Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom devs share messages for game’s first anniversary

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just celebrated its first anniversary. In honor of the milestone, Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream caught up with series producer Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and both of them shared special messages.

Here’s our full translation:

Eiji Aonuma

The other day, I heard about an incident when a kid excitedly said “I played Tears of the Kingdom for over 1,000 hours”, and the mother smiled in response, saying, “I didn’t know about that!”

Of course, I was shocked that one could play a single game that much, but I was also surprised that the mother accepted that.

There are a lot of people around me who happily tell me about how they played this game for many hours, and I am really glad to have made a game that people enjoyed like that.

Zelda is a longstanding series, and I would like to utilize the experience from this title to create more games that everyone can enjoy in the future, so please look forward to it. To all those who have played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, thank you very much.

Hidemaro Fujibayashi

It has nearly been a year since the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. During this time, I have observed how everyone around the world has been playing it and enjoying it in many different ways, which has brought joy to the staff as a whole.

In particular, the Ultrahand, one of the new features added that allows you to attach and detach objects together at will, has continued to lead to unique vehicles and creations that we had never imagined; this has made me feel that we succeeded in implementing one of the core concepts we had been aiming for, which was to make a game that embodies “Can you do it? Yes you can”, and so I am also pleased with that.

To have our game be played so much is an irreplaceable source of motivation to us development staff. Thank you very much.

Lastly, what I want to say now that a year has passed is that just like the predecessor, Breath of the Wild, this game’s story is structured so that the truth is gradually unraveled as you play, leading to surprising moments that make you go, “So that’s how it was”. It has been designed so that even after clearing it once, replaying the game while already knowing the truth allows you to realize things you did not notice on your first playthrough, and the same scenes or dialogue could seem completely different, so please enjoy finding new discoveries and experiences on a second playthrough.

Please continue to support The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched for Switch on May 12, 2023. In Japan at least, Nintendo is planning some special festivities. Along with the official soundtrack release, an art book will be made available – we have further details including import pre-orders here and here.

Translation provided by SatsumaFS, Philip Proctor, and Simon Griffin on behalf of Nintendo Everything.