The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom introduces a potentially mind-blowing new ability.
That would be 'Fuse,' unveiled today by Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma in a new gameplay presentation for Tears of the Kingdom. You can catch the full walkthrough just below, in which Aonuma reveals the ability, which lets the player stitch together objects around the environment to form useful tools or big weapons.
This has the potential to be a massive deal for the more creative Tears of the Kingdom players. I've lost count of the times I've seen a Breath of the Wild player pull off a wild trick shot or chaotic stunt over the past five years, but coupling this together with player-created items, weapons, and vehicles could open up Zelda players for even more carnage.
- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is at the front line of the debate over the Nintendo Switch 2's computing power, because if the Switch 1 can load three worlds at once, imagine what its sequel can do
- This open-world game imagines a cartoony Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom where the Master Sword is the Master Shield – it's coming to all platforms and I dig its Steam Next Fest demo
Some of the creations Aonuma demonstrated are already whacky. The producer stitched together several wooden logs to form a raft, for example, and even bolted a few fan engines on the back of the platform for a motorized vehicle. That was in addition to coupling a stick together with a huge boulder to form a great big bonking stick to smite poor Bokoblins with.
Since the gameplay reveal aired, some Reddit users have spotted other items you can Fuse in the environment. Remember those big steel platforms from Breath of the Wild? Turns out you can use them in your Fuse creations, too, which opens the door for Link to use items in his creations that are bigger than the little Hyrulian himself.
Breath of the Wild was a fantastic sandbox for player creativity, and Tears of the Kingdom is picking up that torch with the Fuse ability. Make sure you're prepared for some weird and wonderful player creations in equal measure later this year when Tears of the Kingdom finally releases.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches later this year on May 12 for the Nintendo Switch.
Check out our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-order guide if you're looking to reserve your copy at the cheapest price point possible.
"I can't go through [with] this": The weirdest Zelda ad didn't get Nintendo's approval, but it probably happened anyway because the marketing execs were already on-site
A Zelda movie is finally happening, but Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto used to adamantly oppose the idea even "if Steven Spielberg himself" wanted to do it
