The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Isn't Perfect-- But It's a Lot of Fun
Iâm super late to review this game. Honestly, I really didnât know how to approach a game like this. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of my favorite games of all time, and I played it during a period in my life that was really rough for me. Itâs tone and overall message that you can move on from something as terrible as the Calamity stuck with me during my teen years, and I havenât played a game like that since. Until now, that is, because Tears of the Kingdom borrows from its predecessor in many key aspects. Linkâs new adventure through Hyrule feels both incredibly fresh and familiar at the same time. It also tends to feel a bit drawn out, and there are definitely aspects of Nintendoâs latest Zelda title that frustrate me to no end. Despite this, I still found myself being wowed by the game nearly every time I sat down to play it, and after rolling the credits, I have more positive feelings than negative.
Gameplay!
Letâs start with the meat and potatoes of the whole ordeal. Most of the time youâll spend in Tears of the Kingdom will be spent exploring the huge map for materials and shrines, solving puzzles, or beating up bad guys (unless youâre getting beaten up, which happens a lot). Youâre tasked with helping out these different settlements around Hyrule, and everything in between is figuring out how to get there. Locations in Tears of the Kingdom have a profound verticality to their layouts, with structures being found high in the sky or deep beneath the ground. Breath of the Wild set itself apart from other games with its quiet and contemplative exploration. Tears of the Kingdom, on the other hand (har har), sets itself apart by chugging an energy drink and giving Link magic powers so he can rewind time, build mechs and murder machines, and travel through solid ground like itâs water. Itâs definitely silly, and makes for a more video-gamey feel, but I think thatâs fine. It works, and itâs fun!
A lot of the new abilities revolve around a material system thatâs neat as hell and adds a lot of opportunity to spice up combat and traversal. When you explore Hyrule, nearly everything you find can be picked up and used to build machines, objects, or weapons, or you can keep them to throw at monsters, attach them to arrows, or cook them into these very delicious looking meals. It sounds convoluted on paper, but itâs not so confusing once you get the hang of things. This system lends to a lot of experimentation, and finding a cool combination of material effects can make you feel like a mad scientist. If youâre still lost, just remember that the new system can be simplified into âattach object to other object to create new objectâ. The building mechanic coincides with this system well, but I donât think I got much use out of it compared to some other folks. You can use objects in the world to build machines with different parts like fans, batteries, water dispensers, wheels, detonators, and a bunch of other stuff. I liked building flying contraptions and little murder robot things (who wouldnât?) but once I built an especially useful vehicle, I caught myself using that more than anything else. Depending on how much you enjoy stretching that creative muscle, youâll either ignore this mechanic or find it game-defining.
Shrines are back, and theyâre excellent. Most of the puzzles you find in the game will be in these shrines, which are basically mini-dungeons. You can find physics puzzles, combat challenges, goofy building challenges, and some other things, so thereâs variety to be had. Shrines are structured in a way where each one teaches you about a specific mechanic that can help hone your abilities, with the challenge building between each puzzle room. You wonât find them too demanding, per se, but theyâll still give you those âahaâ moments, which are a staple of the Zelda series. It feels good to be rewarded with both knowledge and progress towards upgrading health or stamina.
Quests and Progression
Everything you do in Tears of the Kingdom doesnât reward you equally, however, and this is super irritating. You can do an egregiously long side quest just to be given a plate of food that gives you a 30 second low level buff to climbing in the rain, or you can find the strongest shield in the game by stumbling into a pushover boss fight pretty close to where you start. If the majority of these quests were actually fun itâd be fine, as games are primarily an intrinsic hobby, but thatâs not the case here. There are some really entertaining quests, of course, but between those are quite a few fetch quests involving grabbing an oddly specific amount of crickets or fruits or whatever. Plus, so many of them amount to a process where you go to an irrelevant spot to tell someone something, before being asked to go to another spot a distance away to tell the person who asked you for help that you did it, only for them to ask you to grab 10 beehives. Itâs remarkably terrible pacing. Fortunately, you can still find some cool and unique side quests, and there are a few that did stick with me, but expect to groan more than once when a character asks you to grab an oddly specific number of beetles.
