The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Special Episode!
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Rated everyone 10 and up. Welcome to Nintendo Power Podcast. This episode, we share our wildest stories and coolest creations from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

My name is Chris, and this time I'm joined by Ethan from Nintendo Treehouse. Hi, Ethan. Hello. And Jason from the communications team here at Nintendo of America. Hi, Jason. Hey, Chris. Plus Anthony from the social media team. Hi, Anthony. Hey, how's it going? Great.

So you guys have all been digging into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, exploring, making things, and seeing what you can get away with. And I've been dying to hear about the crazy creations you've been putting together, using the Fuse and Ultra Hand abilities, and any unexpected situations you might have found yourself in. But before we get started, I have an update for everybody listening that this is the last episode we currently have planned for Nintendo Power Podcast.

The podcast has been a real passion project for myself and the people who've generously made time to help produce the show or appear on it, and we'll all still be here in our regular roles at Nintendo of America, popping by each other's desks to talk about games like we always do. And all five years and 57 episodes of the show will continue to be available, and we may pop back in at some point for special episodes here and there. We don't have any plans to do that right now, but we like leaving the door open just in case, so...

You'll want to stay subscribed so you can easily get at all the old discussions, interviews, game recommendations and quizzes and stay aware of anything else that might happen down the road. And I can't thank all of you enough for listening, whether this is your first episode or you've been with us from the start.

Now, we wanted this episode to be special, and luckily, we get to go out with the game that I've been looking forward to the most this year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This is actually really great because we featured The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in our very first episode, and it kind of reminds me of how Nintendo Power Magazine was bookended by two Super Mario games on its first and last covers. So that's pretty cool.

Now, before we really dig in and talk about The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom in detail, some people may have heard that there's a new Legend of Zelda game, but they might not know much about it just yet. So, Ethan, how would you briefly describe The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and maybe what sets it apart from The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild?

Yeah, that's a great question. So one thing I'd start by saying is that this is a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And if you've been playing Legend of Zelda series games for a while now, you probably know that this series doesn't do direct sequels that frequently. We oftentimes get games

In the series that have similar themes, right, we usually have the hero Link, you know, the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom, Princess Zelda, and an antagonist usually in Ganon or Ganondorf. And those themes with the Triforce and the Master Sword will come up again and again in games that take place in a kingdom called Hyrule. But they're kind of...

each of these self-contained stories, whereas this game is very clearly a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And so that makes it unique, I think, from the get-go. But you can also see that by looking at the game. And that's something that I do hope people will understand. When you look at

the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, at first glance, you'll see a lot in common with the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, both in the graphics, things down to the menus you might see, the sounds you'll hear while you're playing the game will all remind you of the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild if you've played that game. But it's really when you dig into that world, begin to explore,

and begin to use Link's new abilities, that you realize how much further this game goes and how it builds upon that first game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and just takes it to

a new area even though we're still in the same version of the kingdom of Hyrule. So that's one point I just wanted to kind of stress at the beginning. It's, I think, really great that we're getting a direct sequel to a game that so many people played and enjoyed and did so for such a long time with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So

With The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, a couple points I want to stress. An expanded world. So we do have, we are playing around in the same version of Hyrule. And when you're on the surface of Hyrule, you'll recognize a lot of familiar locations. Those locations are in the same places. You're going to run into some of the same characters that you met in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.

but a lot of changes have occurred in this world. There's a pretty important event that happens at the beginning of the game. I won't go into too much detail, don't want to spoil that for folks, but it does reformat things in Hyrule in a number of different ways. So familiar locations are there, but changed.

And discovering what those changes are, especially if you are somebody who played The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild extensively, getting back to, you know, much-loved locations, seeing different characters, and seeing how those places have changed and how those people are, you know, dealing with the different circumstances in this game is really...

a fun experience, I think. And you get to experience that each time you encounter something familiar. But there's also a lot that you really need to play this game to experience directly how it has changed in terms of gameplay. So

All of Link's abilities in this game are new. So we'll talk about them in detail, but Link has four main abilities-- Ultra Hand, Fuse, Recall, and Ascend. Those are all new, and they really change the way that the player can navigate this world.

So, you know, you have new ways to traverse the environment. You have some pretty wild creative options that encourage your creativity and your experimentation. And it all adds up to playing through a game that feels similar in its basic kind of structure and its basic controls as The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, but different.

Each step you take further into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom shows you how much further it goes beyond that previous game, I think, and kind of blows you away in a way that I had. When I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it was kind of mind-blowing for me as a longtime series fan. And I'm having those same mind-blowing moments with this game. And it's like, wow, they did it again, was kind of the takeaway I had in the first few hours I spent with the game.

That's awesome. And that's a great summary, I think, for anyone who maybe needed to be caught up a bit. One thing that did occur to me when you were talking, I mean, obviously, a lot of people who have Nintendo Switch have played The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. A lot of those people spent, you know...

tons and tons of hours in that game. But what about people who, for some reason, or maybe they've just come to Nintendo Switch recently and are checking out The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom without having played the previous game? I would imagine to them, you know, obviously, like you said, if you've played the previous game, there's a lot of extra kind of context that you get. But I imagine to them, everything is just brand new. Yeah, I think that's totally, you know, a fair thing to wonder. And playing through the game, you know, myself, I

I was thinking this, you know, because I have to kind of think that's part of my job is to think about, you know, the different angles like that. And one of the things that I think, you know, this is something the development team over in Japan took into account as well. And I think...

