The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out in the wild and is just as mystery-filled as it's predecessor, with one of the earliest being who exactly is this mysterious Rauru character?
Happy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launch day to all of those lucky enough to have the day off work (your boss definitely knows you're pulling a sicky). We're only five months in and it seems like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already poised to be the game to beat for Game of the Year this year, receiving countless 5/5 and 10/10 scores (including our own Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review ) and is currently tied with Nintendo's own Super Mario Odyssey for the highest rated game of all time on Opencritic, so it must be pretty good huh?
Link's newest adventure gives him a fancy new hand filled with magical powers, but who is this strange Rauru character who the new hand belongs to? If you're far enough into the game to have met him you'll know how his arm came to be a part of Link but just in case you're looking this up before starting the game: spoilers for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's opening hours are ahead.
So after Link and Zelda go exploring and find the husk of the demon king (yet unnamed but c'mon you know it's Ganondorf) being held by a glowing hand, the hand falls off and it hits the fan as the husk awakens, blowing up the Master Sword and Link's arm in the process. Link awakens with that same glowing hand now attached to his body, and hearing the voice of Rauru speaking to him, who later pulls a Star Wars and appears to Link in an ethereal form in all of his weird goat-rabbit-man glory.
Who is Rauru in Tears of the Kingdom?
So once you've acclimated yourself to your fancy new arm and flown down to the mainland, you'll find Purah from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild who drops the bombshell that Rauru was the first ever King of Hyrule. What role this mysterious King has to play in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is yet to be seen (aka we're not going to spoil the game here, sorry!), but there is one more interesting fact about Rauru we've ignored so far.
Long-time The Legend of Zelda fans may recognise the name Rauru from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Not only was Rauru one of the seven sages Link had to rescue in the N64 classic, but he was also the helpful / annoying Owl helper Kaepora Gaebora who would catch you in extremely long conversations. Why Nintendo elected to change Rauru from an Owl to a Goat remains to be seen, but now you know a little more about Link's newest companion.
