The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has a line referencing a fan-favorite character who's been curiously absent from the sequel.
Be warned: there are very light spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom in this article.
If you're familiar with 2017's Breath of the Wild, you might remember minstrel Kass, who travelled around Hyrule basically serenading Link with tunes at various points. Kass has been curiously absent from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom though, and fans have been wondering since launch last month where the musician is.
Now though, fans have uncovered a line referencing Kass. On the side quests for the Lucky Clover Gazette, it turns out fellow reporter Penn will casually mention Kass at one point, mentioning there was once a "famous bard" in Hyrule who sung tales of the land itself. If you know Kass at all from Breath of the Wild, you'll know this was his speciality.
The only mention of Kass I’ve seen in this game from r/tearsofthekingdom
This is, so far, the only mention of Kass in Tears of the Kingdom. The bard was actually pretty instrumental in Breath of the Wild's story, and even more so in the Champion's Ballad DLC, so it's really weird to see Nintendo leaving the singing Rito out of the sequel entirely.
"His dialog after finishing the stable quests just makes me think Kass will return with DLC and have a interesting questline for us," hypothesizes one player on Reddit (without mentioning the particulars of the dialog itself). Another player thinks we'll travel to a new location at some point, only to find Kass already there and waiting for us.
Considering Nintendo hinted before launch at DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, we could well be in for a post-launch jaunt. Who knows, maybe the minstrel will be back in action in this apparent DLC, or even waiting for us if we're going to a new location in the post-launch expansion, as the player above wondered.
Check out our best Zelda Tears of the Kingdom armor sets guide for a look at where you can bag the best gear in all of Hyrule.
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