It is a very welcoming experience both for the longtime series fan, the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild player, and also the new player. I think this game was made knowing that there were going to be a lot of people that may have been too young for the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, may have not had a Nintendo Switch at that point. And for whatever reason, we can't play all games as much as we might want to and haven't experienced that previous title.

I do think that it really does bring people in. The story kind of captivates you from the get-go, and then you're off and running. And one of the things, we don't pull the curtain back too much on our development processes and things like that, but

One thing that I love about the Legend of Zelda development team and the people that they get to work on these games is that they have such an attention to detail and a care for the player. And the experience of playing this game, whether you are someone who's familiar with the basic controls that Link had in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild or are new to games like this, like my daughter was when she played that previous game, is

you know, the, the on-ramp that they, that they set for you, um, really does, um,

kind of take every type of player into account. So you're going to be able to move a little more quickly through the earlier content, maybe, if you are a super experienced Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild player. Or if you are new to these games, I still think you're going to be able to proceed at your own pace and the content, the challenges they set for you there are appropriate for a really, really wide range of players.

That's great. Yeah, that's what I would have expected based on the previous games in the series. All right, now really digging in now, you mentioned those new abilities, Fuse, Ultra Hand, Ascend, and Recall. Especially Fuse and Ultra Hand, some of the things that I've seen, and I haven't had a chance to play the game yet. I'll obviously be starting today along with everyone else with the game's release. But one of the things I'm excited for the most is just all the creative options that I've seen in the trailers and some of the gameplay demonstrations and previews.

You know, being able to combine items, being able to build things, you know, to kind of just come up with creative solutions to any problem you may encounter in the game. So I want to hear from you guys now, maybe some of the experiences you've had, you know, maybe some things that turned out to be great, helpful ideas, maybe some things that blew up in your face but made for a good story.

So, you know, Jason, maybe starting with you, what are you what are some of the things that you've encountered so far in the game that that that kind of, you know, stick out to you now? Yeah, I mean, there are so many, to be honest. And and it's to kind of build on what Ethan was saying, the ways in which this version of Hyrule is expanded is

just continually surprised me like around, uh, every new sight line or, um, I, I guess the, the example that immediately came to mind was, uh, I was spending some time in the, uh, South Eastern part of the map, uh, in, uh, the vicinity of Lureland village. And I wasn't, there's kind of a whole, uh,

scenario there that I wasn't quite ready to engage with. And so I was I took to the seas and partially I was just kind of hang gliding myself or paragliding as far out into the water as possible. But there came a time where I did land and

I had to get pretty creative with my problem solving. I didn't want to, you know, travel back to a shrine or a previous point that I'd been to. And I really wanted to kind of give myself the challenge of, you know, I'm in this mess. How can I get out? And using the ultra hand ability, I crafted what can only be described as a dinghy, a very unsophisticated vessel for seafaring.

But it did the trick. And with the help of a Zonai device or two, I was able to kind of reach in a strip of land that actually had quite a few usable Zonai devices to improve my dinghy. And instead, what I did was I found a

a wing zone, my device. So I ended up making a glider, uh, that carried me the rest of the way to shore. Um, but my kind of ingenuity when it came to, you know, solving that, that issue is kind of, you know, stranded in the middle of, uh, of the Bay there. Uh, it was just like a really small, but really, um,

Kind of fun moment because like Ethan said, there's – your imagination, obviously there are resource limitations. But if you are planning ahead and you have those resources, you can kind of find creative ways out of most of the situations you'll find yourself in. Yeah.

And by the time I was kind of gliding over to the next shrine area and looking back at the distance I'd traveled, there was a really cool sense of accomplishment that I think, you

I didn't really get from the legend of Zelda breath of the wild. And not that that was a bad thing, but it was, it was new. It was an entirely new thing of, um, you know, I, I kind of, uh, slammed a couple pieces of wood together and, uh, solved the problem. And then, uh, ended up with a glider that had a control stick and fans and batteries. And I was able to cover a bit more ground that way. So, uh,

That was just one really honestly straightforward example. I've had more mishaps with monster trucks and the like, but maybe we'll get into those a little later.

Now you mentioned, um, Zonai devices, like I think you said a controller and some other pieces. Um, I'm kind of familiar with those, but can you talk just a little bit more about the difference between Zonai devices and any other kind of items you might find lying around? Yeah, absolutely. Um, it's, it's actually kind of low key, one of the most exciting things, uh, in support of the new abilities. Um, so like Ethan mentioned, you can ultra hand, uh, several things together to build, uh,

structures or, you know, the beginnings of a vehicle, but how those vehicles really come to life is with these Zonai devices. And they're not just limited to things like the wing or the control stick or wheels, for instance. Um, you also have, uh, fans that can serve as a paraglider propellant or, uh, portable pots. So you can, uh, maybe cook up something nice and spicy if you find yourself in some tundra areas. And, uh, and Link does his very, uh,

little shiver. Got to protect the boy. But the Zonai devices themselves are just this kind of whole other dimension, additive dimension to the powers of both the abilities of both Fuse and Ultra Hand that you can carry with you in little capsules.

