Is ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ ‘Breath of the Wild 2?’

Legend of Zelda fans have been eagerly awaiting news of the follow-up to 2017’s Breath of the Wild for years now. 

The hugely popular 2017 title reintroduced fans to the perpetually popular Link in a brand new world, and gamers quickly fell in love. Breath of the Wild is broadly considered one of the best Legend of Zelda titles to date, and among the best video game releases of all time. Most LoZ games are standalone titles, released with the intent to tell a self-contained story before branching off into a new world, with a new Link, Zelda, and Ganon. 

It’s long been known that Breath of the Wild is set to deviate from this formula, releasing a second title set in the same world, and the same timeline, starring the same cast of characters. Fans are delighted to finally know when to expect Breath of the Wild 2 to drop, but confusion around the game’s name continues to flood social media. 

Are Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild 2 one and the same? 

Nintendo recently announced the title of one of its upcoming games, Tears of the Kingdom, leaving Legend of Zelda fans confused. They’ve been calling the sequel Breath of the Wild 2 for years, and many fans simply assumed the follow-up game would simply stick to this title. Nintendo has no such plans, however. It announced the game’s actual title in the late summer months of 2022, gracing fans with the freshly-dubbed Tears of the Kingdom during 2022’s Nintendo Direct.

Tears of the Kingdom is the official title for Breath of the Wild 2. As noted above, the game will take place in the same world as Breath of the Wild, continuing the story where Link, Zelda, and Ganon left off. The game isn’t a complete rehash of the original title, thankfully, with plenty of plans to switch up gameplay — and even the topography of the world — as players work to traverse Hyrule.