I used to be nearly hesitant to dive into Tears of the Kingdom.
I’ll be fairly sincere: I maintain Breath of the Wild on a little bit of a pedestal. As a long-time Zelda fan, it switched up the formulation in a method I didn’t know I wished, and I completely adored it. Its launch was a formative second in my life as a Nintendo fan and an unimaginable to copy expertise. The sport’s opening sequence nonetheless lives rent-free in my head, and the sensation of exploration that adopted has but to be matched.
Consequently, I knew I’d be inherently biased in direction of its predecessor in a method that may unfairly color my opinion of Tears of the Kingdom. And so, foolish because it sounds, Tears of the Kingdom remained unplayed on my Swap for 2 complete years.
With the discharge of the Swap 2 and the title’s attractive new replace pack, I made a decision it was lastly time to alter that. I’d feared that Nintendo had given itself an unimaginable problem with this one. How might they probably enhance upon what I already felt was one of many best video games of all time? Nicely, I used to be fallacious.
Tears of the Kingdom takes place just a few years following the occasions of Breath of the Wild, and it’s clear the dominion of Hyrule is shortly bouncing again to life. The sport’s overworld feels much more vigorous than its predecessor, with much more NPCs, enemy selection and, most notably, landmasses to work together with and discover.
Places similar to cities, villages and stables really feel much more vital to the core expertise this time round. Now not do they serve primarily as store places however function an expanse of facet quests, making Hyrule really feel lived in and bustling with the joy of a civilisation intent on reclaiming what was beforehand taken from them. This supplies a distinctly welcoming overworld—one which inspires you to discover what the world has to supply and help its residents in Hyrule’s return to glory.
The introduction of the Zonai tribe and their sky islands, alongside the depths nestled beneath Hyrule’s grassy plains, supplies gamers with some of the expansive maps I’ve ever encountered. To some, this will sound daunting and overwhelming, and I’ll admit I felt the identical at first. Open-world fatigue is actual, and typically you’ll be able to have an excessive amount of of a great factor. That mentioned, Nintendo have as soon as once more carried out a improbable job at making certain that’s not the case. An ideal steadiness of shrines, overworld puzzles, enemy encampments, treasure-ridden caves, korok seed encounters, and extra ensures continued engagement. You consistently expertise these aha moments everyone knows and love, and it’s all the time thrilling to see what’s over the horizon. The world feels utterly targeted on placing participant exploration on the forefront.
Just like its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom begins the participant off in a tutorial part of the map on the sky islands excessive above the dominion of Hyrule. It cleverly guides the participant by means of new talents with out it feeling overbearing. This enables Nintendo to point out off what’s new about Tears of the Kingdom multi functional go: a complete new set of talents (we’ll get again to them later) and a surprising new space to discover.
Identical to the overworld beneath, these islands are teeming with puzzles and shrines to maintain the participant occupied. Curiously, nonetheless, the world above has a really completely different feeling from the remainder of Hyrule. These islands give off a much more tranquil, remoted vibe that’s extra akin to Breath of the Wild. It’s a distinction that I am keen on and makes the completely different ranges of the dominion really feel distinctive.
Switching focus to what lies beneath Hyrule, the depths themselves really feel considerably underwhelming compared to the remainder of the map. They play an vital function in the principle quest, however exterior of that, I discovered them to be uninviting and slightly uninspired. One space felt like one other, and subsequent to the overworld and sky islands, the depths felt missing in content material and much bigger than obligatory.
To go alongside its vastly expanded map, Tears of the Kingdom options a complete host of latest enemies, respiration recent air into the world and bringing a bit extra pleasure to on a regular basis encounters. I wouldn’t say it’s game-changing, but it surely’s a welcome contact that helps to make the world really feel extra pure and fewer like a Bokoblin manufacturing facility. Oh, and regardless of what number of occasions you do it, you’ll by no means not really feel like a badass if you shoot an Aerocuda out of the sky.
Tears of the Kingdom brings a model new set of talents to the Zelda universe: the 4 you receive within the tutorial part—Recall, Fuse, Ascend and Ultrahand—alongside the digicam and one different, which I’ll keep away from speaking about for spoilers’ sake. Recall primarily permits gamers to rewind time, Ultrahand acts slightly like Breath of the Wild’s telekinesis, and Ascend permits gamers to journey upwards by means of obstacles and land mass, making traversal a lot simpler. Fuse is the place the joy lies, nonetheless.
