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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to Breath of the Wild

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It’s releasing on May 12th, 2023

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Link, wearing a blue cloak, kneels down at the edge of an island, hovering above the clouds. Other sky islands float in the background.
Link looking fresh in his long hair and cape.
Image: Nintendo

Nintendo finally revealed the name and launch date for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sequel: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In a trailer, Nintendo revealed the new name and the game’s May 12th, 2023 release date for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo didn’t show a lot of specifics about what we can expect in the new trailer, but we did get to see some more action shots of Link in the game. We got a further look at a new Sheikah Slate power that appears to reverse time — Link climbs on top of a rock that begins to fall upwards. Like in a previous trailer, Link takes a few great leaps into the sky, but in one shot, he lands on a new bird-shaped glider of some kind. And there is a brief moment of Link climbing on his own, so it seems as if we’ll be scaling vast vertical obstacles once again.

Here’s the official description of the game from Nintendo’s press release: “In addition to the vast lands of Hyrule, the latest entry in the storied Legend of Zelda series will take you up into the skies and an expanded world that goes beyond that! Look forward to Link’s massive adventure starting again when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, drops for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.” And curiously, in the opening paragraph of the release, Nintendo says that “Link’s endless adventure begins again” — perhaps hinting at time travel?

Nintendo first announced that it was working on a full sequel to Breath of the Wild in 2019, and it’s been an agonizing wait for more details about when we’d actually be able to play the game. The company showed off of what we now know as Tears of the Kingdom in a stunning trailer during E3 2021 and promised a 2022 release date, but in March, it delayed the game to spring 2023. Now we can all circle our calendars for May 12th to explore Hyrule once again.