Link as MacGyver: Tears of the Kingdom demo shows new material-crafting abilities

For a major game that was first announced nearly four years ago and is set to launch in less than two months, we’ve seen remarkably little gameplay footage from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom beyond some very sparse trailers. Nintendo set out to partially fix that today, releasing a new video in which Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma showed off some of Link’s new abilities in a guided 10-minute gameplay presentation.

The most impactful new ability on display was called “Fuse,” which lets Link put together two disparate objects to create a new one with a brand-new effect. In the simplest example of this, Aonuma fused together a basic tree branch (which breaks incredibly easily even during simple fights) with a rock, creating a makeshift hammer with a lot more power and durability.

Tree branch + boulder = makeshift hammer. Credit: Nintendo

Unlike in Breath of the Wild, where Link had to hunt for the most powerful weapons, the focus here will be on creating those weapons from component parts, Aonuma said. Fusing a long stick with a pitchfork can give you a longer attack range, for instance, and fusing various materials to arrows can create useful side-effects like freezing powers or a homing capability.

Fusion can also be used more defensively; Aonuma attached a mushroom to his shield, leading to an enemy-blinding explosive dust cloud when he blocked an attack. “Even if you struggle with combat, you can take down enemies using similar methods,” Aonuma said.

Attaching a fan to some logs to make an ersatz airboat. Credit: Nintendo

The ability to put different objects together extends beyond combat, too. A new “ultrahand” ability (named in an apparent nod to an antique Japanese Nintendo toy) let Aonuma stick together three logs to craft a raft and add two self-powered fans to create a kind of airboat. Aonuma noted that the car and flying machine Link rode in previous Tears of the Kingdom trailers were similarly constructed from individual parts in the game world and not inserted wholesale by the developers.

Other abilities shown in the brief gameplay demonstration highlighted Tears of the Kingdom‘s verticality. An “Ascend” ability, for instance, lets Link climb right through any ceiling above his head to the floor above, a method that even works in caves or with small ridges overhanging from cliff faces.

To reach the “sky islands” floating high above Link, Aonuma also showed off a “Recall” ability to reverse the movement of a large asteroid-like block that had fallen from the sky, using it as a kind of elevator. Aonuma said this was just one of many ways to get to these far-off islands in the sky.

Link glides through the sky, getting a panoramic view before diving into a river on the ground. Credit: Nintendo

But enemies can also use wind-based weapons to blow Link off the edges of these sky islands, forcing him into a paratrooper-without-a-plane-style skydive. In the demo, Aonuma guided Link’s descent as the ground quickly approached, ending with a dramatic dive into a river.

Aonuma stressed that he would “run out of time” if he discussed all the new features in Tears of the Kingdom, which he said has now completed all development work. Based on what was shown today, though, it looks like the game should lead to the kind of player experimentation and clever puzzle solving that could give Tears of the Kingdom a long life with tinkerers and content creators well past the “end” of the game’s story.