The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom isn’t due out till Could 12, which suggests followers closely invested within the lore and secrets and techniques of the sport have three months of avoiding (what they’ll most likely assume are) spoilers forward of them.
The collector’s version of the sport comes with a 204-page artbook, and over the weekend that guide leaked on-line, with each rattling web page of it winding up posted on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit. It’s the Japanese model, that means it’s tough to make out precisely what some of these items is, although that’s not a big drawback because it’s a reasonably primary artbook, principally simply pictures with some captions beneath.
I’m clearly not going to be posting any of the pictures right here, however I’ve thumbed by means of the pages and have excellent news and dangerous information for followers of the sequence. Which is nice and which is dangerous will rely on how delicate you might be to spoilers.
First up, as a result of it is a preorder bonus and never a full-blown, standalone artbook, it’s lacking context. There are lots of of pictures right here however they’re not specified by any sort of order or sequence, and with out paragraphs from the builders and artists explaining in depth what the whole lot means and why it’s there, there’s little right here that you just wouldn’t have anticipated to see in a trailer.
There are many pictures of Hyperlink carrying costumes, some acquainted returning faces, some outfit designs for allies and associates, sketches of (once more, acquainted) dangerous guys and plenty of illustrations of environments that, with out the context I simply talked about, are principally simply “right here’s a cave, now right here’s a room with a stone flooring”.
“This guide was designed to come back house with you the day you got the sport”
I’m being imprecise to not defend anybody, however simply because…that is all very commonplace stuff. With out the context of this artwork being correctly defined—or from any of us really enjoying the sport—it’s only a guide stuffed with cool Zelda pics.
Which, after all, is all it’s meant to be. Whereas it’s tempting to pore over this guide three months out from launch, hoping for cryptic spoilers and keys to Tears of the Kingdom’s lore, this guide was designed to come back house with you the day you got the sport. Folks could be free to flick by means of it on the bus on the best way house, or within the again seat of a automobile, or on the sofa once they’re solely 23 minutes into the sport. There was by no means going to be something big right here, as a result of that will be extraordinarily silly!
For instance there’s not a single picture of Ganon. There’s an illustration of Zelda, however no point out on whether or not she’s playable or not. We now have glimpses of the monstrous transformation Hyperlink seems to be going by means of, however nothing greater than what we’ve already seen in trailers. There’s no plot abstract.
The one issues that might even remotely be thought of spoilers are a few costumes that reference older video games within the sequence, and the return of a very shitty sort of enemy, however these are simply…info in regards to the recreation, not narrative beats.
So in the event you’re delicate to spoilers and also you by some means find yourself someplace on the web the place this guide’s leaks can’t be averted, loosen up. It is a preorder bonus, not a Spoiler Tome.