The February 2023 Nintendo Direct finally dropped the biggest trailer to date. While we still have no clue what the game is actually about, they at least showed way more of Hyrule in this trailer than any other trailer to date. This was followed shortly after by a significant (and seemingly legitimate) leak, full of spoilers for the anticipated game. Rest assured we aren't going into any information from the leak here, and instead focusing only on what Nintendo has officially announced. Specifically, we're taking a fine-toothed comb to the most recent trailer and analyzing it alongside information from previous trailers and our encyclopedic knowledge of Breath of the Wild. There's a lot to unpack for eagle-eyed fans, and we're here to guide you through all of it.
While a ton of new features were shown here, we still don’t know much about what is happening in the game, how combat mechanics are returning, and much more. We will likely have to wait until another grand reveal before the game’s launch on May 12, 2023. In the meantime, let's go back shot by shot, and break down everything in the latest trailer for Tears of the Kingdom. Be sure to check out our full video breakdown for even more detail.
The first shots start off fairly slow, only showing us a couple of new things. This angle facing Death Mountain from Mabe prairie shows more spiral patterns on the ground that we’ve seen in previous trailers. The lightning also has a slight green tinge, usually lightning has a more of an off-white-ish color in Breath of the Wild so this may not be a normal thunderstorm. Throughout the trailer there are dozens of examples of strange boulders, piles of malice, and new buildings that repeat themselves, so I won’t go too much into it since we already know the land of Hyrule has changed quite a bit.
The military training camp next to Korok forest, without the Sheikah tower, is now infested with the new longhorn bokoblins, and a new flying enemy type seen in a previous trailer as well. Previously thought to be Kargaroks, these seem to be entirely new enemies. Since they seem to be plentiful in Hyrule by the amount of times they show up in this trailer, they’re likely to be our new common annoyance while traveling downwards or upwards, and we’ll likely get into lots of aerial combat with them.
The area between Tabantha and Hebra range is shown next, with two shining towers attached with spotlights. We also get a closer look of a circling storm surrounding Hebra Peak. With another ground design seen again from previous trailers, the purpose for all of these still goes unexplained. Do keep in mind these tower’s shapes and colors though, because you will see them again later in the video. One thing to point out is that Vah Medoh is missing from its perch here above Rito Village, and we still don’t know what happened to the Divine Beasts.
It starts to pick up a bit here, as we get to see some strange ground formations that are completely unique from Breath of the Wild. Besides this square platform here, and the ground symbol from the previous shot, you can see this structure North of Gisa Crater sitting on top of Cuho Mountain with a center and sections that jut out in different directions. This is interesting because this is the largest new structure we’ve seen on the ground floor so far.
This is when it starts to get interesting. With every trailer underground exploration became teased more and more, and now it is a confirmed reality. In this shot we see a Longhorn Bokoblin with a backpack and rock hammer chipping away at a regular ore. While we can’t see upwards to confirm the cavern ceiling, you can pretty much confirm it from the background audio here, which has reverb to match its cave setting, which will be a new addition audio wise since even Breath of the Wild’s underground location did not account for this kind of audio.
You can also see Longhorn Lilzalfos equipped with throwing spears and Lizal Bows, and covered in rising malice, likely all empowered by the new villain. There are also new pools of malice that line the ground as well. Besides the new vegetation and alien looking trees in the background, blue fire dots the ground to the right side. These will-o-wisp type fires could possibly be Poe, but are more likely something seen before in Twilight Princess, souls as seen in the Twilight Realm. We have seen multiple Twilight references along with Skyward references in previous trailers, so we’ll see how this all connects.
This shot from Hylia Island looking out towards Hyrule castle and Death Mountain has two notable features. On the left you can see a new structure on top of this hill, and what looks like an opening in the hillside leading likely to an underground area. On the right side is a monstrous creature that is most likely to be a Gleeok, a multi headed dragon that spits fire from Zelda 1. If true, this would be its first return to the Zelda series since the very first game. We also get a glimpse of a blue tower behind the Gleeok, which we’ll get back to in a second.
This camera angle overlooks Hateno Village looking southwest towards the Faron region. Again we see another spiral structure, and new glowing teepee like buildings dotting the main village, with no explanation still on what they are. One last thing in this shot to mull over here is that overworld Sheikah technology is still clearly missing, the ancient furnace here is gone, and Sheikah towers and shrines are still absent. But something strange is here. Again, this blue structure in the far background near Courage Steppe, is highly likely to be the same structure as the red-orange tower here before. So this may mean that unlocking Sheikah technology may still play a key role in the sequel, even though it's not a major mechanic anymore.
The next several shots show the blood moon turning into a dark crimson before Ganon launches an attack against Hyrule. Hyrule Castle itself has a large crust of malice surrounding it, as well as the bridge to Zelda’s Study broken completely.
Then a volley of malice souls are sent towards the Great Plateau, landing right above Mount Hylia. Again, one of the spiral structures appears, seemingly replacing Jee Noh Shrine’s location. But something is amiss here, this south wall does not appear like this in-game, this is completely covered in snow and damaged here, so it's highly likely this cutscene occurred in the past, and Breath of the Wild’s great plateau is the aftermath many years later.
