The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to Breath of the Wild, however only bits of info connecting the two games have only been shown so far. Despite that, being a Legend of Zelda game, the game would most likely follow the chain of events that has been part of the prophecy in most of the previous games.
What is the plot of Tears of the Kingdom?
The story and the entire plot of the Legend of Zelda games have been more or less cyclic, following the prophecy of a great evil who brings ruin to the land of Hyrule, thwarted by a hero who is aided by a princess. The stories from the different games just have twists and variations, but everything ultimately boils down to that prophecy. What may set Tears of the Kingdom apart from the rest of the games is that players are actually playing during the downfall of Hyrule, whereas games like Adventure of Link or A Link to the Past have their events play out after Hyrule has already fallen.
From the events teased in the First Look trailer from 2019, Link and Zelda go on an quest and arrive in an ancient structure that houses the sealed body of Ganondorf. Through an unknown reason, malice has managed to reanimate Ganondorf, and because of this, it set off a chain of events that led to the downfall of Hyrule into darkness once again.
The resurrection of Ganondorf has been prophesized before and has actually happened several times, hence the existence of the previous games such as the Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and The Wind Waker, games that have their stories based on Link’s failure to stop Ganondorf. Although at this point in Tears of the Kingdom’s lore, these past events are now considered as legends that have been almost forgotten in time and through the eyes of the players, these are alternate realities with both Link and Zelda being the common point – even Ganondorf.
The most noticeable part of Tears of the Kingdom are the floating islands known as Sky Islands. These literally added verticality to the entire region of Hyrule. As to how they came to be and who raised the islands, we can just speculate for now that it’s not actually Ganondorf who is behind all of it despite the trailer showing the Hyrule Castle being lifted by malice, but rather the ancient civilization or some technology that they have left behind who sent parts of the land to the sky. It may even be possible that these islands have long been aloft and were just kept invisible all this time.
With that in mind, it is possible that the story of Tears of the Kingdom will involve the ancients, or at least their technology, to try and stop Ganondorf and get him sealed once more. This can be seen with Link’s new glove that gives him new abilities such as Fuse and Ultrahand, abilities which appear to be on a different league from the ones Link had access to before. Aside from that, we could all expect something grander to happen in the story now that the big bad himself is who Link will be up against.
Check out this video by NintendoBlackCrisis talking about pointers in one of the latest trailers in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: