Summary

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis one of the most successfulZeldatitles ever made, thanks to bringing a host of new features and improvements toBreath of the Wild’s already strong formula. One of its best features is the Ultrahand ability, which allows players to grab and move objects, and even build unique structures and vehicles with the right materials. The seemingly limitless capabilities of Ultrahand have taken players into a realm of unprecedented creativity in theZeldauniverse, with many building some of the most magnificent and often outlandish creations ever witnessed in a video game. Unfortunately, the days of Ultrahand are over afterThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo has confirmed that it is leavingthe Ultrahand abilitybehind as it moves forward with theLegend of Zeldafranchise, and while this has been disheartening news for creative fans, it would be significantly challenging to incorporate Ultrahand in futureZeldatitles without remaining inBreath of the Wild’s Hyrule. There is one major benefit to Nintendo abandoning Ultrahand, however, as it likely meansTears of the Kingdom’s legacy will live on longer than it might have originally been expected to.

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What Nintendo Abandoning Ultrahand Means for Tears of the Kingdom

The greatest benefit to Ultrahand being retired as theLegend of Zeldaseries moves forward is that it’s likely to single-handedly keepTears of the Kingdomalive for years to come. Much likeplayers continue to return toThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimthanks to its mod community’s constant additions, Ultrahand provides nearly limitless potential for creative players, and it can only be found inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In light of that, Ultrahand, in addition toTears of the Kingdom’s massive open world, should keep players regularly coming back to the game for some time, at least until Nintendo develops anotherZeldagame with more attractive features.

Nintendo Will Likely Continue Developing New Ideas Similar to Ultrahand

For the longest time,The Legend of Zeldaseries largely saw the same abilities, tools, and weapons return in every installment — that is, untilBreath of the Wild.Breath of the WildchangedThe Legend of Zeldaforeverby making it an open-world action-adventure game with survival elements, along with adding several new abilities like Stasis, Magnesis, and Cryonis.Tears of the Kingdomexpanded on that further by adding even more abilities, including Ultrahand. Ultrahand quickly becameTotK’s most popular ability, and that much continues to show itself as players showcase their creations on social media to this day. As such, although it makes sense to leave Ultrahand behind as the series moves on, Nintendo is all but behooved to develop more abilities like it.

The greatest benefit to Ultrahand being retired as the Legend of Zelda series moves forward is that it’s likely to single-handedly keep Tears of the Kingdom alive for years to come.

Nintendo probably knows that to go back toZelda’s traditional formulanow would be a massive leap backward.Breath of the WildandTears of the Kingdomhave established new standards for the franchise, so to suddenly abandon those standards wouldn’t make sense from a commercial standpoint. The full extent of Nintendo’s plans for theZeldaseries are currently unknown, but fans will more than likely see fresh ideas implemented in future titles, and the hope is that they will compete with Ultrahand. Regardless, fans will always be able to return toThe Legend of Zelda:Tears of the Kingdomand its captivating Ultrahand ability whenever they please.

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.