Breath of the Wild was a wonderful break from tradition for the series, and Tears of the Kingdom has gone in directions that so few of us could have anticipated. Yet even despite all that, Zelda is a series soaked in tradition.
You can’t just forsake everything that came before because it’s what defines the series. Tears of the Kingdom has the heart of the series in it though, meaning it’s packed with both references and details to make you want to dig deeper.
10 Ultrahand Is An Old Nintendo Toy
In Breath of the Wild, Magnesis was one of the more fun abilities, letting you drag around any metal object and use it as you wanted—usually a blunt instrument against enemies. Tears of the Kingdom has given you even more freedom, letting you pick up basically anything.
This wonderful ability goes by the name Ultrahand. It makes sense; it’s literally Link’s hand grabbing whatever he wants. But did you know this is actually named after an old Nintendo toy from the 1960s? It lets you extend your arm to pick things up, making it a fitting name here.
9 Skyward Sword And Tears Of The Kingdom Share The Sky
Whether you love it or loathe it, Skyward Sword was, in many respects, the basis for Breath of the Wild. Without it, it would have been missing so many of its fundamental systems, the stamina management and paraglider primary among them.
Perhaps in obvious ways, Tears of the Kingdom takes even more heavily from Skyward Sword—a people coming from the sky above, the rebirth of an ancient evil, time travel stuff and more. The most blatant reference comes at the very beginning, though, with Link parting the clouds and diving into Hyrule, just like in Skyward Sword.
8 The Purah Pad Is Just A Nintendo Switch
When Breath of the Wild was originally launched, it was hotly debated whether the Sheikah Slate was meant to depict either the Wii U or Switch or even just a generic in-between tablet. Though never confirmed, it nicely fits all the categories.
Tears of the Kingdom does away with the Sheikah Slate for Link and introduces the Purah Pad in its place. Zelda makes a major point of introducing it at the beginning of the game, actually. The thing is, there’s absolutely no denying this thing is a Switch. Except for the camera.
7 The Zonai Were Introduced In Breath Of The Wild
Introduced right at the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom are the mysterious Zonai, their statues littering the hidden depths of Hyrule Castle. Zelda is aghast at the whole mystery of it, though she is partially aware of the Zonai themselves due to her research with Purah.
However, the Zonai were actually introduced in Breath of the Wild. Though never directly mentioned, ruins bearing their name were scattered across Hyrule, with dragons and geometric designs adorning them. With the new focus on the Zonai, all those designs are making sense.
In any Zelda game, tools are what make or break a game. Enemies, dungeons, and all of that are important, but if the actual tools to play around with aren’t fun, then everything falls apart. Breath of the Wild gave you abilities that could be easily manipulated, and Tears of the Kingdom made it the mantra.
One of those abilities, Ascend, wasn’t even meant to be in the game. As stated by Eiji Aonuma in an interview, Ascend was a bit of a debug cheat to get out of caves that they eventually decided was more fun to use as travel than just backtracking and climbing.
5 Misko The Bandit Strikes Again
Breath of the Wild, being the first truly open-world game in the franchise, added plenty of side quests and optional activities to populate the world around you. One of those quests was to hunt down the treasure of Misko, the Great Bandit.
Having ravaged their treasure trove, Link is back hunting their pilfered goods again. However, this time Misko has fashioned themselves into a clothing designer, hiding wardrobes of tailored outfits across Hyrule. Besides, what’s the point of saving Hyrule if you’re not doing it in style?
4 The Series Love Of Minecarts
Once again, we have twisted back around to the ‘Loving Skyward Sword’ zone. Skyward Sword had some of the most creative dungeons in the series, one of the best focusing on minecarts and rewinding time.
Sound familiar? Aside from starting in the Sky, Tears of the Kingdom also has you bombarded with rails of minecarts and Recall, the ability to briefly rewind time on any object. For everyone calling Tears of the Kingdom a sequel to Breath of the Wild, it is just as much a spiritual successor of Skyward Sword.
3 A Certain Nostalgic Fabric
We all fondly remember our first steps into the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild, recreating the title shot as the camera pulls out over the landscape. The Great Plateau is one of the greatest opening areas in Zelda, maybe even all of gaming. And all of it culminates in acquiring the paraglider.
Getting the paraglider in Tears of the Kingdom is a decidedly simpler affair, a gift from Purah so you can do tasks for her. If nostalgia gets the better of you though, you may find yourself drifting towards the Great Plateau and the Temple of Time. Atop these battered ruins, you’ll find the Nostalgic Fabric, the same design the king gifted you in Breath of the Wild.
2 Purah Has Aged More Than Anyone Else
The Zelda series has always been packed with eccentric characters, from the tightly-fit Tingle to the King of Red Lions. Breath of the Wild has plenty of its own, with Impa and her sister Purah some of the more humourous and lovable among them. While Impa has had the decency to let time take its toil, Purah had other plans.
Merely a child in appearance, Purah is definitely an oddity. The irony of it all, though, is that in Tears of the Kingdom, while everyone else has remained mostly the same due to the short period between games, Purah has aged in years, much more closely matching what she looked like in Age of Calamity.
1 Zonai Shrines And Lightroots All Line-Up
When people say that Tears of the Kingdom adds layers of depth to the world of Hyrule, they mean it literally. Adding the sky above already adds a whole new dimension; though kept as a closely guarded secret were the vast depths below the surface, blacker than night.
The descent to the depths is an unsettling process, the gloom growing and the light fading, the only safety is the massive Lightroots dotted throughout. Did you know, though, that every shrine and lightroot has a counterpart? This means that any lightroot can help you find a shrine on the surface, and any shrine can guide you through the darkness to the very next lightroot.
