Zelda Producer Confirms That Tears of the Kingdom Begins Soon After the Events of BotW

[T0@st]

Nintendo has released another of its "Ask the Developer" discussions, the first segment of this week's edition is obviously part of a marketing drive to drum up even more interest in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (scheduled to launch this Friday). Included in the roundtable conversation is Eiji Aonuma, project manager of the The Legend of Zelda series, who has RPG development experience dating back to the SNES and N64 days at Nintendo. The veteran developer confirms that the follow-up to 2017's Breath of the Wild functions as a direct sequel - the fanbase has long suspected that this was always the case - in his introduction he gets down to the facts sharply: "Once again, it takes place in the vast land of Hyrule after the conclusion of the previous game."

Aonuma reiterates the chosen setting: "Yes, this title is set in Hyrule shortly after the end of the previous game. There are many reasons why we chose this setting. After finishing development on the previous title, we wondered if we could make it possible for players to continue exploring the world after they've reached the game's ending." Given the previous entry's massive success in terms of sales - Breath of the Wild is approaching 30 million units sold - and critical reception, it would be natural for Nintendo to build on that foundation. A section of the fanbase has been critical of Nintendo's decision to not produce an unconnected sequel - Aonuma addresses this matter when he is asked whether an entirely new setting/visual style was in the cards: "No, not really. Although The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has its own conclusion, we started to come up with new ideas that we wanted to bring to life in this already realized version of Hyrule, so our direction in making a sequel did not change."



His colleague, Hidemaro Fujibayashi (game director), agrees and then interjects: "Just like somewhere you know inside and out, we understand where everything is in Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and because of that, we believed it was possible to create new gameplay. For this reason, in the initial proposal, we clearly stated "the setting will not change" as an important concept. Even when I shared this with the team members here, there were no objections, and we were all aligned on that idea from that point onward."

Takuhiro Dohta (technical director) believes that new gameplay elements and innovations will distinguish the latest entry from its direct predecessor: "In contrast, we made some fairly big changes to the gameplay. In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011), if players wanted to travel from the the sky to the ground, they had to select it from the map, but in this game, you can dive from the sky directly to the ground without any interruption. On top of that, players can also ride on flying vehicles and so on, offering even more freedom within the same setting as the previous game. If a location were completely unfamiliar to you, you'd probably be hesitant to dive down from the sky, but because it's a world that you've already explored in the previous game, these transportation methods make sense."



Doug Bowser, CEO at Nintendo of America, was asked (two months ago) about Tears of the Kingdom's price hike - he defended the company's decision to boost MSRP (by $10) and reasoned that the latest Zelda title will have more than enough content to justify a higher asking price: "We look at what the game has to offer. I think fans will find this is an incredibly full, deeply immersive experience. The price point reflects the type of experience that fans can expect when it comes to playing this particular game."

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

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[LiveOrDie]

Still hate this art style bring back twilight princess art style it worked better !

 

[Dragokar]

As much as the games may be and are good, the switch being a good handheld (despite failing regularly, yeah I look at you M92 and Max) I can not stand this company anymore. Tons of regulations regarding mods, a really poor community handling and even worse on the DMCA trigger button. They never played the nice guy role, but it is getting out of control when they want employees fired for leaks at some other company and so on.

They are done for me, and I will enjoy the games in one way or another.

 

[HairyLobsters]

Still hate this art style bring back twilight princess art style it worked better !

OK Edgelord.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Same engine, same graphical style, tons of reused assets, same map as a base, and physics engine complete. They've taken from six months before the launch of the Switch until last month to make Tears of the Kingdom. Even as hype as that last trailer was, it really just looks like an expansion pack. What were they doing for six years? I'd love to know if they tried something more ambitious, failed, and used this expansion pack as a fallback.

Then said, "$70 plz."

 

[Bomby569]

this game is absolutely awesome just like Botw was, the liberty to do whatever we want to do is insane, and people were still discovering new ways to approach the game months or even years later, that's what i want from a game. I also love the world they build, i'm obviously an insane fanboy.
Botw is one of the all time greatest games for me.

 

[LiveOrDie]

OK Edgelord.

OK team fortress 2 nerd

 

[SkullFox]

I was hoping for good graphics on this one... but since "Switch Pro" did not come out and BOTW already had stuttering issues, I doubt they managed to get better graphics.... since the game is pretty much unplayable on TV because of the atroucious graphics, I am not buying this one. I have can't play handeld when I have a huge TV to play.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

since the game is pretty much unplayable on TV because of the atroucious graphics,

Speak for yourself. 90%+ of my BotW playtime was docked. It'd have been nice if it looked better, sure. But "atrocious"? I think your expectations are too high.

 

[Logoffon]

As much as the games may be and are good, the switch being a good handheld (despite failing regularly, yeah I look at you M92 and Max) I can not stand this company anymore. Tons of regulations regarding mods, a really poor community handling and even worse on the DMCA trigger button. They never played the nice guy role, but it is getting out of control when they want employees fired for leaks at some other company and so on.

They are done for me, and I will enjoy the games in one way or another.

Nah, don't even bother, because that would still be considered as supporting the company in some form.

I simply don't like it when people hates a company yet still use or enjoy their stuff. It's just counterintuitive.

 

[konga]

Same engine, same graphical style, tons of reused assets, same map as a base, and physics engine complete. They've taken from six months before the launch of the Switch until last month to make Tears of the Kingdom. Even as hype as that last trailer was, it really just looks like an expansion pack. What were they doing for six years? I'd love to know if they tried something more ambitious, failed, and used this expansion pack as a fallback.

Then said, "$70 plz."

Huge changes to the map have been made, and it's been expanded to be twice as large. There are a lot more quests, and they're longer and more involved now too. Much more of the content feels bespoke or hand-crafted. If you actually play the game, you'd know exactly why it has taken them six years to make it. The game is immense and insanely ambitious, and aside from a few performance issues, it's probably one of the most polished AAA releases I've ever played.