Games I Played In 2024 - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Console: Switch

Developer: Nintendo EPD

Release Date: May 12th 2023

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an open world action-adventure game with survival and RPG elements that centers around player freedom, creative puzzle-solving, and exploration. The sequel to the universally acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom does something heretofore unseen in the Zelda franchise: it is a direct sequel that uses the first game as a base, including its map, mechanics, and narrative. My biggest concern was that it'd just feel like more Breath of the Wild and not feel different enough, and my fears were abated as the game's marketing carried on. 

Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games of all time, so it was difficult to keep my expectations in check. Making matters worse, it was essentially the last major new thing I really bonded over with my late father, and we were really looking forward to playing Tears of the Kingdom together. Unfortunately, he died of cancer in November 2022 and we never got to play it together. Breath of the Wild was his favorite game, and we played most of the Zelda games together at least once. As a result, my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom was... emotionally rough, to put it nicely. It's the reason I took a year-long break from it after a few months of playing: it was just too hard on me. So, as a lifelong Zelda fan, and with my history tied to Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, it's very difficult for me to be unbiased towards this game. But I'll do my best. I'll also skip a lot of details, considering how massive this game is.

RETURN TO HYRULE OF THE WILD

As mentioned, Tears of the Kingdom uses the same base map as Breath of the Wild. However, it has been noticeably modified and expanded after a certain amount of time has passed between both games. Following the rise of Gloom, a dangerous substance reminiscent of the Malice from the first game, Zelda and Link explore under Hyrule Castle to find the source, and end up finding a mummified Ganondorf, breaking out from his seal. This leads to the Upheaval, an event where Zelda disappears, Ganondorf comes back to life, and Hyrule Castle is sent floating into the sky, alongside multiple other ruins from an ancient people called the Zonai. The Zonai were subtly referenced in Breath of the Wild, and now they play a major role in the game's narrative.

The Upheaval changes the map of Tears of the Kingdom quite drastically. Beyond the ruins littering the skies of Hyrule, the entire map now has a subterranean counterpart named the Depths. Pitch black at first and covered in Gloom, exploration in the Depths is perilous and difficult. The Upheaval has also created and closed multiple caves, changing the landscape in subtle ways. All the major towns have also changed and sometimes expanded. Overall, the map feels new but familiar, rather than just a retread. The Depths aren't the most feature-rich section of the map, but they are a welcome addition nonetheless.

While the map's changes are enough to not make the game feel like a retread of Breath of the Wild, the new mechanics at play make sure to cement Tears of the Kingdom as its own experience. The powers from Breath of the Wild are absent, and now replaced by the Ultrahand, Recall, Ascend and Fuse powers. Ultrahand allows Link to move and rotate any interactible object as well as attach it to other interactible objects, Recall can rewind an object's position, Ascend allows Link to pass through ceilings to the floor above, no matter how high up, and Fuse allows Link to attach materials or weapons to his melee weapons, shield, or arrows. The amount of freedom these four powers grant the player are unparalleled, in my opinion, especially when coupled with the new consumable Zonai Devices, which are objects like fans, rockets, wheels, gliders, fire emitters and so forth that can be used to create machines of varying complexity. The Zonai Devices will function as long as you have energy wells available, which are essentially just batteries that can be augmented with certain items.

As with the previous game, the main way for Link to grow is through doing Shrines. Indeed, there are now a whopping 152 Shrines of Light scattered across Hyrule and its skies. Instead of Shrines, the Depths holds Lightroots directly underneath each Shrine that light up part of the area around them. As a result, finding Shrines is a little easier than before, as exploring the Depths can give you an idea of where they are. The Shrines usually hold puzzles that reward you with an item that can be used to get more health or stamina. These puzzles tend to be a bit on the simpler side, mostly meant to show off what you can do with your new abilities, especially Ultrahand, and showing off the game's incredible physics engine. Notably, Ultrahand is shockingly easy to use; how complex and intrusive it would be was a big worry of mine when it was shown for the first time, but it's actually a very intuitive mechanic. Objects can be rotated 45° at a time and attached at only specific points of other objects. As a result, it's easy to get a hang of and it also reduces the amount of randomness caused by shifting objects a millimeter to the left or right. Other types of Shrines generally are combat challenges or simply a reward with no puzzle. For the latter, the puzzle is actually getting to the Shrine or getting it to appear, usually using Zonai Devices. Thankfully, when Zonai Devices are needed, some free ones are typically hanging around the area where you need to use them, even outside of Shrines.

