The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release date, time countdown confirmed

May 11, 2023

Here’s what we know about the release date of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom release date, time countdown

You’ll be able to start playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at 12 a.m. ET on May 12. That’s 9 PM pacific time on Thursday and 5 AM on Friday in the UK. Nintendo has confirmed the release date for Gamespot.

You can click this link to see the launch times in some time zones around the world.

After years of speculation, Nintendo finally revealed the game’s name alongside the announcement of its release date. Actually, before that point, it had only been referred to as “The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” officially, and as “TLoZ: Breath of the Wild 2” by fans.

The announcement of the sequel’s title came during Nintendo’s E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation. In light of the fact that we didn’t learn the title and release date until three years later, enthusiasm amongst fans is understandably high.

Platforms

Tears of the Kingdom release date

Nintendo Switch is the only platform for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo doesn’t like porting its successful first-party games to other consoles, and Tears won’t change that.

Rating

As is customary for the series, Tears of the Kingdom will be rated E10+, which is significantly lower than Twilight Princess’ T rating. This rating reflects the mild suggestive themes and fantasy violence present in the content.

Gameplay

While there’s a lot we don’t know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom‘s gameplay, we’re pretty confident that players will be returning to the Hyrule seen in the original Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom will be a “continuation” of the original, as stated by Eiji Aonuma, so we can look forward to seeing more of the same Hyrule from previous games.

The reveal trailer made it clear that this installment would feature a darker adventure than the one before it. Aonuma went on to confirm this, saying the entry will have a dark and disturbing tone like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.As soon as the trailer was shown at E3 2019, rumors and guesses flooded the internet. We’ve put together a list of what we think are the most likely rumors.

  • The reveal trailer shows Link and Zelda exploring an underground chamber, but Zelda is noticeably different from what we remember. Her hair has been cut short into a bob, and fans believe this is because she will be a playable character.  We’re not sure how likely this is, but it would be awesome to explore Hyrule as someone other than Link.
  • The presence of Link and Zelda in the reveal trailer gave some fans the impression that this would be a co-op title.While it’s unlikely to be the driving force behind the game, we’re hoping you’ll be able to team up with a friend this time around.
  • Traditional dungeons could make a comeback. Because players are already familiar with the Hyrule map, new locations will have to be underground or indoors.
  • Ganondorf is the most likely villain, as he resembles the slumped-over corpse seen in the trailer. Some speculate that Zant, one of the antagonists in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, will return, but there isn’t much evidence to support this claim.

The gameplay trailer shown at E3 2021 showed Link equipped with some new abilities, including the ability to teleport through solid objects and a deadly new gauntlet, but otherwise confirmed that the game wouldn’t stray too far from the formula established by the original The Legend of Zelda.

Multiplayer

The reveal trailer showed Link and Zelda adventuring together, leading fans to speculate that the game would feature cooperative play. A co-op mode would be a huge departure from Breath of the Wild, but at this point it seems unlikely that it will be implemented.