The Legend of Zelda: Can I play Tears of the Kingdom without having played Breath of the Wild?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom enters the final stretch and goes on sale in just two days. The most anticipated Nintendo Switch game thus closes six years of development that have become eternal. On the verge of knowing how the game has turned out and its main features, many players are wondering if, being a sequel to Breath of the Wild, it will be possible to play and enjoy the title without having played the previous installment, published in 2017 as a launch game for Nintendo’s hybrid console. The most logical answer is that having done so guarantees you know how the main plot unfolds so far and also know many elements that seem common among other games, such as the structure and layout of the game and most of the main controls.

Nintendo: there is no need to have played Breath of the Wild

The game’s producer, Eiji Aonuma, emphasized in an interview that all of the new gameplay mechanics implemented in the title can be solved intuitively, so new players can rest assured that the game is easy to learn, even if you haven’t played Breath of the Wild. For his part, the game’s director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, says that a lot of effort has been put into making the game comfortable for both players with a background in the previous game and those trying it for the first time.

The team behind Tears of the Kingdom has strived to balance the introduction of new gameplay mechanics with creating an intuitive experience that is accessible to all types of players.

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Never played Breath of the Wild? This is its story

The story of the game begins with Link waking up after sleeping for 100 years. He discovers that Hyrule, the kingdom where he lived, has been destroyed and is now ruled by an evil being known as Calamity Ganon. Link must find a way to defeat Ganon and restore peace to Hyrule. Along the way, he will also find allies to help him in his quest, including Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule, who is crucial to defeating Ganon. The story of Breath of the Wild unfolds through a series of flashbacks that reveal the past of Link, Zelda, and the roles played by the four champions who fought and died against Ganon 100 years before the events of the game.

Unable to defeat Ganon, they decided to keep Link safe in a sleeping chamber until they could find a way to seal the enemy forever. As a result, he remained asleep for 100 years. His awakening marks the beginning of Breath of the Wild. He must activate the four Divine Beasts to weaken Ganon, obtain the Master Sword, and then, yes, finish him off.

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This is the story, in a very summarized form, about the events that happened in the game in 2017, and this is theoretically where Tears of the Kingdom begins, in which we will have a new story to live. As we have seen in the trailers, the Zonnan technology will have an important presence and there is a new enemy, Ganondorf, who returns after being absent for several installments.