Loading screen maps and movement physics are just some of the elements from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that Nintendo is trying to patent.

Some patents are specific to Link's latest adventure, including Riju's lightning ability, which lets the player target enemies with a bow and bring down a lighting strike wherever the arrow lands.

What is more of a concern are patents for baseline game design and coding that apply to plenty of other video games on the market. One of the hopeful patents relates to the physics of a character riding on top of a moving vehicle and reacting dynamically to it in a realistic manner.

While the difference is how the software codes these interactions and links so that the objects he rides on move together at the same speed, technically stationary on top of a moving object is expected in the physics of other games.

The two are functionally the same, but given that plenty of video games display characters who can walk around on top of moving vehicles, it's doubtful this approach hasn't been used before.

On top of trying to patent the tech, Nintendo seeks to patent the loading screen when the player is fast-travelling across Hyrule. This specifically refers to the screen that shows the map transition from the player's starting point to their destination. Sure, that's specific and not something every game utilises, but it's still such a general concept that it feels almost petty to patent it.