Even thoughThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas finished its story, the Sheikah can’t lose their relevance. Sheikah have been a part ofThe Legend of Zeldafor a long time, butBreath of the Wildmade them a far bigger part of the story. It’s a move that worked quite well, and carried over to the next game as well. However, with the series' next move currently unknown, the future of the Sheikah is up in the air. With any hope, the Sheikah will not lose their role in the nextLegend of Zeldatitle.
TheSheikah inThe Legend of Zeldahave been a part of the series since the days of the Nintendo 64, although much of that time was spent out of the spotlight. Although they haven’t historically been as visible as other classicZeldaraces like the Rito and Gorons, they hold an important role all the same. The Sheikah have many ninja-like attributes in their culture, and are some of the strongest allies of the Goddess Hylia and Hyrule’s royal family. They’re quite exciting in terms of lore, and it’s actually fairly surprising that it took so long for them to become more prominent.
The Legend of Zelda Can’t Leave the Sheikah Tribe in the Background Anymore
Impa Represented the Sheikah For Most of the Series
For the longest time,The Legend of Zelda’s Impawas the series' primary Sheikah representative. To her credit, Impa has consistently held important roles, usually being a close associate of Princess Zelda. Impa is such a notable character that she was playable in bothHyrule Warriorsgames, although each game featured a wildly different iteration of her. Zelda’s alternate persona Sheik fromOcarina of Timeis also quite obviously based on the Sheikah, and proved to be iconic despite only one main series appearance. However, despite the notability of both Impa and Sheik, the Sheikah were almost completely absent from the games otherwise.
Breath of the Wild Launched the Sheikah Into the Spotlight
The Sheikah got a much bigger role inBreath of The Wild’s story. For the first time, they had a village full of inhabitants in the form of Kakariko Village, with new prominent Sheikah characters in Purah and Paya. Likewise, the Sheikah Slate is one of the most important tools in Link’s arsenal throughout the game. There was also a splinter group known as the Yiga clan, who acted as recurring antagonists with their own ninjalike abilities. This gave players a greatly expanded look at Sheikah culture and tech that would extend intoTears of the Kingdomfor the story’s second half.
Breath of the Wildfeatured a Sheikah stealth armor set that would be the base for Sheik’s laterSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateredesign.
The Legend of Zelda Shouldn’t Push the Sheikah Away
Future appearances of the Sheikah are currently up in the air afterTears of the Kingdom’s ending, and hopefully they won’t go back to the background. TheBreath of the Wildduology made great use of the Sheikah, and elevated them to the level of the series' other iconic races. It was good to see them actually be a part of the game rather than being relegated to legends outside of Impa’s presence. Not to mention, keeping the Sheikah around presents the chance to do even more with them in the future. Hopefully the developers won’t overlook the potential of future Sheikah appearances.
The Sheikah have finally gotten some spotlight, and it shouldn’t end afterTears of the Kingdom. Adding the Sheikah to the usualraces ofThe Legend of Zeldathat players regularly encounter has a lot of upsides. Not only will Link have even more interesting characters to meet in his journeys, but it could lead to him picking up even more Sheikah tools in future games.Breath of the Wildfinally gave players a good look at the Sheikah, and with any luck, they’ll be sticking around.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
