Switch 2 Zelda upgrades have achievements, weird GPS voice assistant

On top of the improved graphical performance for the Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, there will be a suite of new features in the Nintendo Switch phone app, including an achievement system and, strangely, a voice navigation assistant.

The new service inside the Switch app is called Zelda Notes. It only works for the Switch 2 versions, and is “designed to provide a more streamlined gameplay experience,” according to the overview trailer.

The app has achievement-like medals you can earn for doing things like traveling long distances, defeating enemies, collecting rupees, and other metrics. Medals are tracked globally and you can view what other players have earned compared to yourself in the app, too.

All I can say is that it’s a very Nintendo move to add achievements to only two Switch 2 games that exist solely on a service inside of an app. You could speculate on whether this means Nintendo is gearing up to finally make its own version of achievements in the year 2025, but we all know within ourselves that this is probably a weird one-off thing we’ll never see again.

Another major feature of Zelda Notes is voice navigation, which looks a lot like a GPS assistant that can tell you where to find things like Koroks, Skyview Towers, Shrines, and more. In the short demo, a player selects a map icon on their phone and the voice calls out directions to a Korok hidden under a rock in Tears of the Kingdom.

To me, it’s an odd feature to include for two open-world games about the joys of exploring and discovering things. There’s no shame in using guides when you’re stumped, but I’m not sure these games would be as much fun if you spent the entire time being told where to go. It makes more sense to use it for finding something in a pinch or cleaning up what you missed. Honestly, I’m having trouble trying to think of who Nintendo thinks this is for.

One of the things you can use the navigation assistant to find are a bunch of new voice memories from Zelda, King Rauru, and Master Kohga. These short audio diaries are scattered around the world and let you hear the characters’ thoughts on locations and moments in Hyrule’s history. All the Zelda lore heads out there will have a new reason to boot up their old save files.

The app also lets you share blueprints for your Tears of the Kingdom builds — a feature that would’ve been nice two years ago — as well as gift items to other players, edit screenshots, roll for small daily in-game bonuses, and get rewards for scanning amiibo.

The Zelda Notes service will go live inside the Nintendo Switch app on June 5, the same day the Switch 2 launches, along with the upgraded versions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.