Rumor: The Next The Legend Of Zelda Open-World Game Will Be About “Tears In Reality”?

Shpeshal Nick Baker has shared some interesting new rumors about the next upcoming The Legend of Zelda game.

Nick had special guest Jeff Grubb over to share what he heard about the next game in the most recent episode of the XboxEra podcast. He confirmed that it would be on ‘the same track’ as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. And then, he revealed some tantalizing details.

Tears in Reality?

Nick revealed that they are calling this game as ‘Tears in Reality.’ This may not be the final game title, but it describes the new idea behind it.

As opposed to the ‘physics’ engine of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the creation engine of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reminiscent of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, ‘Tears in Reality’ revolves around cross-dimensional puzzles.

Example One: Unlocking Doors

Nick shared this description of one of these puzzles:

He was like you move objects and do things in and out of other dimensions. And he said an example is a charging bull is chasing you in one dimension and it hits a target to activate something in your dimension to unlock a door or whatever it may be.

Okay. So, you’re doing this cross-dimensional puzzle solving stuff. Dark world. Yeah. I mean, that that’s a Zelda thing. Yeah.

Example Two: Everything Floats

Nick then shared this second example:

Um, and then another example he gave me, uh, moving water liquids across the dimensions to fill containers or to make things float to the surface. Like there’s a room with a chain and ball on it.

You open a tier in dimensions to fill the room with water which makes the ball float and pull on the chain and open a pathway that where the chain was held to the ground. But this is all happening across dimensions.

This Isn’t The First Video Game Between Worlds

This idea isn’t 100 % original, of course. The idea of moving between dimensions, possibly to solve puzzles, has been explored in video games before.

Games like Lords of the Fallen, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Fez, and Super Paper Mario explore the idea of moving between different worlds or dimensions that are somehow either parallel or connected to each other.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is also an obvious example of this game idea. So this isn’t too radical a concept, at least in terms of game design.

And that may be to Nintendo’s benefit. While the company’s imperfect classics are definitely still great games, they will want to win over fans who didn’t quite like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as much as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The power of the Switch 2 may enable Nintendo to create a cross-dimensional open world that isn’t technically feasible on the original Switch. Nick and Jeff agreed that this game will likely take a few years to come out, possibly for the later years of the Switch 2. But, we’re certain that that wait will be worth it.