Just like Breath of the Wild, though there are quests or tasks to complete, there is very little in terms of linearity, and the player can do whatever they want. You can easily do tasks or find items that are required in the story hours before going through that actual story beat. You're also not required to do most of the story in general, just like Breath of the Wild, but there is a bit more that is required this time around. And just like Breath of the Wild, the game's world is initially dangerous, scary and overwhelming, but little by little, you tame the world itself and grow to learn its intricacies by heart. Monster camps that were scary at the start stop being intimidating, weapons get more powerful and useful, you learn new tactics with the new Fuse power, and it just hits that same satisfying rush of feeling like you've become one with Hyrule, perfectly comfortable with it.

For me in particular, Tears of the Kingdom was one of the most engrossing game experiences I've ever had, similar to the previous game. There's just something about both games that inspires a childlike wonder in me. From finding Shrines, to finding Koroks, to doing side adventures and side quests, to simply exploring the wilderness and finding caves, I regularly would lose perception of time and play for hours on end without realizing.

FIXING THE PAST

Though it was universally acclaimed, Breath of the Wild was flawed, as with every game. Namely, people especially targeted its rather basic story (which I liked anyway), the durability system for weapons (which is not an issue, simply a preference), and the lack of dungeons. Along with some aspects of the game not having "counters," such as wet terrain making climbing very annoying and other varied complaints, it's made Breath of the Wild something of a flawed masterpiece in my eyes. As a direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom has the unique (for Zelda) opportunity to address these complaints, and I think it does so with flying colors.

First, the story (should you choose to engage with it, at least) is a lot better and quite unique for the series, and as it's still told in a non-linear way, it's quite fun to piece together everything. Naturally, as a Nintendo game, the story isn't too complex, but it's still effectively told, generally well-acted, and has some of the better characters in the series. Zelda herself is a big stand-out, and I'd say, considering both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, she is the best incarnation of Zelda ever. She is, at the very least, the one that feels the most important to the story. The flashbacks that can be found are even better this time around and feel like unraveling a mystery, and they're also more fun to find.

Regarding the durability system, it is obviously still present, as a key theme of both games is using whatever's available to you in creative ways, but it is made less intrusive with the Fuse power. Fusing materials to your weapons gives them more durability, lengthening their potential usage. The materials can also add different properties to weapons, such as Lizalfos Tails giving weapons more range, or gems adding elemental effects. You can also Fuse two weapons together, or two shields together, for extra attack, range, and defense. Fusing materials with arrows might be the most useful addition to the game. Whether it's fusing wings for more range, bomb flowers for explosive arrows, fruit for elemental effects, or eyes for homing arrows, archery is more in-depth than the previous game by quite a bit. I found myself using bows a ton, even more than in my playthrough of Breath of the Wild.

The new importance of materials also solves another problem that Breath of the Wild had in spades: treasure chests often held weapons or shields that you couldn't acquire because your inventory was full. For some, this devalued exploration to an extent, as the reward, while useful sometimes, was rarely something they wanted. Now, though, treasure chests often give materials instead of weapons, and materials are always in high demand in Tears of the Kingdom. However, their newfound importance has also introduced a small issue: there are so many materials that scrolling through the materials menu or quick menu ends up becoming a chore, and the sorting options are not strong enough to alleviate the issue. While this was also present in Breath of the Wild, there were less reasons to open the materials menu.

Dungeons, a main fixture of Zelda games, are back for real this time. While Breath of the Wild had the four Divine Beast dungeons, they weren't much to write home about, they were short, and the bosses were unremarkable. This time around, there are four main dungeons that tie directly into the game's story, complete with one of the new mechanics: sages. The sages accompany you during dungeons, each with their own unique abilities, and completing the dungeon will allow you to summon them anywhere outside of towns. And, if you don't want them and would rather have a "pure" experience, they're easily toggled on and off.

The bosses are also far better than in Breath of the Wild, being the large and creative creatures usually seen in Zelda games rather than samey monsters. However, their difficulty tends to be a bit on the lower side, being more spectacle than substance. This makes sense, however, since they can also be found in the Depths after being defeated, giving consistent access to their materials. I will say though, the final boss is a great mix of substance and spectacle, and one of the series' best, if not the best as far as I'm concerned.

