Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Proceed at your own risk.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom delivers in a big way in building upon the foundation created by Breath of the Wild. Not only are its mechanics more fleshed out and unique, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom contains a more comprehensive story and more fully realized characters than its predecessor. The sages that Link must unite with in order to defeat Ganondorf are a perfect example of strong character utilization, but one stands out more than the others.
Sages have been a common trope within The Legend of Zelda series ever since Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link introduced them as a concept. In most of their incarnations, sages exist to impart the power of the Goddess onto Link in order to give him the strength to defeat Ganon. Tears of the Kingdom's sages function similarly, but Mineru, the fifth sage, goes beyond what the others are capable of and utilizes the game's construction mechanics to evolve beyond the typical role of a sage.
Tears of the Kingdom's Fifth Sage Mineru Outshines the Others
Over the course of the game, Tears of the Kingdom players will need to deal with the different crises affecting the inhabitants of Hyrule. In doing so, players will work alongside a representative of each of the major races in the game to defeat the minions of Ganondorf who are at the source of these crises, unlocking their powers as sages and collecting their secret stones in the process. With each of their newfound statuses as a sage, players are granted access to their avatars that offer special powers to Link, such as Tulin's ability to create a large gust of wind or Riju's power to strike enemies with bolts of lightning using Link's arrows.
While these abilities are useful for specific situations, the ability of the fifth sage, Mineru, far exceeds the utility of the other four sages. Players will only get access to Mineru after completing Tears of the Kingdom's Regional Phenomena quest line and recruiting the other sages. After this quest line is complete, it becomes apparent that the power of four sages will not be enough to stop Ganondorf, and players will set off in search of the rumored fifth sage, which ultimately leads them to the Construct Factory located in the Depths below Hyrule.
Here, players will build a Construct body for the spirit of Mineru, the sage of light to reside, leading the game's build mechanic to its logical conclusion of creating an automaton. With this robot body for Mineru, players can control her movements and Fuse objects to her hands and back to be used as weapons or tools, opening up a wide variety of combat options when controlling Mineru, making her the sage with the most versatile abilities of the group. For example, players could potentially equip a Flame Emitter in one hand and a Spiked Iron Ball in the other for both ranged and melee capabilities.
Additionally, riding on the back of Mineru can be great for traversal as well, allowing Link to cross patches of Gloom without any issues and equipping items like Rockets or Fans to her back for added movement options. It's a shame Mineru is accessed so late in the game because her versatility would be quite useful for a variety of situations earlier on in Tears of the Kingdom's story. However, it's no surprise that the character who is the sister of King Rauru would be given such an important role from both a story perspective and a mechanical one, becoming accessible only at the game's climax.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for Nintendo Switch.
