Very similar to its 2017 predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a near-instant traditional, persevering with the story that started with Breath of the Wild and constructing on the distinctive gameplay mechanics that debuted within the first recreation. However based on Nintendo, Tears of the Kingdom was nearly given a special title, and it is one that may make excellent sense to anybody who’s completed the sport.
“One of many candidates for the title that made it to [the] finish [of development] was ‘Tears of the Dragon,'” producer Eiji Aonuma defined within the recreation’s artwork ebook, which was launched in Japan on the finish of August. “However it might be a foul concept to have the key phrase ‘Dragon’ within the title, and we needed to have dragon patterns within the brand, however determined in any other case. It’d emphasize the Gentle Dragon, in spite of everything.”
So, why precisely would having “Dragon” within the recreation’s title be a foul factor? In accordance with Aonuma, the sport’s growth crew feared it might give away a serious spoiler far too early. Tears of the Kingdom consists of 4 dragons that may be seen hovering by way of the skies of Hyrule, and so they every drop some fairly helpful loot. However one of many dragons has a secret.
Be warned: We’re entering into main spoiler territory right here, so when you nonetheless have not completed the sport, we advocate testing a few of our different Tears of the Kingdom content material.
The Gentle Dragon–which drops so severely helpful loot, together with the enduring Grasp Sword–is really Princess Zelda. To make a protracted story quick, Zelda is operating out of choices to guard Hyrule from Ganondorf’s evil, and decides to eat a magical stone that enables her to revive the Decayed Grasp Sword to its former glory.
Doing so has the meant impact, nevertheless it comes at a value, costing Zelda her humanity. As she flies into the clouds, Zelda sheds a tear, which splits off into 11 Dragon Tears that may be discovered all all through Hyrule when taking part in as Hyperlink. As such, Tears of the Dragon made excellent sense as a title, nevertheless it too got here with a value: doubtlessly spoiling the Gentle Dragon reveal for eagle-eyed gamers and lore-loving recreation theorists. Nintendo needed to make use of dragons within the recreation’s brand, however feared combining a dragon-heavy imagery with a dragon-based title may make the plot twist a bit too apparent.
“However nothing else good was coming to thoughts, and we have been operating out of growth time,” Aonuma stated. “We went by way of many phrases, after which one time a employees member steered, ‘What about Kingdom?’ With ‘Tears of the Kingdom,’ it felt just like the phrase might connect with the Gentle Dragon to us, and we might use dragons within the [game’s] brand. With the title determined, the brand lastly turned what it’s now.”
Thus, the sport’s title was swapped from Tears of the Dragon to Tears of the Kingdom, and the remaining, as they are saying, is Hyrule Historia.