And these little capsules can be deployed, and then that spawns the item into the world, and you can kind of start attaching them, anything from lights to rockets to aforementioned fans and control sticks. And you just see with each item that I mention, and I barely scraped the surface of what's in the game, you can just exponentially create these capsules.

and wilder creation. So I kept it really tame with, you know, putting a battery and some fans and a control stick on a glider when I could have added, you

hydrant that shoots water or a light if it was dark out or foggy or something. So they really just add this wonderful element to the game. And I also mentioned you can find them in the world too. Unfortunately, you can't pick those up and just put them in a little capsule and tuck them in your pouch, but that's why you want to make sure you have a bunch of those capsules with you at any point. To that point, though, I think it does...

does make you stop whenever you come across an area, excuse me, whenever you come across an area that has all these devices, right? Just out, out in the wild, you know, you can't put them in your capsule and carry them with you, but you can take that moment and see what is there and like try and create something wild or crazy, um, just to sort of, you know, make your own little adventure in that moment. I find myself doing that all the time. Um, you

you know, like just being obsessed with rockets. If there's three rockets, like why, there has to be a use for them. Yeah, like why did they leave them here of all places? You can't let them just sit there. But another cool thing too is like, you know, the game often like sort of

puts you in a situation where, okay, let's say there's a cart and there's a track. And the obvious answer is to put a fan on that cart and get across the track. But I mean, that's not the only solution, right? Like you can, anything your imagination can come up with, with the tools that you have, you can make it happen, right? Like if I just want to put fans on this cart and fly across the track somehow and I can make it work, then...

Let's do it. And I think that that's, that's what's so special about it. It's like you create these moments to complete objectives that are different maybe than what the next person is doing. Um, you're kind of reaching for the same objective, but you're creating your own adventure, uh,

in the middle of that. So that's something really cool that I think is definitely, you know, expanded on in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom versus Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where it was a similar thing but now, you know, you sort of have this new logic to go by, a new set of tools where even if you have played the previous game, you kind of have to like rethink

your logic that you would have in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. So it's kind of a cool exercise. And I think for players that are new to the game, I mean, it's even more interesting to see the things that they come up with having not played the previous game before. Yeah.

I think every player, there's a certain part of you where once it becomes clear, you feel that the hand of the game's developers guiding you, you want to jump track, right? You want to figure out like, okay, the game wants me to do this, but I'm going to show them. I'm going to come up with my own thing to do, and I'm going to do the unexpected, and I'm going to beat them somehow at their own game. And I think even in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, there were a lot of

great opportunities. A lot of people found some really clever ways to kind of skip to the end of the game really quickly or get past certain obstacles in kind of fun or novel ways. And it just seems like from everything you guys are saying or saying and what I've seen that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just has so many more tools at your disposal to kind of do that and kind of stick it to the game and make your own way, even if it means you spend an extra hour doing something that was totally unnecessary just because it was fun to do.

Yeah, spending unnecessary, I mean, it's never unnecessary, because you're always learning something about the next creation or the next thing. But I've spent like maybe, you know, at least an hour trying something.

Like multiple iterations of the same thing that just never worked. Like, you know, for example, like trying to, you know, get a Korok from one spot to the next. Like, okay, maybe I can put a rocket on this thing, on this platform and then shoot it across the,

But then it falls off right midway. And so then I try and use recall and, like, throw something from the, you know, the goal location and then, like, recall it back. And that doesn't work. And then at the end of the day, you know, you find a solution that was, like, the simplest one all along. But it's about the journey. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And then like you said, no time's wasted, right? Because you remember that, you remember what you learned. And then later on, maybe recall is the key to solving a certain puzzle. And you've already kind of started thinking along those lines. And recall is the ability, at least that I've seen in trailers, where you can basically, whether it's a boulder rolling down a hill or something that falls from the sky, you just use recall on it. And then it

just reverses its motion. So the boulder maybe rolls right back up the hill and crushes some enemies, or it goes back up into the sky and maybe you can tag along somehow. So that's another one that I've been personally mostly focused on Fuse and Ultrahand, but I'm sure even Recall or Ascend, which lets you kind of go up, kind of travel up. You could be like in a cave and just go through the ceiling, go through the mountain and end up on top of the mountain. I'm sure that there'll be all sorts of creative uses for those.

Yeah, I mean, I know we've been talking about Fuse and Ultra Hand, but that is, you know, it's really great to talk a little bit about Recall and Ascend, but even specifically Recall, you sort of learn that there are like these really cool ways to combine the different abilities. You know, you can use like Ultra Hand to move something in a certain direction.

and then bring it back. And then if you need to get to where that was, you can jump on that, you know, whatever it was you created and use recall to kind of go back. And like, you know, there's different things you can do that are not like super obvious, but the more you use your imagination and sort of start to think about, okay, that didn't work. Maybe I can try this or that. Then you find some really cool combinations that, yeah, they help you out. Like you learn them early on and then you use them over and over again. Yeah. You just start putting it all together. Yeah.

