Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Previewed in Gameplay Demonstration, Development Cycle is Complete

[T0@st]

Nintendo is ramping up publicity efforts for its upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild, which was a ratings and sales smash upon launching in Spring 2017 for the Japanese company. Tears of the Kingdom is the latest addition in the long running Legend of Zelda series and is set for release on May 12. In a newly released video that clocks in at a generous 13 and a bit minutes in length, the game's producer Eiji Aonuma demonstrates multiple aspects of gameplay - including Link's new abilities, refined combat systems, weapon crafting, vehicle building via puzzle mechanics and the transition from sky to land areas.

Aonuma-san starts off the video presentation by announcing that the development cycle for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been completed (reached gold status in industry terms). The game is due to launch internationally in mid-May, so it is encouraging that the development team is, allegedly, not tinkering under the hood until the very last minute. Tears of the Kingdom has been delayed since it was first teased at E3 2019 - development began in 2017 following the completion of its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. Nintendo initially announced an estimated release window in 2022, but presumably due to world changing events, the game was pushed back to Q2 2023.



Eiji Aonuma says that today's video demonstration can only reveal only so much about the game at this stage, and hints that many more aspects will emerge from mystery in due course. Fans of Breath of the Wild have questioned why Nintendo has chosen to increase the asking price of the sequel by $10, given that Tears of the Kingdom appears to be very similar to BotW. There is no doubt that Tears of the Kingdom will be a sales smash, but the gaming community will continue to debate whether the new entry will offer as much value for money, especially at an MSRP of $70. Doug Bowser, CEO of Nintendo of America has previously defended the higher cost of entry, and he is likely hoping that today's gameplay presentation has demonstrated enough new elements to justify the company's business decision.

Get an introduction to Link's new abilities in this gameplay demonstration of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom presented by series producer, Eiji Aonuma.



An epic adventure across the land and skies of Hyrule awaits in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12th.



The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available to pre-order for $69.99

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[BorisDG]

Zelda: Breath of the DLC - 2023 Edition

 

[_Flare]

Does it give so much relief on hardware resources to use that artstyle?
Looks like the geometric and shadow detail is nice, but it looks like anisotropic filtering is off and textural detail is minimal and most colors look washed out.
I mean it is art, but i find it unsighly.
Beside that. the game, story and world look very nice.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Does it give so much relief on hardware resources to use that artstyle?
Looks like the geometric and shadow detail is nice, but it looks like anisotropic filtering is off and textural detail is minimal and most colors look washed out.
I mean it is art, but i find it unsighly.
Beside that. the game, story and world look very nice.

The Switch has roughly a GeForce 840M in it with 256 cores @768MHz.
The XBox Series X has roughly a Radeon 6700XT in it with 3328 cores @1800 MHz.

The Switch's GPU needs all the relief it can get.

 

[Nater]

Without some sort of multiplayer, I don't see how it'll ever be as good as BoTW.

 

[evernessince]

Zelda: Breath of the DLC - 2023 Edition

My thoughts exactly, looks like a DLC to BoTW but instead they are charging $70 for it.

 

[BArms]

Does it give so much relief on hardware resources to use that artstyle?
Looks like the geometric and shadow detail is nice, but it looks like anisotropic filtering is off and textural detail is minimal and most colors look washed out.
I mean it is art, but i find it unsighly.
Beside that. the game, story and world look very nice.

I bought a Switch last year to play BOTW, my previous Nintendo console was an N64 and after many years of PC master race playing BoTW took some getting used to for sure. It runs at like 900p and my right eye caught some kind of aliasing disease or something. I hope they at least squeeze 1080p out of this one, somehow.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Does it give so much relief on hardware resources to use that artstyle?
Looks like the geometric and shadow detail is nice, but it looks like anisotropic filtering is off and textural detail is minimal and most colors look washed out.
I mean it is art, but i find it unsighly.
Beside that. the game, story and world look very nice.

My eyes aren't keen enough to pick out things like AF, but you're not wrong about textures and colors. They seem to have chosen watercolor as their inspiration to work around hardware limitations. I recall spending most of my time in BotW (a not insignificant amount) attempting to not try to fruitlessly squint through what seemed to be an ever-present layer of light fog. I liked BotW a lot, but that was one of my two or three biggest beeves with the game.

 

[Metroid]

Nintendo need a better console at moment to handle new engines and 4k is needed at this time and age.

 

[Chomiq]

Nintendo need a better console at moment to handle new engines and 4k is needed at this time and age.

Nintendo will do what Nintendo wants to do.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Nintendo need a better console at moment to handle new engines and 4k is needed at this time and age.

Outside of the SNES and the N64 Nintendo has historically always targeted weaker hardware than it's competitors that's good enough for what they want to do. Especially on the portable side of things where they went for form factor and use factor rather than raw power. It's always worked for them.

On 4k let's get real about this. The amount of PCs out there that can game at 4k is minimal. PC is 1080p 60 for the vast majority of people on it. On the PS and Xbox side of things 4k is possible and if you want 4k you should be on a console but it's not fully there yet either. Your going to get better performance running it at sub 4k. It's still a bit out for everyone.

As for the art style, no it's not about pulling performance Nintendo's own games have always had an odd style of their own and they don't feel the need to play "all the graphics, but the game will suck" that a lot of developers do. Switch isn't the first time they've cartooned up Zelda or other games.