The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom almost had a different name. The 2023 sequel to Breath of the Wild was going to be called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Dragon but Nintendo opted to go with “Kingdom” instead of ” Dragon”.
There’s a good reason why it changed the name. According to game producer Eiji Aonuma, who posted a note about the game title in the newly-released art book, emphasising the Dragon in the game might have led fans to speculate its importance and ultimately ruin the game’s biggest story arc.
Spoilers follow:
If you have played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you would know that the Light Dragon, which is seen throughout the game soaring through the sky, is actually Princess Zelda.
While the game focuses heavily on the Light Dragon, the reveal she has been transformed into the creature comes as one of the most heartbreaking moments in the game. The “Tears” aspect also plays a big role in the story but it is spread across the kingdom and the dragon lore.
Aonuma says that putting “dragon” in the game title would have let it slip:
“Letting it slip that the Light Dragon is Zelda would have been a problem, and this had an effect on the title too. One of the candidates for the title that made it to end was ‘Tears of the Dragon’. But it would be a bad idea to have the keyword ‘Dragon’ in the title, and we wanted to have dragon patterns in the logo, but decided otherwise. It’d emphasize the Light Dragon, after all (laughs). But nothing else good was coming to mind, and we were running out of development time… We went through many words, and then one time a staff member suggested, ‘What about Kingdom?’. With ‘Tears of the Kingdom’, it felt like the phrase could connect to the Light Dragon to us, and we could use dragons in the logo. With the title decided, the logo finally became what it is now.”
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released in 2023 for the Switch and went on to break game sales records. The game was confirmed as a standalone story in combination with Breath of the Wild. Meaning it doesn’t fall in line with other Zelda games. If you’re itching for more Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is out later this month alongside a special edition Hyrule Edition Switch Lite console.
Source: Zelda Art Book
