The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom builds on the mechanics and world of Breath of the Wild, but there are some elements that are absent such as the Sheikah Towers and Guardians. In their place are things like the Skyview Towers and new types of enemies we didn’t see in the previous title. But what happened to the Sheikah tech in Breath of the Wild anyway?
Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who was the director on Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, offered up an explanation in an interview with The Telegraph. He explained that the Sheikah technology simply disappeared – which the people of Hyrule apparently saw. However, Fujibayashi said “it is considered a mystery.”
Fujibayashi told the outlet:
“They disappeared after the Calamity was defeated (sealed). All of the people of Hyrule also witnessed this, but there is no one who knows the mechanism or reason why they disappeared, and it is considered a mystery. It is believed that since the Calamity disappeared, they also disappeared as their role had been fulfilled.
It is, anyway, commonplace for mysterious events and strange phenomena to occur in Hyrule. Thus, people have simply assumed the reason behind the disappearance to likely be related to ancient Sheikah technology and it seems there is no one who has tried to explore the matter further. The main civilizations in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are completely different, so we thought about the game based on concepts that match each of these civilizations.”
