The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will have a legit flying machine

A new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was shown during the latest Nintendo Direct, and the “official flying machine” that debuted in the trailer has become a talking point in the fan community.

The new footage of Tears of the Kingdom shows off a variety of new features, including a scene where Link is flying through the sky while atop some kind of vehicle. In the previous title, Breath of the Wild, Link was able to glide through the air, but there was no legitimate method of freely flying around.

However, some players used their ingenuity to create a custom “flying machine.” The process involves stacking two minecarts together and using Magnesis while Link is atop the carts to travel through the air.

Magnesis is an ability that allows Link to move metallic objects. The ability does not let Link move an object that he is standing on, but this limitation can be overcome by stacking objects atop one another. If you have Link stand on the top minecart, he will be able to use Magnesis on the bottom cart and pull it into the air, thereby creating a makeshift flying machine.

This minecart flying machine will no longer be necessary in Tears of the Kingdom thanks to the debut of the official flying machine, and this has drawn the attention of fans.

At the same time, there will likely need to be some changes made to the user created flying machine, since the shape of the minecarts will be different in Tears of the Kingdom.

One of the reasons that made it possible to create the flying machine in the previous game is that the shape of the minecarts made it easy for them to become interlocked. The minecarts have a flatter shape in Tears of the Kingdom, which Twitter user @Switch_movie_SS pointed out may have been a way to stop people from making custom flying machines.

【悲報】フライングマシン対策される
トロッコの柵の部分が水平になったので重ねても引っかからずずり落ちてしまう仕様に！ pic.twitter.com/9sg9Qh1rG7

— Peco (@Switch_movie_SS) February 8, 2023

Tweet Translation:
[Sad news] Flying machine countermeasures have been put in place
The side rails of the minecart have been made level, so that even if you stack them, they will slide off one another instead of locking together.

The developers were indeed aware of the user-made flying machine, as in a past interview with Nikkei X TREND, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma commented, “The entire staff was left speechless when we saw a video showing a player use minecarts and Magnesis to fly through the air.” Taking this into consideration, the change to the minecarts may have been made with the intention of preventing people from putting together their own flying machines.

Whatever the case, the debut of an official method of flying likely makes the illegitimate flying machine rather useless to begin with. The new trailer also shows other vehicles, including what seem like a hot-air balloon and a four-wheeled vehicle, so exploring the game’s world will likely be a lot of fun.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is due out on May 12.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-02-09 10:49 JST)