So Anthony, sticking with you, what are maybe some cool creations you've made so far? Yeah, so there's been a lot of failed creations, but not to say they weren't cool. I mean, I think a lot of times what I do is I'd go for style points, right? And so, you know, if I've got flame emitters and...

and other similar types of devices. I'll put stuff just on the side of my contraptions just to make it so flames come out and it looks cool. But one of the things I tried doing was throughout Hyrule, you'll sort of come across these areas that just have...

like wood planks and wheels just for you to sort of like put things together. And, you know, if there's a use for them, then, you know, that's, that's cool. If not, that's okay too. But, uh, I've, I've tried sort of putting together a house and, uh, putting, uh,

balloon type things on the top of it just to see if I can float into the sky in my home. And that's been one I tried multiple times to do it and I don't think I quite figured it out. But more balloons. Yeah, more balloons, more different types of zone eye devices between fans and rockets and whatnot. And I love just putting like control, like a control device

I guess it's like a control stick kind of thing on everything just to see what I can control. But yeah, that's one of the things I tried doing. Gosh, I've tried way too many things with rockets. Building a sort of...

a vehicle with all fans so that like, you know, you kind of just like on this hoverboard sort of thing. And even for good measure, I put rockets on it and just go into the distance and see where I land. And that's kind of the cool thing too, is like, I kind of just, I kind of just put things together. And if I end up, you know, being shot into the distance and I find another area of Hyrule that has some other cool things, then I kind of just go with the flow and do that. And I think,

That's a really cool thing too is like

When you sort of start off, you know, you have some of these Zonai devices that are, you know, you start to see a lot in the beginning, like fans, for example. But as you discover more, it sort of builds this like kind of cool narrative where like every time you find a new device that you hadn't seen before, you just get like a whole new wave of ideas and you start rethinking some of the stuff you were thinking about early on, like, you know, from the basic of just like sort of placing a fan onto some sort of objects.

Now that you have a new thing that moves or shoots you into the sky, then you can rethink that. So that's kind of how my journey has been. Yeah. Yeah, just the things that you guys are talking about remind me of just a couple of experiences I had in the early hours of my time with the game that I think a lot of people will have this experience, which is, you know, you...

As you start to get your head around what these new abilities will let you do, oftentimes you'll start coming up with ideas of things you want to try. And when those ideas work, you kind of wonder if somebody's going to pop out and tell you, hey, stop that. You're not supposed to do that. But you quickly realize, no, the game is actually inviting you to do these things.

you're being encouraged to ask these questions of, is this possible? Could I go about this thing this way? And when you find a way to do it that you came up with on your own, you end up feeling like a genius and, you know, maybe like you're breaking some kind of rule, but you slowly start to realize, oh no, I'm not breaking a rule. Like, you

The game has been built this way, has been built to encourage my experimentation and my sense of discovery. And these abilities are one thing that you bring with you to solving the game's problems, beating the enemies, solving puzzles, overcoming obstacles that are in the game.

The other big thing you bring is your imagination. And nobody, no two people have the exact same type of imagination or the way of approaching problems, right? And one thing we've gotten to see that's been super rewarding for me, you know, when we've had multiple people play the game or groups of people playing the game and they'll play through the same content and you can watch

Literally, you know the number of people that are playing there will be that many different ways That they're going about doing the same thing. So everyone is going to get the same copy of this game, right? You know the copies of the game we play are not gonna be different from each other They're gonna be the same they come with the same sets of tools Everyone's gonna have access to the same set of abilities the different thing that you bring to it is yourself and

That is, I think, what I'm so excited to see once we really start seeing this game in all the hands of everybody who's waiting to play it is I'm hoping that they'll share with us all the different ways they are playing through this game. And I think we're going to see...

I'm sure, actually, I know that I'll see things that I've never seen before. In not only my own experience, but my experience watching many other people play this game, I know...

that I'm going to see things that I didn't know you could do that. And I can't wait for that. So that's kind of my excitement. We've had this game inside the walls of the treehouse for a long time in this kind of closed environment. And I'm so eager for it to finally be out in the hands of everyone and to see what each individual person is going to bring to that experience.

You know, that's kind of one of the things that's been keeping me going has been, you know, just waiting for the different types of thinking and different types of imagination people are going to bring to this game when they get their hands on it. Yeah, I can't wait. And one thing I would add to that, too, is I imagine that, you know, it's

in addition to everyone bringing their own creativity and using the tools to build certain things, I would imagine that even people that come up with similar solutions or rather similar builds of things, there's gonna be a lot of variety in the situation in which they try to deploy those ideas. So, you may put something together that just seems like a lark

in one scenario, but then if you find just the right circumstance and you use it, maybe it actually has a very useful or kind of, I don't know, funny, you know, impact on what's going on. I saw...

I've seen in some previews and things like that, people will use the fuse ability, for example, to attach a piece of meat to an arrow and then fire it, which if you're just practicing in the woods, maybe that doesn't seem like there's any real benefit to that. But if you do it, then a certain enemy might... And it is nearby, a certain enemy might be lured by that, and that's a way to take them away from a certain position, maybe into a trap or just to be out of your way.

