Can you play as Zelda in Tears of the Kingdom?

Consider this a spoiler warning!

So I’m going to type a bit here to prolong the spoiler reveal. Hey look, I even used an image from the first minute of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the header! Isn’t that nice?

But without further ado, let’s get to what you came here for.

Is Zelda playable in Tears of the Kingdom?

Based on our complete (finished) review playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom, no, Zelda is not playable in the game.

There are numerous reasons for this, which you’ll uncover by doing the titular Tears of the Kingdom questline (which, like Breath of the Wild, is not required to complete the game). “What happened to Zelda” and what she did while Link was resting is a major plot point in this iteration, but it also explains why Zelda isn’t playable here. While it wasn’t really expected that Link would be taking a backseat at any point in this adventure, there is a major story explanation of why Zelda is out of commission.

As far as wishlist-type stuff goes, we have ideas on how Nintendo could approach a playable Zelda in the future! Maybe it’ll happen one day, but for the time being, she is playable in the Warriors spinoffs, and she plays a major role in Spirit Tracks.