The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Trailer #3 Review
What makes the third gameplay trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom another tour-de-force trailer from Nintendo? I'm going to break down the masterful editing which makes a nearly 4 minute trailer feel shorter than some trailers a quarter its length.
The key thing to this trailer's pacing is how it's structured into four distinct sections which are self contained stories of escalating intensity. There are several peaks with fast cuts and rousing music, and valleys where the audience can take a breath. If the trailer tried to sustain a high level of intensity for four minutes it would be exhausting and dull. If you want an example of how to pace out a long trailer, this is it.
The Introduction
The first 50 seconds ease us into the world starting with a 15 second shot of flying through the clouds. We hear only the wind until the music starts at about 13 seconds. The pace of the music indicates this trailer is going to take its time.
You might be thinking: "But Derek, aren't slow camera moves through environments a bad way to start a trailer!?" If you're a new game and studio no one's ever heard about, yes, slow intros are an easy way to lose your audience. But this is Nintendo, and it's a sequel in a game which spans decades AND this is a sequel to an incredibly well known iteration AND this is the third gameplay trailer. Also, this is the first trailer of this length for this game (Not counting the gameplay presentation which was more of an extended walkthrough). People have eagerlyawaited a trailer like this, and for all of these reasons, this trailer can indulge in a slow and gradual introduction.
The opening shot is both beautiful AND indicates a bunch of the game takes place in the sky (which is a key differentiator between this and BOTW). The next shot is another environment shot, but it layers on a couple more things: a new enemy, and the fact enemies will fight amongst each other even if Link isn't around. The third shot moves in closer and shows the new enemy will also chop down trees (which is another new thing). This is when the music adds on another layer.
The fourth shot is Link diving through the air from a place somehow even higher than the sky platforms we just saw. The camera does a flashy whirl around him, he splays out to slow his descent, and the title fades in accompanied by the iconic Legend of Zelda theme. I get chills down my spine at this moment which proudly says: This is The Legend of Zelda! This rousing moment is the first climax of the trailer which ends with Link deploying his glider, leading us into the next section.
There are so many beautifully composed shots in this trailer. Also, if you want to make something feel “cinematic” in a 3rd person game, make sure the camera is “detached” from the player character. A camera moving perfectly in sync to the character is something unique to video games.
The Threat
The trailer and music settles back down to a resting pace which is not as high as Link's dramatic dive, but still higher than the sedate fly through the clouds. Each section of this trailer has a beginning, middle and end, but when you compare all four sections, the resting pace is higher each time. This is how the trailer both constantly escalates AND gives us time to rest.
The beginning of this 60 second segment shows Link exploring the ground. We see his basic movement verbs as he runs through fields, into a village, past some ruins, and then climbs up a mountain (recalling one of the iconic shots from the BOTW trailer). The music crescendos as the trailer segues via the camera flying past Link to reveal dark clouds in the distance.
The music drops out to just the piano and what sounds like some voices playing in reverse. A dark castle appears to rise out of the sand and suddenly the screen turns RED at the reveal of what looks like an antagonist. We don't see their face because as they turn their head, we cut to black. The red is a great visual palate cleanser which excites the eyes. A trailer can stagnate if it lack variety in gameplay, visuals, colors, music, and pacing; this red keeps things visually fresh. Some heavy drums lead to powerful music with lots of heavy brass.
A shock of color to keep things from looking too “same-y” can really help keep the audience engaged.
Zelda and Link fall through a void, as the music kicks in and makes it feel like everything is falling apart. There's montage of varied gameplay where Link: runs through a volcanic region, sees a flying ship, dives into a floating orb of water, falls through a series of laser grids, turns a crank, glides through a claustrophobic stone crevice, and twirls a spear on horseback while fighting enemies alongside NPC characters. All of these things are new in some way, and sample the breadth of the player experience.
Next is a shot of Link riding an elevator. This shot is a great audio palate cleanser with some music which sounds like it's playing in reverse followed by more drums, brass, and suspenseful violins. There's a closeup of a new character who may or may not be an antagonist, Link kicks up on his horse, there's some sort of new stone giant emerging from a wall, and Link is in what appears to be Hyrule castle.
