We are just days away from the official release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on 12th May, and Nintendo has just published a special 'Ask the Developers' interview to provide a better insight into what's in store.
The interview discusses a range of topics from building on Breath of the Wild to the intricacies of the building process, but one strange point that stood out to us was the emphasis that the developers seemed to put on hands in the game, even going as far to describe it as the title's "key theme".
We have known about Link's gammy arm ever since we first laid eyes on the game back in 2019 and we later learnt that it would be playing an important Sheikah Slate-style role in the sequel thanks to the gameplay trailer, but can it really be any deeper than that? Apparently so.
When asked about Link's physical changes this time around, series producer Eiji Aonuma stressed the importance of hands to the game as a whole. This was then emphasised by Tears of the Kingdom's director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who stated the following:
Titles in the Legend of Zelda series intertwine all the elements of gameplay, mechanics, and story, and combine them all into a single game. For this title, we chose “hands” as the key theme to bring them all together. For example, abilities that Link uses to solve puzzles are all released from his hand and arm. We even included this symbolically in the game's mechanics, such as having scenes that use hands when opening special doors. This "hands" theme also crops up here and there as a key element as the story develops.
The game's art director, Satoru Takizawa, and music director, Hajime Wakai, also explained how hands have played an important role in their respective fields. Thinking about it, we have seen an awful lot of hand content in the trailers and Wakai even notes that the team mixed claps into the score to stress the theme further.
So what exactly is this all about? Why settle on hands? The developers weren't keen to explain the decision fully, though Aonuma did hint that it will tie directly into the story:
Well, simply put, "hands" expresses the idea of "connecting." This applies to the story too, which connects to Hyrule's past. It also talks about a major struggle called "The Imprisoning War," which until now was considered a myth even in Hyrule.
Hmm, looks like there is going to be some serious Zelda lore to unpack with this one and it's all somehow linked to the idea of hands. 12th May really can't come soon enough!
For more insights on the game, be sure to check out the full 'Ask the Developers' interview.