I imagine that's just a very basic example of something like that. Yeah. We need to talk about Fuse. Yeah, I was about to say. There's some cool, I mean, even for folks who hadn't watched the Treehouse Live that just aired recently, you can go back and sort of watch some of the things that they were doing in that video, where even myself, I had not thought about how some of the functionality of those Fuse things

contraptions that they created. Something that really stands out, we mentioned these Zonai devices being kind of in support of Ultrahand and Fuse, but also just materials from your inventory. And there are more than there were before, whether it's the carcass of a

So I actually was kind of blown away how many different ways I can kind of add elemental effects to my arrows, which is kind of a cool thing.

is actually really nice. I think being able to just quickly pull up your, uh, inventory, your, your quick menu and select, you know, zone, I devices or items to fuse, uh, to make your weapons stronger or just, uh,

again, a plethora of different ways to modify arrows has been really enjoyable. Like that, that experimentation has been pure joy of just like, Oh, this eyeball. Yeah. Let's throw it on to my arrow. And now it zooms super far around a corner and very fast and it'll,

you know, hit a target in midair. And I feel really cool doing that. Yeah. And I think it's probably worthwhile just drawing a bit of a distinction between ultra hand and fuse. Because a lot of people talk about, oh, I was fusing things together with ultra hand. And I'm like, nope, nope. You were attaching things with ultra hand.

Fuse is its own thing. But so with Ultrahand, right, you're taking objects that are in the world in front of you or that you've brought out of your inventory, sticking them together, you know, lift them up in the air. You know, you can rotate them around, you know,

It feels a little bit like Magnesis from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the ability to pick things up in the air and move them around like that. But it's anything. It's an apple, it's a stone slab, it's a wooden crate, it's any Zonai device you have.

If you can target it, you can pick it up. And then you can rotate them around on a couple different axes. And then importantly, you can attach them together. And you can attach objects together. Many, many objects can be attached to each other. So not just one object to another object. And you can attach them in multiple different configurations. Kind of like at any two points where those objects meet, you get this green kind of glue that appears between them and you can attach them there.

And once you start realizing like, whoa, the freedom I have to build things and attach them together in any configuration is really wild. So that's Ultrahand. And then with Fuse, right, as you may have seen in like, you know, some of the trailers or Mr. Aonuma, our series producer, put out a gameplay video at the end of March or like Anthony mentioned with Treehouse Live that's just, you know, recently happened.

Fuse lets you take an object, similarly to Ultra Hand, one object, and attach that kind of magically to whatever weapon you're carrying or your shield or an arrow. So onto Link's equipment. And you can attach one, you know, you can fuse one object onto a weapon or a shield or an arrow at a time.

And that has a couple different effects. So it'll increase the damage a lot of times that that weapon does. Sometimes even, you know, you can do a shield bash with your shield. And if you have something sharp on the end of that, that might deal some damage as well. It'll also extend the durability of a weapon or a shield, you know, so that they won't break quite as easily. And then, as Jason was alluding to earlier,

a lot of items will have unexpected properties that you kind of need to play around with and experiment with to discover. So for example, like Jason mentioned, this Keese eyeball that you'll get after defeating one of these bat-like Keese creatures that are a hallmark of the series.

Just so happens that if you attach that to your shield, maybe it's not going to do anything. Not everything has a great property to it. You know, put it on your sword, I don't know if that does anything special, but if you put that on the end of an arrow and shoot that arrow, that arrow is going to have a homing property and seek after a target.

And you need to try that out to find that out. And then when you do, again, you feel like you made the discovery, right? And discovering what those properties are that each item might or might not have

What happens when you shoot a meat arrow into a bunch of enemies? Well, you might think you know what happens, but you'll actually have to try it to see what happens. And again, you're being encouraged to experiment. You tried this and had this result? Well, now try this, and I wonder what would happen if I tried this and had this result. And that encouragement of creativity and experimentation, again, that invitation to the player is important.

you know, really what I love about these new abilities. And definitely you can see it in Fuse and Ultra Hand, but I think it also rears its head with Recall and Ascend as well. So...

Definitely. I mean, and that's a really great kind of overview of Fuse. And you touched on a few examples there. I remember seeing some other ones in some of the trailers and videos. And I don't know the terms, again, haven't played the game yet, but what's the thing where you put something on your shield so when it strikes it, it creates kind of a cloud that obscures Link from the enemy? Sure, sure. So that's a great example. So there's lots of different plants and different—

different things growing in the environment. And that's a mushroom called a puffshroom. And there's a variety of different mushrooms. Anybody who played The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild probably collected a number of different types of mushrooms. And there's a few different new ones in this game. And that puffshroom, when it's on your shield and it's struck by an enemy, it'll create a cloud of smoke. But

What I love about Fuse is that things do behave differently if they're a little bit... Behave a little bit differently if they're attached or fused to your shield versus a weapon versus your arrow. So if you are wanting to be on the defensive and get up close to an enemy and you have that puff shroom...

fuse to your shield, you go to block, it creates a smoke cloud, and then you can either sneak away or sneak behind your enemy and strike that way. But you could also find a group of enemies that are at a distance, fuse a puff shroom, same item, onto your arrow,

and shoot that arrow into their midst, create that cloud, same cloud of smoke, but now at a distance, and then, you know, jump off the hill with your paraglider and descend into their whole group and take them all out or do whatever you want. So the difference between the same item on a shield versus a weapon versus, you know, versus an arrow adds other differences that you kind of have to play around with to discover, which I really love.