The Fuse skill is core to the sport’s very identification, permitting you to mix just about any merchandise together with your weapons and shields, rising their energy and sturdiness and utterly altering how they operate, their results, and even their elemental affinities. It’s not fairly on the extent of Borderlands, for instance, however in case you assume you’ll be able to fuse it, you in all probability can.
Ultrahand is basically an iterative model of telekinesis, permitting gamers to control the atmosphere, just like how Fuse allows you to manipulate gadgets. For the typical participant (myself included), this may quantity to constructing towers and sailboats; nonetheless, the extra inventive amongst us will discover enjoyable on this skill. From primary vehicles to Gundams, there’s numerous flexibility and potential.
Shrines make a welcome return, totalling 152 throughout each the mainland and sky islands. These bite-sized puzzles are nonetheless an absolute spotlight of the sport for me and seemingly provide a bit extra problem than their predecessors. I definitely discovered myself scratching my head extra usually, and I all the time loved the method of trial and error when a tough puzzle arose.
One grievance many long-term Zelda followers had with BotW was its lack of traditional-style dungeons. Nintendo clearly took these issues to coronary heart, and I’m happy to say that you’ll find a complete of 4 uniquely themed dungeons inside TotK. Whereas they received’t set data for being the sequence’ most tough or extravagant, they’re nonetheless an pleasant expertise that solely provides to the huge quantity of content material on provide. They definitely really feel like a step up from the Divine Beasts and are an equally core element of the story. The place these dungeons actually excel, nonetheless, is their boss fights. Notably with the Swap 2’s further energy, every one felt like an actual spectacle and has me significantly excited for future Zelda titles on the system.
To maintain this evaluate as spoiler-free as attainable, I’m not going to enter any particulars relating to the story. I can say that Tears of the Kingdom has what I imagine is the perfect narrative within the franchise’s historical past. It’s an enormous step up from something we’ve seen earlier than and delivers a compelling story that had me genuinely intrigued all through. The one draw back is that the sport as soon as once more makes use of a sequence of non-linear flashbacks activated by interacting with completely different geoglyphs throughout the map. This makes you prone to expertise plot factors out of order, which will be considerably complicated. This was much less of a difficulty in Breath of the Wild, the place the narrative took a again seat, however this time round, I feel the story would’ve been higher instructed linearly.
When you’ve collected all of the recollections, my recommendation is to return and watch all of them so as. In any other case, you’re lacking out on one thing fairly particular. The ultimate boss battle towards Ganondorf (Spoiler! Who’d have guessed you struggle Ganon in a Zelda recreation?) is really a sight to behold. It completely encapsulates the magic of the Zelda franchise and appears completely jaw-dropping on Nintendo’s newest {hardware}.
With regards to music, Nintendo by no means telephones it in, and Tears of the Kingdom is definitely no exception. From traversing the fields of Hyrule to the dungeons and set items, each monitor feels tailor-made to perfection. Zelda wouldn’t be Zelda with out its music, and you’ll relaxation assured that Tears of the Kingdom achieves the excessive bar all its predecessors have set.
Reasonably like its soundtrack, Tears of the Kingdom isn’t any slouch with regards to graphical constancy. The Swap 2 turns this recreation into what can solely be described as a Ghibli-like expertise. Traversing the world in 4K at 60fps is an expertise like nothing else, with the sky islands as a selected spotlight. Load occasions are additionally significantly higher on the brand new {hardware}, with instantaneous transitions between the completely different planes of Hyrule.
For comparability’s sake, I performed by means of a part of the sport on the unique Swap, and the distinction in textures, framerates, and cargo occasions is evening and day. The expertise on the Swap 2 is on a wholly completely different degree from the unique {hardware}. At the same time as somebody who transitioned from an OLED mannequin, I nonetheless assume the colors are extra vibrant on the brand new console, because of the HDR implementation. It actually feels such as you’re experiencing the top of Nintendo’s growth experience if you play this title in all its glory.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom units a brand new customary for the open-world Zelda formulation. It’s a very unforgettable expertise that manages to encapsulate the whole lot good about its predecessor whereas setting itself aside from what got here earlier than. When mixed with the ability of the newly launched Swap 2, it really comes into its personal and exemplifies precisely why Zelda is so revered throughout the gaming panorama.
