The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Explore the vast lands and skies of Hyrule.
Genre(s): Action Adventure Platform(s): Nintendo Switch Release: May 12, 2023 Developer(s): Nintendo EPD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: The Legend of Zelda Predecessor: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a 2023 action adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. This game serves as the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is the second game in the Era of the Wilds Saga of The Legend of Zelda series and is overall the twentieth game in The Legend of Zelda series.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom retains aspects including the open world of Hyrule, which has been expanded to allow for more vertical exploration. It took six years to develop the game and when it was released, it received universal acclaim.

Plot

After the events of Breath of the Wild, Zelda once again goes missing, forcing Link to find her once again. Meanwhile, Ganondorf prepares to conquer Hyrule once again.

Why It Goes Above and Beyond

1. You are no longer restricted to being on the grounds of Hyrule. You can now explore the sky islands as well as the depths.
2. Amazing graphics, despite looking like they were recycled from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
3. Runes have been replaced with Zonai devices. And they are incredible to use.
   • Ultrahand is basically the default tool, allowing you to build whatever you want with the objects around you.
   • Fuse lets you combine a material with your shield and melee weapon, allowing you to deal serious damage.
   • Ascend lets you go up higher platforms.
   • Recall reverses time on a moving platform, causing it to move in the opposite direction it was heading.
   • Autobuild lets you build a transport immediately without wasting time finding the objects necessary for that transport.
4. The Depths introduces a status effect known as the Gloom. Basically, your maximum Hearts temporarily decrease if you step on it. The only way to fix this is to return to the surface or eat foods that remove the Gloom.
5. Amazing soundtrack.
6. Very engaging and emotional plot.
7. Tight and responsive controls.
8. While many characters return in this game from the previous one, the new ones are welcome additions to the cast.
   • This game marks the proper return of Ganondorf since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess seventeen years ago(not counting spin-off games such as Hyrule Warriors or Smash Bros.), and he is still an awesome main antagonist as ever.
     • On a similar note, Phantom Ganon returned as well, and he hasn't appeared in any games since Four Swords Adventure.
   • Rauru and Sonia, the first King and Queen of Hyrule, are wise rulers who help Zelda restore the Master Sword and find a way to stop Ganondorf. Sonia's death is also heartbreaking, while Rauru gives Link his Zonai right arm.
   • Mineru, Rauru's older sister, serves as Link's spirit guide inside his Purah Pad and later gains a Construct body to assist him in defeating Ganondorf.
9. The final battle with Ganondorf is awesome, possibly the best fight in the entire franchise next to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
   • Similarly, Master Kohga's boss fights (with a total of four) are improvements over his lackluster fight in the previous game due to his clever use of Zonai devices and building. His defeat is also still as funny as ever, being blasted out of the Depths on his rockets.
10. There are some improvements from previous games, such as having more abilities to use and the open world being more bigger than it's predecessor, and the difficulty being more rewarding, yet challenging at the same time.
11. Fun and unique puzzles.
12. The dungeons are improvements over the Divine Beasts of the previous game, as while they still require Link to find a set number of objects and use the Sages' powers on them, they have much more creative level design and utilize the Sages' powers to their fullest. The bosses are also much more varied and fun to fight then previously, particularly Colgera, Marbled Gohma and Mucktorok.
13. After beating each dungeon, you obtain a Sage's power which can be used when you interact with their avatars.
    • Tulin sends forward a gust of wind to allow Link to cross large gaps.
    • Yunobo uses his Goron Roll to smash rocks and other obstacles.
    • Sidon surrounds Link with a water bubble that protects him from extreme heat and clean up the sludge in Zora's Domain.
    • Riju uses an electric field that strikes lightning whenever Link fires an arrow.
    • Mineru has a new vessel in a Construct that Link builds, and you are able to attach Zonai devices to it.
14. Despite not changing much, the gameplay is still just as amazing as last time, and does have some new stuff added in.
15. Many, many, many clothing options this time around, with most of the outfits returning from the previous game, and some new ones including:
    • The Yiga Outfit acts as a disguise for Link so that he can interact with disguised Yiga Clan members without engaging them in a fight. It becomes even funnier when you dye the outfit a different color and they still don't know it's him.
    • A series of outfits based on Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh (Ember, Charged and Frostbite Armor, respectively) increase your attack power in specific weather.
    • The Glide Armor allows Link to better move in the sky and can reduce damage when falling to 0 when fully upgraded.
16. You can obtain Paraglider fabrics to customize your Paraglider, either by completing specific tasks or using Zelda series amiibo.
17. You no longer have to use amiibo to obtain specific costumes, as they are all obtained in the Depths after clearing certain requirements. However, you'll still be able to obtain Paraglider fabrics from amiibo.