Yeah, definitely. Anthony or Jason, are there any kind of items that you've used together so far that you especially found useful?

Yeah, so, I mean, one of the really cool things, and I think this was also in the Treehouse Live recently as well, but, you know, there are these... As you go through different caves and you mine within those caves, you'll find different gems that have, like, elemental properties, right? So, like, you know, a ruby that has a fire property to it. And so playing with those and fusing those to different weapons is really cool because you start to...

And they have uses beyond just attacking, which folks will learn. Can I just say one? Yeah. Please do. One of the things I love about the ruby, they're not just for selling this time around. They are for selling, too. Good way to get rubies. They fetch a high price, for sure. Yeah. But the ruby, for example, if you fuse the ruby onto your weapon and you're in a cold area,

Just carrying that weapon around with you the Ruby has a fire elemental property to it And just carrying that around with you will be enough to keep link warm if you don't have You know warm clothing on and that's an unexpected. I think you know that oh yeah, right It does when you when you swing that weapon around it's gonna shoot fireballs, which is really nice but

You know, I was climbing a mountain at one point and had forgotten my cold weather gear, didn't have any spicy food to keep me warm. And I was like, wait, why is he not cold? I'm not, you know, because you'll take damage in cold areas. And I wasn't. And he didn't have, like Jason mentioned, his kind of characteristic tooth chattering going on. And I realized I have this glowing, you know, heated rock on the end of my sword now that I've fused it to my wooden stick, I think it was.

and that was keeping me warm and I was like oh you know but again that moment of discovery was there and that was super cool yeah I think there's something to be said about just the logic of the game and the way that you think of things like you know I

Look at it as like the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom logic versus my, you know, my Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild logic where, yeah, you know, I think, you know, sword fights enemies and, you know, shield blocks. And like that's kind of the logic I go with. But as you play the game, you learn that it's just like it's never quite what you think. Like, you know, I mean, even fusing like a shield onto your sword, which is something, you know, folks have seen throughout the previews and trailers and whatnot. Right.

I didn't even think about the fact that just holding shields, that is a shield and a weapon in and of itself. And that's just one small example. But yeah, I often am sort of rethinking my logic of things. You have to learn how to think differently. Yeah, for sure. What happens when you fuse a sword to your sword? What happens when you fuse a banana to your sword? What happens when you fuse a chicken leg to your sword? Banana sword, yeah. You know?

Again, your brain just starts racing. It's like, oh man, what happens when I try this? What happens when I try that? For sure. Jason, have you been learning to think differently? Oh yes. Oh yes. Nonstop. One of my interesting things that I will do with engagements in the game is just kind of looking at what we want from a starting perspective when it comes to

each engagement, whatever it is. So an example I have there is –

using things from my inventory to start fights rather than just, you know, uh, running in. Um, I think the really, uh, maybe one of the more fun, uh, opportunities I've had, uh, is with dazzle fruit, um, and creating kind of a flash bang, uh, which has, uh, really surprising to, to myself. Um, but stunning enemies and then just kind of moving on with the combat from there, uh, was really neat. Yeah.

Yeah, I found some really cool combinations with things that you fuse to your shield because that's one of the things where my mind doesn't immediately go to, I can use my shield in different ways. But even putting a flower bomb, fusing that onto your shield, and then

doing the shield surf input and then that bounces you into the air and now you've got like some height like things like that I just I've learned along the way but did not originally think they would do anything like that

- For sure. One other thing that we gotta talk a little bit about, I think, in terms of how the world has been expanded, and this gets into Ascend and Recall a little bit as well, but we've gotta mention the sky. - Oh, of course, yeah. - The sky is a massive new addition to this game and the area that you can explore. So we've talked about Zonai devices, and there's this term, Zonai, that keeps coming up.

I won't go into too much detail. That gets also into the story side of things, which I don't want to spoil for anyone, but I'll just leave it that the Zonai

is a key term for the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom that wasn't really present. It was a little bit for people who had ventured all across Hyrule in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. They may have encountered the term Zonai here and there, but it's a big part of this game, you know, as mentioned with the Zonai devices, but they're also connected to the sky. And

exploring the sky and the islands that have all appeared there in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a really fabulous new layer of the world to take your adventure to, but it also introduces this puzzle of sorts

of going back and forth between the surface and the sky and figuring out how you're going to do that. Jason mentioned that once you have visited a certain shrine or a tower in the game, it kind of creates a point you can travel to

on your map. But for any new island you haven't been to yet, if you're on the surface and you're looking way up in the sky, you need to figure out how am I going to get from here way, way up there to that island I've never been to before. And solving that problem yourself of how to traverse between the sky and the surface is really fun and is where a lot of these creative ideas are going to come into play.

recall, looking for any object that's moved recently and seeing if there's a way for it to move backwards that might be helpful. Ascend, looking if there's a ceiling that's close enough to Link's current position. It doesn't really matter how thick the material is that he's going to pass through. If you can reach the ceiling by targeting it with ascend, you're good to go. So

