Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This page details pre-release information and/or media for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Tears of the Kingdom was spawned from the idea of more DLC packs for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Because many new ideas came from this, they were put to use later for an expanded sequel.

2019 "First Look" Trailer

This Nintendo Direct video was first shown in Summer of 2019, as a teaser for Breath of the Wild's sequel. It features many differences from the released game's introduction sequence:

• There is no gameplay, it's all shown through a cutscene.
• The platform Ganondorf's corpse rests has an organic appearance, and the energy emanating from the arm is greener in hue than the final game's blue.
• The murals that Link and Zelda find are closer in style to the Zonai architecture in Breath of the Wild's Zonai Ruins.
• Link and Zelda are shown riding a creature, later revealed to be a Dondon, implying that the trip to explore the Castle ruins was much longer in this early version of the game.
• The arm lacks a Secret Stone spot, and has a gilded brace around it.
• When they fall down the chasm, it appears that Link manages to catch Zelda's arm at the same time he's caught by the Zonai arm.
• Link appears undamaged by Gloom from the arm.

Master Works

Like with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Nintendo released a Master Works book for Tears of the Kingdom. This features numerous pieces of concept art for the game, showing all manner of ideas not used in the final game.

• Mineru's Construct had a variety of alternate designs. These include a giant robot owl, a stone golem covered in plants, and a metallic one with cannons for arms.
• Yunobo had a variety of alternate designs for his brainwashed boss form, showing him in all manner of different over the top outfits.
• Mucktorok had sludge versions of a crab, manta ray and sea serpent for alternate forms, implying the shark one was just one of multiple ideas under consideration.
• The Seized Construct was once a puppet, sorta like Puppet Ganon in The Wind Waker.
• Flux Constructs had a tank like form that shot fire, similar to one of Master Kohga's attacks in his final encounter.
• Queen Gibdo had a centipede like appearance, which was far bigger than its final design.
• The Fire Temple had various alternate designs, including one with a spiral design and one based on stalactites hanging from the roof of the Depths.
• Ganondorf had a huge variety of designs, with forms seemingly inspired by Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Hyrule Warriors.
• The Demon Dragon battle was potentially meant to take place in the Depths, with some concept art showing it hanging from a pillar. It was also more than 3 times larger than its form from the final game.
• The game was named Tears of the Dragon, though this was changed to avoid spoilers.

(Source: 13 Awesome Unused Ideas from Tears of the Kingdom Master Works! (YouTube))