This is the second climax of the trailer which reaches higher than the first. As the violins finish there's another cut to black.
There are so many moving parts in this shot I wonder how long it took to get. Even if this was composed in-engine, it would be a lot.
The Hero
The first section settled us in, the second established a problem/threat, and this next 53 seconds gives the first story context. Some soft violins play as a man talks to Zelda establishing Link as the hero of the story. Of course, we've been watching him this entire time, but the first dialogue of the trailer spells it all out. From this quiet moment the music slowly builds to a hero shot of Link riding a stone glider.
This next montage features gameplay which is more familiar than the previous one with the flying ship and water orb. This is a very smart choice to lead with footage most distinct from BOTW, and save the more traditional gameplay for later. That said, there's still a lot of new stuff in here. Link wields a sword with a shield on it, glides past a giant stone orb in the sky, dodges a fast moving volcanic rock, launches upward into the air, drives a cart full of NPCs, uses some time freezing magic, fights an enemy on opposing mine carts, and more.
The new instrumentation (sounds sort of like saxophone?) of this section sets a nice pace to the action, but there's still room to go even bigger. This is a good quality of middle-of-the-trailer music; it drives everything forward, but doesn't reach peak intensity. There's yet another brief moment of the traditional Zelda theme as this section culminates in the third even higher climax with a massive dragon.
A lot of strong visuals with very clear and unique shapes in new places.
The Final Battle & Denouement
At the beginning of this last 40 seconds, the music holds on a quiet, yet suspenseful note where Zelda says there's something she must do. Then all the stops get pulled out as the threat grows even greater. Some intense drums kick in as the screen is filled with red, a bolt of energy pierces the sky, enemies of increasingly bigger size reveal themselves and Link's arm is engulfed in some dark magic.
We hear a voice say: "You witness a king's revival and the birth of his new world." This is revealed to be Ganondorf in a form we haven't yet seen in this BOTW era iteration of The Legend of Zelda. Once again, the trailer reaches even higher levels of intensity. You can think of this as the trailer cutting back and forth between a problem, a solution, a bigger problem, a bigger solution, etc.
The drums lead into the final, epic Legend of Zelda theme music and new instrumentation. Just like in the BOTW trailer, this ends with NPC characters who aid Link. But this time it looks like they'll fight alongside you as you play. The montage ends when Link faces off with a three headed dragon, Zelda holds The Master Sword and says Link is their final hope, and it hard cuts to the title on the fourth and final climax.
The music plays out, but also some strings come in to let you know there's something more to come. After the title is a denouement with Zelda looking up to the sky telling Link he must find her. This is a nice way to ease down from the dramatic ending, and give a sense of one of the big goals of the story. Three final piano notes play over the release date.
How can you NOT want to be part of this epic battle after seeing this!?
Final Thoughts
This is another incredibly good trailer, and in many ways I like it even better than the original BOTW trailer. I think the dramatic high of Ganondorf's reveal stirs more emotions and hints at a more complete trailer story. The music is epic as ever, and gives me chills at all the right moments. When Nintendo's trailers are good, they're REALLY good.
There's a lot of stuff in this trailer, but it doesn't feel spoilery because nothing in it helps you establish a firm timeline of events. It's likely by the time you play the game you'll forget most of what you saw (unless you watched it on loop in the weeks before release). Trailers which show a lot of story points feel more spoilery when more connections are formed. This trailer's connections are strong enough to hold the trailer together, but loose enough to only show a sketch of what the whole thing is. The only thing we know is: Ganondorf is back, and Link and Zelda must defeat him.
The most unfair online discourse around this game has said things like: "Eh, it just looks like DLC" as if this full sequel was just adding on a few things or "more content." While I never felt that based on what I saw in previous trailers, this one really shows the scope of what to expect from Tears of the Kingdom. This feels like a full on, epic sequel.
Massive amounts of applause to the Nintendo team for this amazing trailer!
One note: please caption your trailers for accessibility. Despite uploading multiple versions of this trailer dubbed in different languages (and with release date formatting appropriate to each region) there are no captions on these trailers, which for a company as massive as Ninte
