Nintendo’s New Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Trailer Is Very Sad

There are every kind of demographics who’re going to be very into the subsequent Zelda recreation, however this new trailer for Tears of the Kingdom—one that’s someplace between a private attraction and a private assault on me, a 43-year-old man—has one very particular viewers in thoughts.

The youngsters, they’re gonna purchase it. The youths, the younger adults, it is a new Zelda recreation, these folks all pre-ordered the recreation (or bugged their dad and mom to pre-order it) months in the past. But previous players? That’s a special story. Older players have jobs. They might need a giant home, they could have a household, they could produce other issues to do as an alternative of play video video games all the time.

Sure, they could personal a Switch, and have been into Zelda in some unspecified time in the future in time—possibly as just lately as 2017!—however that was six years in the past, and instances change. In 2017, for instance, I used to be 37 years previous with two youngsters and was working at a online game web site. In 2023 I’m…OK, unhealthy instance, however there are going to be lots of folks in Nintendo’s crosshairs for this recreation that may not be as into this Zelda as they have been the final one.

For them, Nintendo Australia made this trailer, and it positive is one thing:

There are two methods you possibly can learn this trailer. The first is the approach its creators and Nintendo clearly meant, which is that this man, who has a boring job and a boring life as a result of he’s a boring middle-aged man, can nonetheless discover some pleasure on this world. And he can discover it by staying up late and enjoying a online game.

This studying works, particularly if you happen to’re the goal market! Zelda makes him joyful, each at house and on the bus, and it even conjures up him to look out the window and respect a stunning bit of surroundings as he drives previous it. “There is still good in this world”, he thinks to himself, and it’s all as a result of he bought The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Yet there’s additionally one thing unsettling about the entire factor. It’s shot fantastically, however like IGN’s Brian Altano says beneath, maybe too effectively; it begins making you overlook it is a online game trailer and assume that, possibly, that is only a very unhappy film a few very unhappy man:

I believe each may be true at the similar time! More online game trailers like this please, it’s pretty seeing some real thought put into one.

UPDATE 9:10pm ET: Kotaku Australia’s Ruby Innes has posted a crucial replace, which I’m pasting beneath:

…anyone who labored on the business (and has requested to stay nameless) reached out to tell us that the Zelda business was impressed by “a Japanese Amazon review for Breath of the Wild“. I did a bit of digging, and I’m almost certain that it’s this one.

Google Translate isn’t perfect, and probably butchers the translation a bit, but you can get the gist of it here in English:

He is a member of society called a so-called Lehman. He was hit by the commuting rush hour, bowed to his customers and bosses, Overtime work every day while doing various things while being forced to train his juniors. I get annoyed by mountains I don’t even know the name of that I see on my way to work. When I come back home dizzy, I don’t have the strength to eat, so I drink and sleep. If you have time to play games, you have to go to seminars and get married. Days when I honestly wonder why I’m still alive.

I remembered it from the Switch store sale I saw on the day I went to buy dead sake. When I was crazy about Mario 64 when I was a kid, “It’s like Mario these days! It’s PS.” I used to be embarrassed when my good friend informed me. At that point, I used to be decided to not be hated by my associates, I additionally replied, “Surely Mario is old!”

The magnificence of FF7 at the moment and the shock of listening to the CD on TV, It could also be a sense that kids as we speak don’t perceive. That’s how interesting and revolutionary it was to kids at the time.

I nonetheless don’t know why I picked up the Switch at the moment. I simply purchased the essential unit and Zelda with a beer in a single hand and pondering that I might promote it if it was boring.

Yesterday, after I was at work, I noticed a mountain I didn’t even know the identify of from the window of the practice. The second I assumed, “I think I can climb it,” tears overflowed and I couldn’t cease. The Lehmans of the similar era who have been beside me will need to have thought, “What the hell is this guy?”

I want to advocate it to Lehman colleagues who’re pressed for time and who run aspect by aspect day by day even when they’re hated for sustaining the established order. Don’t say it’s only a recreation. We have been born in the golden age of gaming. Have you ever seen your loved ones transfer with Mario’s jumps? Do you keep in mind enjoying Smash with a controller? Have you ever mentioned methods for Chrono Trigger or FF7 with your pals? I do know it now. I was a fucking child, however my dad and mom have been on birthdays and Christmas, That you obtain me fucking costly {hardware} and software program. On the aspect of being naughty, you managed to purchase an costly recreation for me with the home cash.

I’m impressed that I’ve realized simply now that I didn’t notice that I used to be working so exhausting on my life. I ought to have been extra filial.

★5 There’s nothing extra I can say as a result of all the critiques are good. This Zelda offers me the “challenge and reward” that I forgot. You can expertise an thrilling journey the place you possibly can freely discover the world with no map. We of the similar era are sick day by day in an effort to surpass tomorrow. But don’t be upset in life. The journey I hoped for was in a spot like this.