March 28th Gameplay Trailer: Everything We Learned

A 13-minute gameplay trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) was shown on March 28, 2023 at 7 AM PT. The trailer showcased new abilities, new enemies, and the Tears of the Kingdom Edition OLED Switch and accessories. Read on to know more about the new features and mechanics shown in the new gameplay trailer!

March 28th Gameplay Trailer: Everything We Learned

Four New Abilities: Recall, Fuse, Ultrahand, and Ascend

Four New Abilities
Recall	Fuse	Ultrahand	Ascend

Link has been shown to wield a new set of four abilities that seem to be replacing the Rune Abilities from the Sheikah Slate from Breath of the Wild. Each ability has a lot of potential for combat, traversal, and expression of creativity. It'll be exciting to see the different things players will come up with from using them.

Four New Abilities Introduced: Recall, Fuse, Ultrahand, and Ascend Explained

New Monsters and Materials in the Sky Islands

Sky Islands were finally explored as part of Mr. Aonuma's gameplay demonstration. It showed off the new Construct enemy, as well as a handful of new materials.
Sky Islands Explored
New Monsters and Materials

Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch and Accessories

A limited edition of the Nintendo Switch OLED model, themed after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was announced alongside two other TOTK-themed accessories.
Tears of the Kingdom Edition Switch OLED, Pro Controller, and Carrying Case Revealed

Other Returning Elements

Familiar World Beneath the Sky Islands

While there was a lot of new info to take in, it was also refreshingly to see the familiar world environment while in Hyrule. It appears that riding horses and movement around the world feels similar. We can even see a familiar dragon flying nearby while atop the Sky Islands.

Similar UI to Breath of the Wild

And at the same time, the game has a similar UI to Breath of the Wild, with hearts and D-pad shortcuts on the upper-left part of the screen, and temperature, noise, weather forecast, time, and minimap on the lower-right part of the screen. New UI elements include a larger indicator of the selected Ability, and numbers that appear on the minimap.

March 28th Gameplay Trailer: What We Wanted To See

A few hours before the gameplay trailer, we shared our predictions and wishes on what we wanted to see. How do our predictions compare?

3/28 Gameplay Trailer Wishlist
What We Got Right	What We Still Don't Know
Sky Islands and New Landscape Exploration New Weapons to Wield Weapon Durability Confirmation New Vehicles New Enemies Showcase	Return of Traditional Dungeons Shrine Confirmation

A New World of Hyrule to Explore - Sky Islands and New Landscape Exploration

The Kingdom of Hyrule that we know from Breath of the Wild is rich with beautiful landscapes, resources and many secrets, as well as deadly enemies scattered throughout the land, ready to put Link back into slumber.

Fortunately, the new gameplay trailer that Mr. Aonuma shown for Tears of the Kingdom featured what kinds of environment players can expect when exploring the islands. This includes unique types of trees that aren't at the surface of Hyrule, new enemies, and a gorgeous landscape that can be appreciated by going to these islands by either riding a vehicle or using Link's new ability: Recall.

These are looking to be great new additions to this game, as it adds more places to explore and more verticality to the already vast map of Hyrule. It will also be interesting to find hidden secrets within these islands that might only be accessible via using Link's new abilities!

Hunter of the Wild - New Weapons to Wield

As this is a sequel to Breath of the Wild, there will obviously be a lot of old weapons returning from the first game. Luckily, the gameplay showed us that there are indeed new weapons that Link can wield by combining two items together with Link's new ability: Fuse.

With this new ability, it is certain that there will be a plethora of new weapons that will expand Link's arsenal, increasing his chances of survival to this unfamiliar version of his beloved kingdom.

Battleworn Tools of Destruction - Weapon Durability Confirmation

Breath of the Wild has introduced many new mechanics within the series, including weapons breaking once it is overused and it is looking like that same aspect from the first game carries over to its sequel.
Weapon Durability Explained: Will There Be Unbreakable Weapons?

New Form of Exploration - New Vehicles

Exploring the land of Hyrule can be an exhausting and long journey, even with riding horses.

Luckily, traversing Hyrule looks like it'll be more fun with the introduction of the Ultrahand ability, giving Link the power to combine multiple objects together that he can find in the environment to give life to multiple creations such as a vehicle to explore this new Hyrule. Among many things, Link can possibly create a boat, a hot air balloon, a huge cart and many more to venture the world.

Needless to say, this new ability gives players more freedom and allows for their creative minds to flourish by making what's within their imaginations, making this new installment more innovative than the previous one.

More Beasts to Slay - New Enemies Showcase

The land of Hyrule is infested with monsters serving under the evil Ganondorf. This includes some returning enemies like Bokoblins and Moblins from the first game but it seems that this new form of Hyrule will also give way to appearances of new enemies such as the Construct which can be found at the top of the sky islands, scouting for intruders such as the courageous hero of Hyrule.

Enemies in Tears of the Kingdom can also wield fused weapons, making them more deadly and tricky to eliminate.

Return to Form - Return of Traditional Dungeons

It is no secret that Breath of the Wild introduced a lot of new mechanics to the series like climbing walls, as well as spicing up the gameplay by changing some series traditions like the removal of a beloved mainstay - the classic form of dungeons.

In the previous game, these dungeons were replaced by Shrines which offers puzzles or enemies that Link needs to solve or beat respectively. These are similar to classic dungeons, except that each shrines only offer one type of puzzle or enemy contrasting the traditional dungeon design which offers more puzzles and enemies within one place. There are also the four Divine Beasts, which are dungeons but not necessarily similar to the classic format of dungeons which are lengthy, offers more puzzle and enemies and are more varied aesthetically.

Unfortunately, the gameplay only featured Link's new four abilities but we are still hoping that classic dungeons might get showcased on future information before the release of the game on May 12, 2023.

Trials of the Hero - Shrine Confirmation

Breath of the Wild has introduced Shrines within the world of Hyrule, offering trials to Link in the form of puzzles or a fight with Guardian Scouts. So far, there is still no confirmation whether shrines are returning. However, we have spotted a weird looking rock that is emitting a green light during the gameplay showcase that might be a hint to this game's version of the shrines.

New Gameplay Trailer

New 10 Minute Gameplay Showcase

The March 28th gameplay showcase of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom showed roughly 10 minutes of content on Nintendo's official YouTube channel. You can check out the video from their official channel above.

List of Official Trailers and Gameplay Footage

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