The long awaited gameplay demo for The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom was today, and Eiji Aonuma went into some depth with Link’s new abilities. Today I want to recap that video, plus highlight some details you may have missed, as we finally got more details about Link’s abilities, as well as a surprise at the end.

Before we get into it today let me know in the comments what you think of Link’s new abilities, and let me know which one you are excited for the most.

Today was the day that many of us had been waiting for, it was the gameplay demo for Tears of the Kingdom. There was much speculation in the build up to the gameplay reveal, what would we see? Dungeons? Boss battles? Well, we didn’t see that, but we did get a good look at Link’s new abilities.

Recall

This is an ability that allows us to rewind an object’s movement. Here, Link spots a large object that falls from a sky island, and travels over to it’s location. You can then select the item with your Recall ability and then rewind the movement. In this case we can rewind the movement of the falling block to help us get up into the sky islands. Aonuma did say there were many interesting ways to travel to the Sky Islands, and this was just one of them.

Fuse

This gives us the ability to stick or fuse items together. By adding items to each other, stats appear to be increased for the item. For example, Link starts with a simple stick, and then attacks an enemy to show its durability. He then fuses a rock with the stick, to create what looks to be some kind of mallet or hammer-like melee weapon. This weapon then becomes more durable and also, it appears as if the damage increases with the fusion. Next up we had a range example. Link has a long stick, and then it’s fused with a rake, creating a super long weapon which allows Link to attack from range, keeping out of the reach of enemies. It’s not only melee weapons that can be fused with each other, arrows can also be fused with materials. For example, Link fuses together an eyeball on an arrow to become a homing arrow, plus some jelly to create Ice Arrows. All kinds of materials can be fused with arrows to create different effects. Lots of weird and wonderful creations can be made with Fuse. Aonuma shows an example of fusing a mushroom with a shield, which creates a dust cloud explosion when attacked, cloaking Link in mist, reducing the enemies visibility and allowing Link to get in a sneak attack. Fusing what were weak weapons with other items can turn them into much stronger weapons.

Ultrahand

This is an ability which allows us to put together vehicles. In the gameplay example Aonuma quickly puts together a raft made from logs, with Link picking up each log, then fixing them together with what looks to be a green goo material. Items can be attached and detached from one another very easily. Aonuma puts together three logs, and also rearranges their composition. He also finds a fan on the ground, which is then attached to the makeshift raft to create a boat with a propellor, allowing Link to get across the lake on the Sky Island. Aonuma did make reference to the car and flying machine that was seen in the recent trailer, and said these vehciles wouldn’t be available right at the start, so perhaps Link has to upgrade his Ultrahand ability before contructing these machines. Again, much like Fuse this has massive gamechanging potential to create cars, boats, flying machine and all kinds of vehicles.

Ascend

Next up we have Ascend. This allows Link to travel upwards and through solid material. This solid material can be a ceiling of a concrete structure, or it can even be a hill or a mountain. Previously Link had to climb mountains to be able to travel upwards, using stamina, but now we can travel using Ascend. it looks like Link can’t travel forever, and perhaps it’s similar to swimming where you have a certain time limit to travel through before Link dies or passes out. We originally saw this ability in the second trailer back in 2021, but only for a short glimpse, and now we know exactly what is going on here, and it matches up pretty well to the patent Nintendo filed.

Skydiving

Finally we saw a glimpse of Link’s Skydiving abilities, with Link thrown from a Sky Island during a battle and then hurtling towards the ground. Link can propel himself faster towards the ground with a diving motion while he is falling, and then dive directly into a river. I assume you can also get your glider out to land softly if there is no water to dive into.

Other things spotted

Zonai Charge – This was an item that dropped when Link killed one of the contructs on the Sky Islands. I am assuming these charges are for the item on Link’s belt, but Aonuma didn’t metion them in the video, we just saw them. We did see a battery mechanic when Link used the raft, so perhaps the battery meter is related to the Zonai charges. When we use Ultrahand, there is a green liquid that joins items together, that could be the liquid stored in the vials on Link’s hip.

Shrines – It looks like at one point Link’s Shrine meter is going off, so it’ll be interesting to see if they make a return or if the Shrine detector is going off for another reason.

Tears of the Kingdom OLED

The Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch was also offically revealed at the end of the trailer, having been heavily rumoured before the gameplay clip. This is going to be released on 28th April 2023, and then we have a pro controller and Switch Case coming on 12th May 2023. The Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch model looks fantastic and I’ll be trying to get my preorder in as soon as possible!

Conclusion

Overall, I thought it was a very good showcase. We got more detail, but Nintendo didn’t give away too much. They are trying to strike a balance of not giving too much away, but also showing off why this isn’t just ‘more Breath of the Wild’ or just DLC, this is a brand new game with a new world, new mechanics, and just the Fuse and Ultrahand abilities alone are enough for me… together with the other features, I think this has massive potential.

Let me know in the comments what you think of Link’s new abilities.