Highlights

  • Tears of the Kingdom features a wide variety of impressive sights, including sky islands and ancient ruins, providing interesting locations to explore with rewarding discoveries.
  • The game introduces several new dragons, adding to the boss lineup and emphasizing the unique role they play in the Zelda franchise, with a focus on their major story roles.
  • While most dragons in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are neutral or friendly towards Link, the new Light Dragon is actually a transformed Princess Zelda, becoming one of the most powerful allies in the Zelda franchise.

There are plenty of impressive sights to discover in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with even more present than its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. From the sky islands to the Depths, players will find interesting sites like the Zonai ruins and Leviathan skeletons to investigate, almost always with some kind of reward. Link will also have to contend with plenty of monsters, with nothing in Tears of the Kingdom better representing the cross between monsters and points of interest than its stable of dragons.

On top of the three elemental dragons, Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra, Tears of the Kingdom adds Gleeoks and King Gleeoks to its overworld boss line-up, as well as two story-related dragons tied to light and darkness. While dragons have been in The Legend of Zelda franchise before, no game has focused on them quite as heavily as Tears of the Kingdom. Even though only a minority of the game’s new dragons have major story roles, that still means these giant flying lizards stand out as unique in Zelda’s wider context.

Zelda Dragons Naydra Sky Islands Tears of the Kingdom
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Tears of the Kingdom Recalls Past Zelda Games’ Friendly Dragons

The main wandering dragons players will deal with in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are neutral, sometimes even friendly, towards Link. Most of the best Legend of Zelda dragons are bosses, or enemies implied to be distantly related to dragons, like the Lizalfos and Aerafols. Breath of the Wild did technically feature a fight with Naydra, but that was only to free it from a Malice infestation. Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra are always a welcome sight in Tears of the Kingdom, supplying Link with helpful items when struck and even serving as mobile transports across Hyrule and its Depths.

While the three dragons are neutral with helpful tendencies, somewhat like Skyward Sword’s Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru are thanks to the latter’s destructive quirks, the new Light Dragon is more akin to The Wind Waker's Sky Spirit Valoo. Across their adventures, Tears of the Kingdom players will come to realize that the Light Dragon is actually a transformed Princess Zelda, carrying the regenerated Master Sword for Link to retrieve when he’s ready. Combined with coming to Link’s aid in the final battle, much like Valoo did for his Link’s first confrontation with Ganondorf, the Light Dragon is undoubtedly one of the most powerful allies in the Zelda franchise.

Dragon Boss Fights Are Abundant In Tears of the Kingdom Like Always

Tears of the Kingdom may have the highest concentration of friendly dragons in the series, but it also collects most of their antagonistic portrayals as well. Ganondorf is the Light Dragon’s opponent in TotK's final battle, but unlike the one ruling Wind Waker’s Forsaken Fortress, this Ganondorf has become the Demon Dragon just like Zelda did. Besides the non-canon Dragon Knight Volga from Hyrule Warriors, Oracle of Seasons' villain General Onox has been the only other Zelda villain to turn into a dragon, though in his case the Dark Dragon was his true form rather than an emergency transformation caused by a Secret Stone.

Even before Ganondorf sacrificed his identity for ultimate power, his resurrection had already brought back the draconic Gleeoks from the original Legend of Zelda. Just like most of their appearances, Gleeoks serve as multi-headed dragon boss fights, and their fights rank among Tears of the Kingdom’s most magnificent. There have been many other dragon bosses dotting the Zelda series’ history, including Aquamentus, Barba, Volvagia, Stallord, and Argorok, so Tears of the Kingdom shouldn't be the last time players see the classic monster archetype grace the Zelda franchise.