Now We Know For Sure Gleeoks Are Back In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo seems to have changed their mind about that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom final trailer nonsense, as the latest trailer they released after that just confirmed some new information: the return of Gleeoks.

Now we first got a brief look at a three headed Gleeok in the supposed final trailer, which Nintendo dropped in the middle of this month. At the time, not only was it brief, but we didn’t have the benefit of UIs or menus to confirm what we saw. Some fans could have speculated that it was an entirely new creature that looks like Gleeoks.

But this new trailer no longer leaves any question about it. As reported by The Gamer, a Twitter user shared a screenshot of the creature from the trailer. It is properly labeled as a Flame Gleeok, in the middle of detached Joy-Con gameplay.

But I’m sure you already see that we got a screenshot of the Flame Gleeok for ourselves. This screenshot clearly shows the Gleeok shooting flames on the ground, King Ghidorah style. Link happens to be running away from it, but immediately turns around when the Gleeok stops firing. So we also know this early that the Gleeok’s attacks, as gigantic as it is, will also follow an identifiable, exploitable pattern.

Gleeoks are a less common enemy in The Legend of Zelda universe. In fact, this is the first time that we will see the creature in a 3D The Legend of Zelda game. I had namedropped King Ghidorah, a Toho movie monster itself inspired by the Japanese legend of the Yamata no Orochi. However, it could also have been inspired by multi-headed dragons in other mythologies, like the Lernaean Hydra killed by Hercules.

In the first The Legend of Zelda in 1985, all the way back in the Famicom Disk System, Link had to defeat three Gleeoks in three different dungeons. One had two heads, one had three heads, and one had four. Gleeoks then reappeared in The Legend of Zelda: The Oracle of Seasons in the Game Boy Color, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS, in both cases as two-headed bosses. In all cases, matching the myth of the Hydra, Link had to cut off all the Gleeoks’ heads to defeat them.

This Gleeok seems extra terrifying for a special reason, however. It seems that this thing is now fighting Link in the great outdoors, and it has a lot of obvious advantages in this element.

One wonders how Link can even defeat the Gleeok. We certainly remember him getting friends to fight alongside him in the ‘final’ trailer. Could there be a way Link could get the help of Farosh, Dinraal, or Naydra to help him?

Really, this is just one of those many things that we can’t wait to find out when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom finally drops.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.