An explosion follows up, but is probably a different cutscene entirely, as the ground looks like the wide sandy areas of the Gerudo Desert. What's enveloped in the explosion is a mystery though as we can slightly make out a large enemy with what looks like four guardian-like arms and massive claws.
Magma filled rocks begin to crumble, likely a separate event from the castle crumbling scene that follows. As far as we can tell, Death Mountain’s lava seems to be in-active, so we’ll see how lava and magma in general plays a role in Tears of the Kingdom.
The Great Plateau appears again, and a couple things can be picked out here. Simple things like the Sheikah Tower missing and another ground design appears again. But you can also catch things like more flat patches of malice near previously Oman Au shrine, and the previous shot of the Gleeok guarding the Bridge of Hylia is nowhere to be found. Another interesting thing is guardians are never seen in Tears of the Kingdom so far, but not even their destroyed bodies exist. Multiple guardians bodies usually litter this poolside in Breath of the Wild, while they are completely missing here. Whether it's related to time, sheikah technology's absence, or some other event, it's still unexplained, so we’ll have to wait and see.
We see a follow up shot to the blood moon volley we saw before, with Bokoblins coming to life out of the blobs of malice that come down, equipped with serrated horns instead of just normal longhorns we’ve seen so far. They land right on top of the Great Plateau wall.
Then we see many of Hyrule’s new monsters, with several newcomers. This is the first we see of these new Big Bokoblins, and according to the official Zelda Japan twitter, they’re simply called “Boss Bokoblins”. They resemble a mashup of Wind Waker style Moblins with Breath of the Wild’s bokoblins with a toothed crown. Then we get our first look at a Tears of the Kingdom’s re-dead, a zombie-like creature that has appeared in most major Zelda titles. Seeing as they have a history of creepily latching onto Link. I’m not looking forward to seeing that again with its terrifying new jaws. The Bokoblin and Lizalfos also sport new horn pieces.
Link then rides off near the newly lifted Hyrule Castle on what looks like Epona, which is interesting because Epona was not easy to make canon into the story of Breath of the Wild since it was locked behind an Amiibo. And memories in Breath of the Wild showed Link on a somewhat generic horse, and making Epona canon now would have to make us wonder what the Epona amiibo would be used for now, but we’ll have to see. We again see the circling storm above Hebra, and possibly a new building in front of the Hyrule Castle Gates on the left.
Then we see a shot from the Great Plateau looking down Oseira Plains, and what looks like a malice wildfire in the distance. It's hard to tell but there may be a Molduga’s head sticking out of the ground here.
Link stands on top of a travel gate getting surrounded by Guardian-like arms, with guide rails on the side that likely make this elevator go upwards. The one arm in front of Link holds a spool hooked to a wire that feeds down below the platform, but we have no idea why it's handing this device to Link. From what I’m seeing here, I personally have some Robbie or Purah vibes from this scene, possibly handling equipment to Link to help them set up a device. This is also one of the first times we see Guardian technology back in Tears of the Kingdom, so this may be Robbie or Purah’s fiddling. Another important thing to point out is this Sheikah platform here which writes "Transport" repeating along the sides. This is not the Sheikah Tower travel gate, rather this is the Divine Beast travel gate, which has the same inscription as well. Since these were only found on divine beasts, and Zelda stated in the secret Breath of the Wild ending that the divine beast Vah Ruta has stopped working, and all Divine Beasts are missing, this may have been salvaged tech ripped off of a divine beast, which yet again sounds like something Pura or Robbie would do.
This location is the Baobab Tree area between the Gerudo Highlands and Satori Mountain. We then see a pack of bokoblins with the Boss Bokoblin ready for battle. The weapon is hard to make out, but from the small details we see the Boss Bokoblin wielding a malice corrupted Soldiers Claymore in one hand. Tears of the Kingdom also seems to be ramping up its enemy with enemy teamwork interactions such as the Boss Bokoblin commanding the Bokoblins to attack all at once. It may become a situation where taking out a leader will cause the enemy squad to become uncoordinated, similar to Halo games with grunts and elites. Another really cool thing to point out here is that they’re using an asset that we never got in Breath of the Wild, this scrap metal horn. This was in development in the first game as a Lynel horn, but never made it to the final release. Now this metal horn comes to life in the hands of this new enemy.
Hinox makes a return to Tears of the Kingdom, this one sporting some sort of jelly substance on its necklace and a silly looking hat.
Link then takes us on a couple landscape shots over the Seres Scablands and a close up of a ground design on the North Hyrule Plain. Again, in every shot it seems there’s slightly altered terrain littered everywhere, so we won’t go on pointing out every single one.
