the legend of zelda tears of the kingdom is here and at this point its probably no spoiler to say the titular princess is once again a nonplayable character in her own series nintendo says its open to giving zelda a starring role in a future game but only if theres a particular sort of gameplay that fits herwe feel like what takes most priority is this idea of gameplay producer and series boss eiji aonuma tells vanity fair if it turns out that the particular gameplay were trying to bring to fruition would be best served by having zelda take that role then its possible that that could be a direction we could take with that said of course because we are not sure what the next gameplay experience is going to be we cant say what zeldas next step is going to bezelda has never been the primary playable protagonist in her own series though she is briefly playable in certain sequences of the ds game spirit tracks she has been a part of the roster in everything from the grand nintendo crossover of super smash bros to zelda series spinoffs like hyrule warriors and cadence of hyrule and of course she was the lead in the infamous semiofficial cdi gamesplayers have been begging for zelda to be a playable part of the main series for years and theres a new cycle of hope and disappointment every time a new game gets announced and released tears of the kingdom was no exception to those hopes that zelda would be a playable hero nor has it been an exception to the disappointmentits happening again pictwittercomk1u0w708i4june 11 2019see morenintendo has often emphasized that it designs its games with a focus on play above story and characters in a recent interview with the new york times aonuma said that ganondorf is an ingredient that we use to supplement gameplay for examplebut im not sure that argument really has any bearing on the idea of a playable zelda is the mute everyman link really so special as to be capable of handling game mechanics zelda isnt if the series is truly gameplayfirst does it really matter whos in the lead role weve got a perfect opportunity to both get a woman in the lead role of one of the most influential series in gaming and fulfill a longstanding wish from fans of that series at the same timeof course as our zelda tears of the kingdom review breaks down none of this is stopping the new game from being an absolutely incredible package judging by the industrywide response it seems tears of the kingdom is set to be a proper goty contender too in any case maybe that next zelda game will finally prove our hopes to be worthwhilecheck out the zelda tears of the kingdom tips youll want to know about before you start your adventure