Nintendo has finally unveiled the name of the next Zelda. Following The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A name that offers several possible interpretations.
Formalized in 2019, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild finally has a name. During its Direct broadcast on September 13, 2022, Nintendo formalized The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will be available on May 12, 2023 exclusively on Nintendo Switch. The Japanese firm is still very mysterious about the plot of this video game eagerly awaited by a good part of the owners of the console.
Therefore, fans compete with more or less credible theories on what the subtitle could mean. Tears of the Kingdom. It could simply translate to Tears of the Kingdom, then suggesting an adventure with a very sad tone. But other interpretations are possible, knowing that Nintendo does not help us with its one-line pitch: Link’s adventure will stretch to the skies above the vast lands of Hyrule. »
How to interpret the title of the next Zelda game?
Princess Zelda is…dead?!
The name The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can refer to the notion of an immense grief shared by an entire population (it unfortunately echoes the disappearance of Queen Elizabeth II, with a coincidence that Nintendo would have done well). We can therefore very well imagine a world of Hyrule mourning the death of Princess Zelda, which would then push Link to find a way to bring her back to life (by playing with the notion of time?). This is the most basic theory, based on a literal translation of the title. Of course, this may be another tragedy affecting the Kingdom.
Note that, according to a Kotaku article published on September 14, the Japanese translation of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses the kanji 淚 with the translation “tears”, in the strict sense of the term.
Note, finally, that the second trailer for the game, broadcast during E3 2021, starts with a sequence where Zelda inexorably moves away towards darkness.
The bottles carried by Link
On the main artwork of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, we can admire Link’s new outfit, more particularly a detail that you would have missed: vials, slightly shiny, attached to the hero’s belt. It is believed that the vials in question may contain these kingdom tears, which would then serve an as yet unknown purpose. The idea may be to fulfill a prophecy by recovering this precious resource, linked to a potential cataclysm. On this subject, the introduction of the last trailer shows enigmatic frescoes. On Reddit, the user evilshindig is convinced of this and some have even spotted that there would be seven to collect, corresponding to as many dungeons to complete.
The many islands in the sky
In a topic posted on September 13, Gamerant shares another interpretation: tears would actually be the metaphor for the many celestial islands seen in the video. Fractured, the Kingdom would then have scattered like tears leaving the eyes. The word “tears” can also be translated into “tears”, which would be these many pieces of land that Link will be able to explore a priori.
Tears, symbols of the passage of time
“ I think these are mechanisms on time, which literally flows, and we can navigate forwards or backwards “, indicates lesfooteux in a tweet posted on September 13. The notion of time seems crucial according to the various trailers of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. At several times, we can see Link go back in time to, for example, send cannonballs back to the enemies.