Bad Qualities

1. Much of the gameplay remains the same from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but that's to be expected since this is a sequel to Breath of the Wild.
2. While the graphics are amazing, a lot of them feel reused from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
3. For some reason, Kass is entirely absent in this game, and the problem isn't that he is a fan-favorite, but the real issue is that it is never explained why isn't in this game. It doesn't help that neither his wife or kids acknowledge him at all despite their strong familial connection with him, and they should also know what he's been up to, so their lack of any mention of him in spite of this and his absence doesn't make any sense. The fact that he is also only referenced by a complete stranger who barely knows him on a personal level, just rubs salt on the wound.
   • The complete stranger in question, Penn, is also a somewhat poor replacement for Kass; his only motivation to help Link is creating articles for the Lucky Clover Gazette, which is less interesting than Kass's master's book.
4. Related to BQ #3.1, the idea of having past versions of Sages that fought alongside Zelda and Rauru to defeat Ganondorf is good on paper, but they have issues of their own: the ancient Sages barely have any personality, depth or backstory to them outside of flashbacks and certain cutscenes, which also wastes much potential to flesh them out. They repeat the same dialogue needlessly when Link acquires a Sage Stone, which becomes tiring after a specific number of views. Because of all these reasons, they come across as inferior replacements to the Champions of the previous game.
5. The "Find the Fifth Sage" Mission that appears after completing the four main areas and defeating Phantom Gannon is a boring mission that drags the game down a bit, its also poorly explain on what the Player(s) need to do in order to do this mission and were to even find the fifth Sage, thus requiring a guide.
6. Unlike in the past two games with this version of Hyrule, Teba barely has a role in this game, being reduced to a bland background character and new Chief of Rito Village. Additionally, he isn't properly voiced in this game, which is strange.
7. The Gloom Spawns are especially frightening, due to them appearing without warning and their creepy design (crimson red hand-like appendages with a single eye in each palm). The fact that the sky turns red (as in the Blood Moon phenomenon), the creepy music that plays when they appear, their scary cries and the near-impossibility to outrun them without teleportation are more than enough to give other scary enemies (such as ReDeads, Gibdos, Death Hands and even the Guardians from the previous game) a run for their Rupees.
8. While the Sages' abilities are good to use, they often feel intrusive and require you to get close to their avatars to activate them, something Breath of the Wild's Champions' abilities never had.
   • While Tulin's gust is useful for crossing large gaps, you may accidentally activate it while picking up materials and they'll blow them all away.
   • Sometimes, when the player is building something, they could accidentally activate Yunobo's rolling power and destroy their own creations.
   • Sidon's water shield isn't very useful outside of the Water Temple, Gerudo Desert and Death Mountain caves.
   • Riju's lightning field takes forever to fully charge up and leaves Link vulnerable to attacks, which cancel the power if he is hit.
9. While this game is more present-day focused than its predecessor, it often feels over-corrected, to the point where the events of the previous game are rarely brought up. As a result, there are many inconsistencies with the story, and most of them are continuity-focused:
   • Major plot hole: What exactly happened to the Sheikah technology, Guardians and Divine Beasts? You'd expect that the four major races, NPC's, Symin, Robbie or even Purah of all people would know why they aren't there anymore, but they never mention them once; as a result, the most important technology of the previous game is gone with no explanation.
   • Another confusing thing is that most of Hyrule, barring major characters, doesn't remember any of the accomplishments Link did for them, despite him going through all the troubles to save the kingdom from Calamity Ganon.

Reception

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom received "universal acclaim" from Metacritic with many praising the expanded open world, improvements to the previous game, and the Zonai abilities. More than 10 million copies of Tears of the Kingdom were sold in its first three days of release, making it the fastest-selling game in The Legend of Zelda franchise, as well as the fastest selling Nintendo game in the Americas with over four million copies sold in the US alone.

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