Thanks to a new art book, we’ve learned some behind-the-scenes information about Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s name. Nintendo recently released the “Master Works” art book in Japan, giving us a glimpse into the making of Breath of the Wild’s stunning open-world sequel.
In an interview in the book, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that the game was almost called Tears of the Dragon. A slight spoiler warning now for those of you who haven’t played the game – read ahead with caution! According to Aonuna (translated by Nintendo Everything), “Letting it slip that the Light Dragon is Zelda would have been a problem, and this had an effect on the title too.”
Aonuma and his team knew that emphasizing the importance of the dragon to Zelda’s character in the game’s title and marketing would be a bad move, but “nothing else good was coming to mind, and we were running out of development time.” It was actually another colleague who suggested Kingdom instead of Dragon, leading to the game name and logo design that we have today.
We can’t help but wonder if Tears of the Kingdom would have become one of the best Zelda games to date with a different title, especially one that gives so much of the plot away at first glance. We’re also anxious to see what other interesting tidbits come out of the Master Works art book.
There you have it – Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s name was almost Tears of the Dragon. If you’re after more merch of one of the best fantasy games on the Switch, check out our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom amiibo guide next.