Just again kind of training yourself to think different and watch for moving objects for recall and watch for ceilings I can't tell you the number of times where we've been playing the game, you know with multiple people where one person's playing through some content that another person has already played through and

and they'll watch them use recall or ascend, and just, you know, the one person's mind is blown because they're like, oh my gosh, I totally did this area, but instead I went all the way around this mountain, fought all these different enemies, and, you know, I had my own adventure there, but now I'm watching you do this. You found a cave at the bottom of the mountain and went into that cave,

cave had a ceiling in it and you just ascended all the way through the entire mountain and now you're standing on the mountain peak. I never even thought to do that, you know? And getting to see those different moments that people have when they play this game together, I know it's a single player game, but it also makes for some really great kind of like surprising co-op, you know, couch co-op moments where it's not, you know, two people sharing a controller or two people playing the game at the same time, but

you know, when you have somebody who's been through one thing and then they watch another person do it in a totally different way, it's, you know, makes your jaw kind of drop to the floor. Yeah, that shared experience is going to be one of, if not my favorite thing about the, you know, post-launch life of this game. I think just like you said, there's like a very cozy kind of feeling of, you know,

just hanging out with a friend or a loved one and watching them tackle something completely differently. You wouldn't even like wrap your head around the mechanics to do something that way. This came up so many times in our previews and what we've seen just in the Treehouse Live. It's so funny to watch people approach the problems or challenges from different ways and what their first instinct is, I think most importantly.

Yeah, it takes me back to when I was in school, right? And you'd go and you'd be talking at recess with the other kids who were playing Nintendo games, and you'd hear somebody say, oh, I did this or I did that. And you're like, no way. Like, is that really possible? And you couldn't wait till you got home and you tried. Yeah, I mean, I think it's important too as folks are playing to think, like, for example, you use Ascend.

you kind of, as Ethan was sharing the example of like using that to traverse from the bottom of a mountain to the top of one. Well, you can also use Ascend very often to like escape out of battles that you get into, you know, by accident, maybe you're not ready. But you know, if your sort of mind is stuck in like, okay, I use Ascend to get from one point to the other, you kind of have to keep doing this practice of like, oh wait, I can use it in this other situation too.

And so as you play the game, you sort of start to collect these lessons in your head. And then after some time, you're doing all sorts of crazy things that you just didn't even think were possible in the beginning.

Yeah. Yeah. Man. I would say that I'm jealous, but I'm about to dive in myself. So I can't feel too bad. We'll have to check back in, though. I'm curious to know some of the stuff that you're going to come up with. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely want to, in addition to just playing the game and enjoying the story and kind of getting from point A to point B, I want to create those stories. Because that was what was so much fun with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was...

like you guys have been saying about this new game, everybody had kind of their own path through the game, their own approach to certain situations. And as much as you shared kind of common experiences, you also had very different experiences. And a lot of the storytelling for me with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was not so much the kind of main story

pre-prepared story that the game presented to you, but it was the stories you created along the way. And it just sounds from everything that I'm hearing and from what I have seen so far that in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there's so much more possibility for everyone to have their own kind of adventure, their own stories to trade and inspire each other.

And that's going to be great to talk to you guys about and other people here at Nintendo and then just my friends and family and then looking out on the internet what people are saying. It's going to be so great. And I do want to note on the topic of story, we like to keep these things as experiences that people get to enjoy for the first time themselves. So in the run up to the release of The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, people will know that we haven't talked a lot about the story in this game. And I'm not going to

and start doing it right here. But I will say, if you are somebody who's new to the series and you're looking for a great engaging story that'll just bring you into the world of Hyrule and keep you going along Link's quest, you know,

I'm super excited for this to be someone's first Legend of Zelda series game. But also for folks like myself that have been playing these games since the first one, there is a lot in here to enjoy, a lot of lore that I think people will enjoy.

feel a lot of things about. And I'm really excited for people to experience that stuff as well. So for as much creative gameplay and experimentation as there is, and you're free to write your own story and get distracted or run off and build things with Ultrahand, there is a really fantastic story that is tied up with the history of Hyrule and

many of the main characters that we've known and loved throughout the games in this series, as well as some new ones waiting for people there. The other thing I want to mention too is that this game is big. It's fair to say that it's big. And if you've been watching all the videos that we've been putting out and the trailers that we've put out,

You've gotten to see a lot of what this game has to offer. You've gotten to see the surface and you've gotten to see the sky, but I will just say you have not seen everything. And I think a lot of people are going to be astounded at just how much there is to explore in this game. And that's another thing that I am really looking forward to seeing when people truly get their head around the scope that this game offers you in this adventure.

Well, I'm clearing out my calendar as best I can. I mean, Chris, you were talking about just the idea of hearing about other people's stories and adventures and stuff. And even with people that have played the game at this point that I've talked to and I hear about things that they do to complete the same objectives that I have completed, I get jealous. I'm like,

Oh, man, that's so much cooler than the way that I did it. Like, I gotta go back, like, you know, like, I might probably just go in, like, you know, like, a normal link with my sword and my shield, and somebody else might use a flower bomb on a shield, jump in, and slow-mo shoot arrows into the base. I'm just like, that's so much cooler than what I did. Yeah, but the person who, like, if they were to watch you play...

