Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Devs Say They Didn't Borrow Any Ideas From Elden Ring

The developers behind Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have said that they didn't borrow any ideas or inspiration for the Breath of the Wild sequel from 2022's Elden Ring. When FromSoftware released Elden Ring this past year, it was clear that the action-adventure game's world was greatly inspired by the work Nintendo did with Breath of the Wild. And while it would stand to reason that those at Nintendo might in turn be influenced by Elden Ring, it seems that they were far too busy making Tears of the Kingdom to spend time with any other games. 

In a new discussion with RTL Nieuws (translated by Nintendo Everything), those in charge of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom said that they never played Elden Ring, which kept them from being inspired by it in any way. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the director of Tears of the Kingdom, also noted that even if they had experienced Elden Ring, though, they wouldn't "reuse ideas" that were found in that title. 

"Sorry, but we didn't really have the chance to play the game," Fujibayashi said. "We were too occupied with the development of Tears of the Kingdom, which resulted in us not really being able to play games. We did hear about it, though. Even if we had the time to play games, we wouldn't reuse ideas from them. When we make a game, we come up with a general concept to come up with new ideas based on that."

Obviously, this statement from Fujibayashi might not ring true for everyone that worked on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as there were surely some that developed the game that may have also played Elden Ring. Still, when it comes to the general ideas and direction of Tears of the Kingdom, it seems apparent that these broad beats weren't at all influenced by any other games and instead were merely expanded on what was seen in Breath of the Wild. 

If you haven't played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the game is currently playable across Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED platforms. It also happens to be sizably discounted on Amazon for a brief period of time if you're looking to pick it up for cheaper than normal.