While The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom revolutionizes a lot of elements of the series and builds upon the foundation laid by Breath of the Wild, there is still a lot of territory left to be explored that could make for some great DLC. One area in particular that could use some fleshing out is the story of the Imprisoning War that Link sees glimpses of during the Dragon's Tears quest in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Given her prominence in th story, a DLC that focuses on this event would be the perfect opportunity to include Zelda herself as a playable character.
Although no DLC plans have been confirmed yet, the predecessor to Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, did receive an expansion pass with two waves of DLC which make it likely that this most recent entry will follow a similar route. The first wave of Breath of the Wild's DLC mostly consisted of new modes that players could experience like Master Mode, Hero's Path Mode, and the Trial of the Sword. The second wave contained some more story-focused content with the Champions' Ballad quest, but DLC for Tears of the Kingdom could take this concept to the next level.
Tears of the Kingdom's DLC Should Focus on Zelda and the Imprisoning War
Most of the story of Zelda's time in Hyrule's distant past is told through vignettes that play each time Link discovers a Dragon Tear at one of Hyrule's Geoglyphs. While the player is able to piece together a decent picture of what happened during this time through these visions and from speaking with the Sages in each temple, the next logical step for the game's DLC is to re-tell the story from Zelda's perspective. Not only would an expansion like this be a great way to further delve into the game's lore, but would provide the perfect opportunity to remix some of the game's core mechanics.
A DLC like this should primarily focus on Zelda coming to terms with her powers as the Sage of Time, which could introduce new gameplay mechanics as well as build upon those present in the base game. Rather than putting an emphasis on Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand or Fuse abilities, Zelda could utilize only the Rewind ability of the base game along with some other new potential time-based abilities. Puzzles could then be designed around navigating shrines or dungeons with the limited abilities of Zelda, forcing players to think differently from how they did in the base game.
From a story perspective, players could get to see a remixed version of the base game wherein Zelda must gather the original Sages from the Rito, Zora, Goron, and Gerudo tribes. This type of story would be a great chance to better establish these unnamed Sages as more developed characters similar to the Champions in Breath of the Wild. It would also allow fan favorite characters like Mineru, the Sage of Spirit as well as King Rauru and Queen Sonia to have more time in the spotlight.
Even if this type of story is not present in a DLC expansion for Tears of the Kingdom, it could come in the form of a Hyrule Warriors prequel game similar to what Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was to Breath of the Wild. With so much more story left to tell in many of these characters from Hyrule's past, it would be a shame if The Legend of Zelda series did not expand upon them. Given Tears of the Kingdom's story structure, the perfect foundation is already in place for DLC that features Zelda exploring these characters' stories in the lead-up to the Imprisoning War.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for Nintendo Switch.
