pre-order information, trailers, and more.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: data di uscita
(Image credit: Nintendo)
Let’s start with an easy one. The release date for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be May 12, 2023. The game will be on the Nintendo Switch, as well as the Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED variants.
In recent years, the game’s release date has been everywhere. Initially, Nintendo announced that the game would be released in 2022. Then, the company delayed Tears of the Kingdom until spring 2023. During a Nintendo Direct in September, the company finally confirmed an exact date for the game. All that’s left now is to wait until launch.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Preordini
(Image credit: Nintendo)
If you’re looking for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-orders, you won’t have to search too much. You can already pre-order the game with most of the usual suspects, including Amazon (opens in a new tab) Best Buy (opens in a new tab) and GameStop (opens in a new tab). If you’d rather shop at another electronics store, search for Tears of the Kingdom and see if it comes up. If it doesn’t now, it will soon.
The only exception is that it is not currently possible to pre-order Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo eShop. This isn’t really a problem, however, as digital products never run out of stock. While you’ll likely be able to pre-order the game digitally, you can still enter on May 12 if all else fails.
The only potential complication of pre-order is a potential collector’s edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Fans on Reddit and elsewhere have wondered if Nintendo plans to release a lavish collector’s edition for the game, which includes all the standard knick-knacks: an art book, a statue, some stickers, perhaps a special steelbook case, etc.
For what it’s worth, the original Breath of the Wild had a collector’s edition, which included a copy of the game, a wall map, a soundtrack CD, a coin, and a Switch carrying case. At the same time, when Nintendo announced the release date of Tears of the Kingdom, that would have been an opportune time to announce a collector’s edition as well, and we haven’t heard of it.
Beyond that, we have no special insights into this topic. If you think Nintendo is likely to release a Collector’s Edition for Tears of the Kingdom, you may want to suspend the pre-order of the Standard Edition. Otherwise, pre-order away or just wait for the digital version.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: trailer
There are a handful of trailers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, all available on Nintendo of America’s official YouTube site. Please note that “Tears of the Kingdom” is a relatively recent subtitle, so if you want older trailers, you will need to search for “Breath of the Wild 2” or “Breath of the Wild Sequel”.
The most recent trailer debuted in September 2022 and is titled “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Coming May 12, 2023 – Nintendo Switch.” It’s a relatively quiet affair, with lots of old paintings and mood music, even though there’s a fair amount of gameplay right in the middle. We’ve incorporated it below, if you want to take a minute and a half to watch it for yourself:
Since the game’s release date, May 12, is still a long way off, we imagine Nintendo will release at least one more substantial trailer between now and then. We will publish it if and when it comes out.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Trama
(Image credit: Nintendo)
While we’ve had at least three trailers for the game, we still don’t have a great idea what the storyline of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be. So far, we’ve seen Link and Zelda explore an eerie series of ruins, Link traverse islands in the sky, and an evil force spreading across Hyrule.
All we can say definitively is that Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, which is relatively rare in the Zelda canon. Most Zelda games are standalone, linked by mythic themes and recurring legendary items, rather than specific characters and locations. Link and Zelda have promised to embark on a new journey at the end of Breath of the Wild, and it looks like Tears of the Kingdom will start with them doing just that.
For those who haven’t played Breath of the Wild, well, you might want to, considering it’s an incredible game and Tears of the Kingdom will follow directly. But if you want an update: Link awakens after 100 years of suspended animation, and finds that Calamity Ganon threatens all of Hyrule and that Zelda’s power to keep the kingdom safe is weakening. From there, Link must explore the world, solve 120 devious Shrine puzzles, awaken the four Divine Beasts, reclaim the Master Sword and find a way to destroy Calamity Ganon once and for all.
The wait between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is the longest without a new Zelda game, so fans are understandably pretty excited about the next chapter of this legendary series. We will update this page with new information as it becomes available.
