It’s ‘ruff’ that you can’t pet the Tears of the Kingdom dog

Nintendo has definitely gone with the mantra of bigger is better with the latest Zelda game, and as we head out into this fractured version of Hyrule for Tears of the Kingdom, the world is your oyster. While there were few complaints in 2017's Breath of the Wild, there are even fewer in Tears...well, apart from a pretty major one.

Tears of the Kingdom has addressed Breath's problem of not having classic Zelda dungeons, while there's a massive undermap called the Depths, and a host of new features like Fuse have effectively given a new-gen version of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The big question is, though, can you pet the dog?

Can you pet the dog in Tears of the Kingdom?

Although Hyrule is populated by a host of weird and wonderful creatures ranging from hostile Bokoblins to adorable Kokoks, among them, there are standard animals like horses and dogs. Unfortunately, you can't pet the dog in Tears of the Kingdom 

Famed Twitter account @CanYouPettheDog confirmed our worst fears. In the clip, we see the loyal pooch roll on its bag and look primed for some belly rubs. Instead, a blank-faced Link stares at it without rewarding it for being the goodest boy (or girl). 

As you can imagine, the news went down like a lead balloon into the gloom. One dog-loving gamer raged, "You just convinced me not to buy it, no petting, no money," while another added, "Did the reviewers know about this? seems like that should knock a point off."

A third said, "If you could pet the dog it would be the game of the century, hands down," and a fourth joked, "If you pet it, it would run out of durability and be broken." Clearly, Nintendo didn't expect pettable dogs to be the dealbreaker for Tears of the Kingdom. 

Will you be able to pet the dog in Tears of the Kingdom?

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Back when Breath of the Wild launched, there was disappointment that you could tame (but not pet) dogs. As it's been six years since then, and you've largely reused the same map, we question how hard it would've been to put in a simple "pet" option. 

In a game that includes minor Easter eggs like Link humming classic Zelda tunes, and has added the much-requested cookbook feature, it seems odd that the dog petting debacle wasn't stopped before release. Considering almost everything else was addressed, we're left scratching our heads...but not dogs.

Seeing the very public backlash, there's every chance Nintendo will take note and patch in the ability to pet the dog. As we're so close to being able to do it, we hope it would only be a minor tweak to make Tears one of the best games of all time. Until then, "1/10, couldn't pet the dog."