Tears of the Kingdom devs talk about the game’s tragic conclusions

polygon.com:

Before players meet Rauru in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, they see his arm. At the very beginning of the game, Link doesn’t really know what’s going on, but he wakes up with a mysterious appendage that’s not his — and that allows him to harness incredible powers. It’s not much later that Link meets a spirit version of Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and a character who belongs to a race of creatures called the Zonai. In lending Link his arm, Rauru gave the hero the means to go out into the wide world of Hyrule and realize the carefully laid plans of Princess Zelda.

Despite the fact that the Zonai are not physically present in Link’s era, this ancient civilization forms a foundational part of the game’s world. Their technology allows Link to build machines to traverse the land and overcome challenges. Early in the game, Rauru himself appears in spirit form to Link and serves as a key guide in Link’s journey to find Zelda. Polygon sat down with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma and Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi. There, Fujibayashi spoke at length about the writing of Rauru and the team’s approach to creating the Zonai.

[Ed. note: This interview was conducted through interpreters. The quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity. This interview also contains spoilers for the end of the “Dragon’s Tears” main quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.]

Although some players theorized that traces of Zonai civilization were present in Breath of the Wild, this group didn’t appear as characters. Tears of the Kingdom introduced the Zonai characters Rauru and Mineru, and made their technology a key aspect of the gameplay. The game built out the world and lore of the Zonai considerably,