The most rewarding quests are the main quests, like the dungeons. Dungeons are essentially ginormous shrine quests with follower buddies that help you solve the puzzles provided. I enjoyed these a lot. The build-up to getting to the dungeon in the first place is normally a bit of a process on its own, which allows the anticipation for the dungeons to build. While the theming for these big old puzzle boxes has potential, any of that potential is squashed by the lack of substance provided. Without spoiling too much, thereâs a dungeon in the game thatâs supposed to be a city, but none of the buildings have any context or purpose. They were just empty, generic structures. Donât get me wrong, the dungeons are still a hoot to explore and conquer, but the lack of world-building and consistency are such a huge step down from the game this one is supposed to be a successor to. There was intention behind the way that areas were presented in Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom does away with a lot of that careful placement.
Story
That criticism seeps into the story and writing, which I found to be more than a little annoying at times. Half of the NPC characters donât even remember Link from the previous game. If youâre making a sequel to a game, one of the easiest things not to mess up on is continuity, but thatâs about as missing as the guardians and towers, which have been simply poofed away without an explanation. Those were one of the most lore important things about the previous title! Even some more memorable characters like Hestu act as if theyâve never met Link. Itâs disappointing. Plus, they quite literally explain the main conflict of the game four separate times in the exact same way with the SAME CUTSCENE, minus the narrator being a different person. Up until the very end, everyone except Link is still half clueless as to whatâs happening. Iâm being purposely vague so I donât spoil anything, but there are points where itâs so obvious that thereâs some bad stuff going on, and every other character is like âoh no weâd better go follow that obvious trick!â This game has less respect for the playersâ media comprehension than actual episodes Bluey, of a young childrensâ show. That being said, Zelda is badass, as usual, and the cast is still as charming and well designed as they were prior. Some stand-outs include Penn (a dorky bird-man who works as a journalist for the âLucky Clover Gazetteâ), The traveling bard group, and the titular Princess Zelda herself.
Presentation
The presentation is also great, but maybe held back a bit by the aging Nintendo Switch hardware. The framerate tanks in certain spots for prolonged periods of time, and sometimes this would happen when thereâs not much going on. Using Ultrahand, having any sort of complicated build, or even just standing around in certain spots will cause these performance issues. Plus, the game isnât particularly sharp on some modern displays. On my older and smaller 1080p bedroom TV and on the Switchâs 720p display, the game looked great, but docking the game to my larger 4K living room set put those smudgy pixels on full display. I think some players wonât mind the lower resolution, owing to the underlying artwork, models and animations, all of which hold up surprisingly well. These types of expansive games and intricate mechanics are seldom seen on Nintendoâs hardware, so the technical achievements Nintendoâs team went for are no small feat. Tears of the Kingdom stands out as one of the nicer looking Nintendo Switch titles.
Audio is another strong point. There are so many little details provided by the fancy sound engine. Grass rustles as you jog through it, and the squirrel you startled squeaks and runs off, disrupting a pile of leaves with a satisfying crunch as it flees. The sound of rain on Linkâs paraglider will soften as a torrential downpour settles into a light sprinkle. Immense and foreboding brass plays as you delve deep into a chasm, and that settles into an eerie ambiance as you take in the pitch black darkness. This is most definitely a game Iâd suggest playing with a good pair of headphones. I donât think a set of Nintendo Switch speakers would do it justice.
In conclusionâŚ
I really liked The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game is undoubtably flawed in many ways, with pacing issues, writing that lacks continuity and disrespects the playersâ intelligence, and progression that doesnât feel very rewarding. Still, the actual moment to moment gameplay is fantastic, and exploring, puzzling, and beating up monsters is still a good time. Stumbling into something new and being delighted and wowed more than made up for the flaws and kept me coming back to play more of this game. Itâs fun. Why else would you play a video-game?