The next shot points us eastward between the Korok Forest and Typhlo Ruins, which seems to have lost its shrouded black cover. We still don't have a clear view of The Korok Forest or the great deku tree, which is still possibly missing from a previous trailer. We also get to see another enemy with enemy interaction of these new flying types carrying bokoblins. With the Talus bokoblin sniper fort, bokoblin coordinated attacks, and these flying types carrying Bokoblins, Tears of the Kingdom is definitely ramping up its enemy intelligence in interesting ways. You also get a small closeup of the bokoblin’s stone axe, a weapon likely wieldable by one hand with Link, which would be a first, since we only had two handed axes in Breath of the Wild. Also keep in mind that we have yet to see any Dragonbone weapons at all so far, which is interesting and may tie into the lore behind dragons later on.
Looking southwest from Samasa Plain, we see a Moblin picking itself up. While I initially thought that it was the normal getup animation, it's actually the tail end of a new headbutt attack animation, which makes sense with its terrifying new helmet it's sporting, I’m sure it would hurt. As the camera pans left, we see a glimpse of a new enemy skull encampment with scaffolding on top, this time with a nose.
A towering new blocky Zonai enemy then attacks Link. You can see some dragon-type inspirations on the blocks on its arms. I imagine these blocks are climbable and this will go down very similar to a Shadow of the Colossus fight, with its shiny weak spot conveniently placed up high. Not quite sure if that Rusty Broadsword you’re carrying is gonna do much Link.
We then see more missing shots of the supposed Ganondorf waking out of his slumber. While it's slightly more context, it is just more shots of the same situation shown in previous trailers.
More shots of the open world, from right near death mountain. And while we constantly see new islands in the background of each new trailer, this shot has many of them together, such as the massive cube, the multi-level island. Also, besides the cyclone around Hebra missing again, the islands up here reach up to a massive height, really giving the scope and scale to some of these sky islands.
Links skydives yet again, dropping down around the Dueling peaks area. From here you can see this pool of malice north of Breman Peak, and the same strange tower poking out of the Faron region again.
Going for a nice hike along Sahasra Slope, it's mostly more of things you've seen before: ground designs, cubes in the sky, towers and an upgraded enemy camp next to Nabi Lake.
Link then shoots a balloon type arrow which automatically homes in on the enemy. It's hard to tell if it's Link’s new arm that enables this ability but light green energy does charge up before the shot. The fact that this also automatically goes for the head for critical damage could be great for making non-bullet time headshots count. This is right in the middle of Salari Plain facing east.
Shield surfing makes a return, and seemingly being able to magnetically attach to metal rails. This is on Death Mountain by the way, which since it’s inactive and filled with malice, can be walked around without fireproof gear now. A Bokoblin here wields a rusty claymore, more mining carts with no bomb cage since we don’t have remote bombs anymore, wooden walls, likely blocking shield surfing but can be rammed through with carts, and a Moblin archer. While Moblins did have bows in Breath of the Wild, they never had the sentry job of being a lookout for encampments. There are also suspicious looking wheels or fans placed in several spots, with shots coming later it could mean something big.
Link then grabs a gyro with a new skill the arm hasn’t shown yet, a telekinesis type ability. This is likely to replace magnesis since well, we don't have the Sheikah slate anymore.
Link then does a two-handed jumping attack with this strange weapon. We think this is actually two different items, the staff maybe one piece attached to a canon at the end but there’s no concrete evidence yet. One thing we can point out is that the same broom logo found earlier is found on this creature in a previous trailer, this maybe some sort of connection or power symbol.
Then a mysterious lady appears. With the amount of information we currently have, there is no way to pinpoint who this is. Theories such as Zelda, Hylia herself, or someone else entirely, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Again, Link uses telekinesis to lift up a mechanical wheel out of the Great Plateau’s mud pit, and you can make out a new style of treasure chest on this tiny island as well.
Then Link appears on a car, on a hot air balloon, and on a hovercraft. By the way they’re presenting this, these machines seem to be buildable depending on pieces you find during your adventures, especially since the base portion with vertical handlebars and white platform are shared across each machine. The headlights are also the same egg/flower shape found on this robot in a previous trailer.
We then finally arrive at this shot of Link riding, possibly Epona riding eastward. Several malice pools dot the left side along with a Hylian encampment. Funny thing is, after 5 trailers, this is the first time we ever see an NPC, someone with topknot looking onward. Nintendo is keeping their cards close to their chest when it comes to any other characters in Tears of the Kingdom, and this is the most we’ve ever gotten on that front. A piece of sky island falls from the sky, confirming our suspicion before of using time reversal on fallen pieces to rise upwards.
The last shot shows again more context to how the initial showdown between Link, Zelda and this Ganondorf figure went. You can see malice grip the master sword from the first strike in a previous trailer, and as Ganondorf goes for a second helping, Link drops the Master Sword and goes for Princess Zelda, we all know how that went.
Nintendo then decided to release a few screenshots and social media posts that showed just a tad more, with key ones like this picture of Zelda with probably a Sheikah slate. The Sheikah slate in Breath of the Wild was based on the WiiU GamePad, so just a small theory is this could be a re-engineered slate from Purah or Robbie using the body of a switch to keep up with the times. This also proves that Zelda survived the fall and has some gameplay implications. Another shows a wider sky islands landscape shot that clearly shows Farosh in the distance, and this Zonai creature again but with this square platform, which is shown in this shot as well. Amiibo’s will also unlock special paraglider skins.
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