Summary
The director ofThe Legend ofZelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas detailed the lore surrounding the various shrines that Link finds during his adventures in Hyrule. When Nintendo released its latestZeldaadventure earlier in 2023,Tears of the Kingdomquickly became one of the highest-rated gameson Metacritic.
Fans have also embraced the sequel by exploring every inch of Hyrule, looking for all of thehidden mysteries scattered throughoutTears of the Kingdom’s vast world. Now, the game’s director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi has spoken in an interview about the game’s lore and that it goes much deeper than players may have first thought.
In an interview with Nintendo Dream, translated byNintendo Everything,Tears of the Kingdomdirector Hidemaro Fujibayashi expanded on the importance of the shrines found within Hyrule. Fujibayashi states “The shrines themselves were built before Rauru founded Hyrule – before the Demon King Ganondorf appeared there were still a lot of evil beings.” Each location represents an area that was under the threat of a demon but was destroyed by Rauru, and a shrine was installed to keep evil from returning. This ties into why Link is rewarded a Spirit Orb when players complete thechallenges within each of the shrines inTears of the Kingdom. Each orb is a way to cleanse the darkness from the hero and provide him with the light to take on Ganondorf.
Fujibayashi goes on to explain that rather than being a beacon to ward off enemies in the area, the challenge set within each shrine is to cleanse Link of his internal darkness, giving him the power to take on the Demon King. Eiji Aonuma, the long-time producer of the Zelda franchise, likened each of the shrines to a talisman or statue to ward away enemies.
The shrines themselves were built before Rauru founded Hyrule – before the Demon King Ganondorf appeared there were still a lot of evil beings.
The interview also goes on to detail the inspiration for the shrines and the Lightroot locations found in the depths ofTears of the Kingdom. Each of the shrines Link discovers across Hyrule is a homage to Kyoto, the city that is home to Nintendo’s headquarters. Each one represents a real-world location, with a slightly altered name to prevent players from being taken out of the game’s immersive setting. Fujibayashi concludes by suggesting players in the Kyoto area should explore their surroundings to find all of the locations used inTears of the Kingdom.
The interview with Hidemaro Fujibayashi goes to show how much thought and detail went into creating the lore for Link’s latest adventure. For now,Tears of the Kingdomwon’t be seeing any DLCso it remains to be seen if Nintendo’s development team will conduct future interviews to address any outstanding questions, such as the fate of certain characters missing fromTears of the Kingdom.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