It's probably likely if they watch you play long enough. There's something there that. They're going to be like, they will also say like, oh my gosh, I never thought of that. That's the greatness of it. Or they'll say, oh, my way was so complicated and you had this like simple way, you know. So I think there's always like kind of surprises on both sides. No matter how you do it, there's always going to be some other kind of approach that you didn't.

consider. Yeah. Right. And I just want to, and on what you were talking about with the story, Ethan, like, yeah, like what we're talking about is like the things that we have just discovered by having these tools at our disposal and kind of just exploring. But yeah, to that end, like there is also a really great story that's happening and that you're playing through. And, um, that's like, this is really just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much there. And so, yeah, it's,

the same thing with me. I'm just excited for people to really dive in and, and, uh, see these creations out in the wild. Yeah. I want to like jump on that tip of the iceberg comment. Cause I think two things anyway, five hours later, um,

I think two things stand out to me and, and you know, similar to both what Ethan and Anthony have said, want to preserve the story, but just want to say one piece about it. And that is there are some of my favorite character moments in, in what I've experienced so far that are just so endearing and so memorable. Like,

I think one of my just kind of favorite elements of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was how the champions come together and the kind of bonds that form before the calamity happens, culminating in this picture with all of them kind of grouped together.

And I love to see that and just have those really cool moments. We care about these characters. You spend a lot of time with them and you kind of see their development. And the same can be said here. There's a lot of really great new scenarios that familiar characters find themselves in and kind of going through various stories together.

are just very rewarding. And then the second thing I'll say about Tip of the Iceberg is I was blown away by the first game's world density, right? There was Korok seeds to find here and shrines over there and a treasure at the bottom of a lake. And I'm consistently blown away by how much more it feels like there is packed into this world.

I, anytime I go around a corner, I'm like, is there a cave over there? Or, you know, I'll turn on ultra hand to see if anything's glowing. That wouldn't necessarily, uh, be catching my eye. Otherwise, um, there are so many threads to pull in all of the corners of this game that it's so hard for me to stay on track. If I'm wanting to just, you know, work on the story or if I want to do a couple shrines, there's, uh,

just an endless stream of things for me to do. So I constantly feel like I'm doing a Korok puzzle and then moving on to build some kind of vehicle and then doing some new traversal. So I, I think for fans of the first game who really liked that freedom, there's just so much more of it here. And for people who find, can find that freedom debilitating, um,

There are absolutely paths that you can follow if you aren't like me and just like, well, let your mind wander as freely as possible. But, you know, if you want to get into some of the new horse taming mechanics, they're there. Confirmed. If you want to really get into fashion, there's kind of a whole element of the game that's expanded on even what you could do in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. So I...

I think that has been the most impressive thing to me is when I think there's a limit to what I'm expecting is out there, it just keeps growing. Yeah. It's always comforting when you come out of a haze of two hours of building with Ultrahand and experimenting with Fuse and you look on your mini map and you're like, oh, yeah.

There's that golden dot there reminding me I do actually have an objective waiting for me. It's not telling me I have to go do it right now, but it is there. And so, you know, having that main story quest is sometimes a comfort in a game this big and with this many different things to do.

And knowing that that structure is there waiting for you when you're ready to go back to it is nice because it can be overwhelming at times. It's like, wow, you know, there's too many different directions I could go and too many different activities I could take to get there. So, yeah. Yeah.

It's good to have those objectives in place. Good problem, but good. Yeah. Well, I think as we're approving, we could just go on and on and on and on and spend a few hours talking about this game. But before we start teetering closer to spoiler territory, it's probably a good place to put a pin in it for now. And, man, I can't wait to talk to you guys some more. We've got to get back together. Give it like a week or two, and then we'll see how you've been doing. Yeah.

But for now, Ethan, Anthony, and Jason, thanks so much for coming on the show and for coming on for so many episodes in the past. It's always been great to have you. It's been awesome to participate in this and other episodes. And I just want to say thank you, Chris. I've loved listening and participating in the Nintendo Power podcast. And I'm sad to see it go, but it's had a great run. And like you said, I'll maybe keep an ear to the ground for any special episodes that might happen at some point in the future.

Yeah, absolutely. I feel the same way. And, you know, Chris, you and I, we, I mean, we have these conversations on our free time. So it's been really great to be on the show and, you know, talk about it for everyone to sort of get a glimpse of what's coming and really just have a good time. So I think, you know, it's been great and looking forward to those moments where we can, you know, maybe have a special episode or two.

Yeah, absolutely. And we sit like 10 feet from each other. So there's going to be no end to the conversation that's going to happen from here on out. Chris, can you just do the intro for me one time? Just need the nostalgia hit. Yeah, exactly. Echoing what Ethan and Anthony said. I mean, Chris, it's been a pleasure. And I'm always happy to

to hop on and rap about games whenever, especially, you know, some of the stellar stuff that we've had over the years. So yeah, thank you to you. And I'm so excited for everyone to get their hands on the legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom soon. I'm excited for me to get my hands on the legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom. I'm excited for you too. All right, guys. Well with that, thanks so much and we'll catch you on the office. Alrighty. Thanks so much. Thanks.

That's it for this episode of Nintendo Power Podcast. A big thank you to everyone who listened this time or listened to any one of the previous episodes. I hope to talk to you again somewhere down the line, so be sure to stay subscribed and maybe revisit some of the earlier episodes if you're feeling nostalgic. And as always, keep playing with power.