Nintendo recently dropped their latest trailer for Tears of the Kingdom, which was packed full of details for the upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild. One of the big themes coming out of the new trailer was the ability to craft. Many fans have focused on vehicles, given we got a good couple of close ups on some different types of vehicles. However, perhaps even more exciting is the prospect of crafting weapons in the game. Today I am going to look at the evidence for weapon crafting, and then explore how that might work in the upcoming Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
Before we get into it today let me know in the comments if you want to see a weapon crafting system, and if so, how do you think it could work?
After the most recent trailer fans homed in on a few details including Link’s green magical powers coming from his right arm, plus the potential to build and craft vehicles. We’ve seen Link pull wheels out of the water and then in the next shot he appears to be riding what looks to be an off road vehicle. This appears to be cobbling together with wood and other things he’s found, with the glowing green energy binding it all together, and potentially providing power to it. We’ve seen a few variantions including a four-wheel vehicle riding around Hyrule, a hot-air baloon flying through the skies, and then a flying machine which appears to be soaring high above the ground on Hyrule, among the sky islands.
The trailer also showed off some details related to enemies, but they look different than before. After we saw the Blood Moon rise we heard a booming voice say “Rise my servants, eliminate this kingdom and her allies, leave no survivors”, and seemingly Malice flying from the Bloodmoon and infecting enemies, changing them into terrifying new forms. All of the Bokoblins we see appear to have spears coming out of their heads, or blade like items. The Lizalfos appear to have Katana blades coming from their heads, plus other bokoblins appear to have spear tips coming from their heads.
The Hinox appears to have what looks to be a shield coming out of his head. In summary, it looks like weapons and items have been merged with the monsters around Hyrule, and it’s possible we have to harvest these items and then combine them to make weapons. The Hinox is paticularly interesting because it is wearing something around it’s neck, which could be the green binding goo we see on the vehicles. As well as harvesting weapon parts, vehicle parts and basic items, we may have to find this crafting resource, or binding material to out it all together.
Difference to Breath of the Wild
There has been some backlash in recent days and weeks, with some fans saying Tears of the Kingdom looks like DLC for Breath of the Wild. Naturally, there is going to be some cross over because the same engine is being used, and the games are going to look similar. We’ve seen Link run and jump off ledges, open up his glider, and you could argue things do look the same. However, if we’re going to get an in depth crafting system, then this is going to be a huge unique selling point when compared to Breath of the Wild, and just the thing we’ve been looking for to differentiate the titles.
Breath of the Wild introduced breakable weapons and this crafting system could be the evolution of that system. In previous Zelda games Link acquired a weapon, and then used the same weapon for the majority of the game. Breath of the Wild broke from this tradition by hiding weapons all over Hyrule. They were in shrines, they were hidden around the map, including enemies using a variety of weapons. Link could knock these weapons from the hands of enemies, then pick themn up and use them. This was a clever move from Nintendo because it promoted the freedom of exploration throughout the game. Shrines were a good place to get weapons, although world bosses like sleeping Hinox were also great places to get a variety of weapons, given they would have weapons dangling from their neck, and when you beat them you could pick up the weapons. A crafting system could take this one step further and allow Link to piece together new and innovative weapons from weapon parts found all over the map attached to enemies.
Catalyst for exploration
Shrines were one of the main reasons to explore in Breath of the Wild. Completing Shrines gave us upgrade points, which we could put into increasing Link’s health or stamina, allowing us to explore further, or fight for longer. So far in trailers, we haven’t seen shrines, and it’s not clear if Shrines will make it into Tears of the Kingdom. Without Shrines, it’s unclear what the catalyst for exploration would be, however, with the latest trailer clues have started to emerge. One of the new reasons to explore every inch of the map could be finding materials and pieces of vehicles or weapons, and then putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle.
We’ve seen different enemies seemingly modified by Malice, with various horns growing from their heads which seem to resemble weapons from Breath of the Wild. It’s possible we have to harvest these weapon parts and then go to a blacksmith or some kind of crafting station, and piece together weapons.
Weapon crafting in Tears of the Kingdom
The enemies in Tears of the Kingdom look different, and their horns and other attachments appear to be an obvious difference. We have seen other clues in trailers which could point to weapon crafting. In the latest trailer we see link fling an explosive from a makeshift weapon. Link appears to be holding a stick, with a tube attached at the end. He runs forward, jumps and attacks at the same time, throwing what looks like a cannonball or bomb at a collection of rocks, which then explodes on impact.
Looking closer at the footage, on the bottom of this weapons we can see a green circle logo, which looks very similar to the main logo for tears of teh kingdom. It’s glowing green, and appears to have an icon in the middle. We can see similar logos on the wheels of the vehicles, indicating this logo or symbol could represent an item that has been crafted. All the vehicles appear to be held together to powered by this green material. Green is also a colour associated with Link’s new arm powers. We’ve seen Link reach out his right arm, and use some kind of magnesis power, projecting some green energy which is able to manipulate objects in front of him, picking things out of the water, which seems to replace the magnesis rune from Breath of the Wild.
This green energy is obviously very important in Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s likely Link is healed with this green energy after his encounter with Ganondorf’s corpse early on in the game. In Breath of the Wild we had the Sheikah Slate, and it looks like in Tears of the Kingdom, Link is going to be able to use powers directly from his arm, without the need for the Sheikah Slate. Previously we had various runes including magnesis, bombs, stasis and our camera, and this new green arm energy power could replace or streamline Links powers.
The prospect of crafting in Tears of the Kingdom is very exciting, and potentially could elevate our Breath of the Wild gameplay to a new level of customisation and control for the player. In Breath of the Wild we could find a finite number of pre-determined weapons, but here in Tears of the Kingdom we could contruct our own. We’ve seen Link using a flame thrower attachement on his left arm, back in the E3 2021 trailer, we saw this for a few brief seconds as Link was fighting an enemy attached to the wall. There is a connection between the flame thrower and the bomb throwing device we see int he latest trailer, and that’s the dragon head design. Both weapons appear to have dragon design styles, plus they appear to be connected through the glowing green energy and this circular logo.
Nintendo have been walking the tightrope of information very carefully. On one hand they have shown a lot of small details, but without the context that connects them. From what we can see in the trailers so far it does appear as if we’ll be able to craft weapons and vehicles, which could be a major difference to Breath of the Wild. If this is all true, then this makes me even more excited for Tears of the Kingdom.
Let me know in the comments what you think of weapon crafting in tears of the kingdom, and let me know how you think it could work.
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