zelda-direct

6 Things We Want To See In A Zelda-Focused Nintendo Direct 2023

Nintendo continues to hold their cards very close to their chest when it comes to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, releasing very little information so far. That could all be about to change in the coming days, because Nintendo are about to drop their latest Nintendo Direct, which is very likely to feature a heavy-focus on Tears of the Kingdom. Today I want to dive into 6 topics that we want Nintendo to cover in a Zelda focused Nintendo Direct, plus get your ideas on what you want to see too.

Before we get stuck into it today, let me know in the comments what you want to see from a Legend of Zelda focused Nintendo Direct. Do you want story? Do you want gameplay? Do you want something else? Let us know in the comments and share your hype with the community.

Looking back at Nintendo’s recent past game-specific Nintendo Directs have featured heavily in their marketing plans. We’ve had Nintendo Direct’s focused on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3 and also Animal Crossing New Horizons. Tears of the Kingdom is set for release on 12 May 2023, so Nintendo are most likely preparing the ground for that big info release given we’re only a few months away from getting the game in our hands.

I want to have a look at the timing of the Nintendo Direct, but before get we get into that, lets have a look at the content, and have a go at predicting the big things we want Nintendo to talk about in a Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct.

Story trailer

On 13th January 2017, roughly 2 months before the release of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo dropped one of the best trailer they ever made for Breath of the Wild. It showed the wide open spaces of Hyrule, the expansive landscape, beaches, mountains, forests and grasslands, and we saw the Master Sword laying dormant at the roots of the Great Deku Tree. The music then swells, sweeps into the back of Link. We see Link running, climbing, riding on a horse, then Impa gave us a short history lesson. We saw one of the Towers burst through the ground, and Calamity Ganon swirling around Hyrule Castle like some kind of ancient looming evil.

We saw Princess Zelda running, Link and the Champions, and Princess Zelda colapsing into Links arms in tears. This was an epic trailer, which outlined what we’d be playing in only a few short months in Breath of the Wild. This trailer is 3mins 49 secs long, and the teasers we’ve had for Tears of the Kingdom have only been roughly 90s secs each. Therefore, what I’d love to see from Nintendo is the same treatment for Tears of the Kingdom, that we got for Breath of the Wild and a trademark, signature Nintendo story trailer for next adventure in the Legend of Zelda series.

Who is Zelda holding hands with?

One big mystery I’d like answered from an upcoming Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct is the identity of the characters from the tapestry we recently saw in the name reveal trailer back in September 2022. Nintendo spent a long time telling us the story through this tapestry, however, we are yet to find out the identities of at least two characters here. First of all we have a large character, surrounded by what looks like ‘tear-shaped’ objects. This character doesn’t appear to resemble anyone we’ve seen in the Zelda series before, however, they must be important because Nintendo focused on them very heavily in the name reveal trailer. Fans have speculated this could be a god-like character, and perhaps the Goddess Hylia herself.

Second, in the same trailer we see a female character, presumably Princess Zelda, and we see her a couple of times. First of all we see her unconsious, raised up into the air, looking like she’s under a spell of some kind. Then we see her holding hands with another, and we presume this other person is going to be Link, however, Nintendo could pull the rug from under us and reveal it to be someone else. I want to see Nintendo go into details on who these characters are; who’s the big character surrounded by the tear shapes, and who is holding hands with Princess Zelda.

In-Air Combat

Next up I would love to hear more from Nintendo about in-air combat. Nintendo created 3 patents for Tears of the Kingdom releated to gameplay, which leaked some time ago, and we’ve seen two of those mechanics in the teaser trailers so far. The first is the ability to Rewind Time, and we’ve seen Link do that on a couple of occasions sending a spiked ball back up a hill, plus using it for traversal purposes. The second patent is related to traveling through solid matter, and we’ve seen Link do that when it comes to traveling upwards into the sky islands, appearing to using some kinf of reverse droplet feature and travel up through solid concrete.

The final patent, and perhaps the most exciting one, is the one I’d like to see featured in a Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct, and that’s related to aerial combat. Given we’re in the sky and we’re going to be traveling up and down much of the time in Tears of the Kingdom, it makes a lot of sense to make better use of that space and fill it with some action. The patents point to Link having a few different states in the sky, diving vertically down, diving diagonally down, and appearing to fight in a horizontal position, whilst falling from the sky. In some ways I can see why Nintendo would keep this one close to their chest, however, it feels like a major difference from Breath of the Wild, and now is the time to start talking about those differences so fans don’t think this is simply a glorified DLC, rather than a full blown new game with unique features of it’s own.

Post Direct Treehouse Live

A great feature about the build up to Breath of the Wild was the Nintendo Treehouse Live presentation after E3 2016. This was Nintendo staff playing the game live, talking through what they were doing and giving us insights into the game. Nintendo staff jumped up onto The Temple of Time, looked out over at the scenery across Hyrule, highlighting the sun and the weather, then they set a point at the top of Mount Hylia and tried to get to the highest peak. Along the way they met a camp of Bokoblins, and snuck up on them and rolled a bomb into the camp. We only got to see a glimpse of The Great Plateau, however, this kind of deep-dive with staff was amazing. While we don’t have an E3 in the build up to Tears of the Kingdom, we could follow a Zelda Direct with a new Treehouse Live presentation where Nintendo staff and developers take us through whatever the opening section of the game is. I love that insight from developers, plus I want to see more of the game in action. Produced and edited trailers are great, but I want to see the game running in real-time.

Confirmation of Ganondorf

Ever since the first trailer we’ve wondered who that corpse is under Hyrule Castle. We’ve speculated it’s Ganondorf, and many of us want Ganondorf to come back. However, many folks have rightly pointed out that Ganondorf died in Twilight Princess, and we haven’t seen him since that face-off against Link at the end of the game. I think it’s finally time for Nintendo to let us know – is that Ganondorf under Hyrule Castle? I think it’s all but confirmed at this point, but Nintendo we really need you to confirm if this corpse is Ganondorf or not, and tell us more about the story about how he got under Hyrule Castle in the first place.

What do the ‘tears’ mean?

Finally, in terms of things we want to see from Nintendo in a Zelda-focused Direct in a explanation of the Tears in Tears of the Kindom. Are they literal tears, for example, are the people of Hyrule crying because of some kind event, perhaps someone has died and everyone is sad. Or are the ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ physical objects we have to collect around Hyrule and use them for some reason, for example, repair the Master Sword. Nintendo did come out to confirm it’s ‘Tears’ (crying) and not ‘Tears’ (ripping paper). But we need more details. If they are tears because a huge sad event has talen place, what is that event and how is it going to shape the events in Tears of the Kingdom.

Delay

That’s it for the 6 things we want to see. The one thing we really don’t want to see is Anonuma come out and do this. We don’t want an apology, and we definitely don’t want a delay. I’m mainly putting this in for comedic effect, I actually don’t think we’re going to get a delay. The reason for this is because Nintendo has dated the release with a specific date, 12th May 2023. I don’t think they would have given us that date unless they were 110% confident of the release date. Therefore, I wouldn’t worry too much about a delay… it’ll be fine!

Regarding the timing, I think it’s likely Nintendo will release a general Nintendo Direct in February 2023, which will outline what to expect from Nintendo in the first half of the year, plus tease some titles for the build up to the holidays in 2023. Nintendo tend to work to their own schedule at times, however, looking back at recent game-specific video presentations, it may be possible to predict when we’re going to see our Zelda Direct. Looking back at Splatoon 3 they had their Direct on 10th August 2022 and the game released on 8th September, approximately one month later. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 had a Direct on 22nd June 2022, and then the game released on 29th July 2022. Again, this approximately one month out. Therefore its not out of the odinary to say we’re going to get a Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct in April 2023, given recent history and evidence.

Let me know in the comments what you want to see from a Zelda-focused Nintendo Direct, plus what do you think of what we’ve covered here today? Let me know if you think I missed anything important!


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