Being a game with survival elements, the weather is always something important to consider. Beyond having to dress for heat and cold, there are other effects on Link and his weaponry. Notably, high heat will make wooden weapons catch on fire after too long and automatically make arrows catch on fire as well, but also making bomb flowers explode instantly. Thunderstorms will cause lightning to strike down on Link if he is wielding anything metallic (except armor, thankfully). Rain, the most frustrating weather condition in the game due to making climbing practically impossible, now has three notable "counters" that it used to lack. First, an unlockable armor set allows Link to (slowly but surely) climb while it's raining, only slipping every once in a while. There's also the Ascend power, which can be used creatively to bypass climbing in the first place. And you can use the cooking mechanics to create slip resistance elixirs. It was always odd that there was one single weather effect without a way to counter or "tame" it, so it's a welcome addition.

Also, being released so many years after Breath of the Wild, it's fair to expect Tears of the Kingdom to look better. Instead, while it is a better looking game with better animations and visual quality, it still doesn't look that much different due to using the same artstyle. It also performs a lot better than the previous game, which was essentially a Wii U game, but it's not perfect. When there are a lot of effects at the same time, the game will stutter or even briefly freeze while processing everything. The same goes for when diving too fast into the Depths, and in some small areas of the game there are also framerate drops. Some sage abilities also cause a drop in FPS under some circumstances. It's never enough to truly hurt the gameplay experience, and it doesn't happen in important story sections, but it is still noticeable here and there.

One thing I felt, however, was that the difficulty at the start of the game was noticeably higher than Breath of the Wild. It's quite unforgiving at first and even by the end of the game, enemy encounters were rarely ever trivial. This is ensured by the same enemy upgrade mechanic found in the previous game: the more you defeat an enemy type, the more stronger versions will spawn in the world. 

SERENE, BEAUTIFUL, RELAXING

Tears of the Kingdom's massive soundtrack was composed by the team of Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, and Tsukasa Usui. Kataoka also composed the previous game's soundtrack alongside Yasuaki Iwata, and I'm mentioning this not just to highlight the fact that three new composers were part of the team, but because Tears of the Kingdom also reuses Breath of the Wild music when appropriate. Though it makes sense, I would've somewhat preferred if important tracks such as miniboss fights and cities were instead updated in some way, rather than the exact same.

Nonetheless, Tears of the Kingdom's soundtrack is massive and, just like its predecessor, relies a lot on airy, dreamy piano, woodwinds and horns. String instruments are quite rare, and percussion is often sparse when it is present at all. Unlike other Zelda games, the soundtrack is not bombastic or heroic. Instead, it's more subdued, serene and quite beautiful in places. This isn't to say there aren't memorable melodies and hooks, but for the most part you'll be playing in relative silence as the piano and woodwinds play. Big battle themes are more bombastic, sometimes drawing out the entire orchestra, but even the normal battle theme and its variations is quite subdued.

I've made it no secret in the past that, for as good as the soundtrack in Breath of the Wild, and now Tears of the Kingdom, is, it just isn't the kind of music I predominantly want in my Zelda game. I don't find it very memorable or even that immersive in general, though that's not to say I don't think there are any stand-outs. I will say I find Tears of the Kingdom's general vibes better than Breath of the Wild, if only because it doesn't feel like there's only one ambient track playing when out and about. Hyrule Castle gets one of the most menacing and overpowering themes to date, there are musical references to the rest of the series everywhere, but... I still don't find it particularly interesting to listen to. Like Breath of the Wild, I think this soundtrack is a bit divisive, but not as much this time around. To put it into perspective, I generally listen to music from the game I'm writing about, but I've been struggling to settle on an interesting track from Tears of the Kingdom while writing this.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Map and presentation are updated enough to not just feel like more Breath of the Wild.

• New focus on materials makes exploration and doing side content feel more rewarding.

• Great story with good voice acting, good character designs, and likeable characters.

• Unparalleled player freedom in all aspects of the game's design. 

• Impressive physics engine that rarely bugs out.

• Fun evolution of Breath of the Wild that makes it feel distinct enough. 

• Great new core mechanics that encourage creativity and experimentation. 

• Most of Breath of the Wild's flaws are improved upon or improved in a noticeable way.

• Dungeons are fun and the bosses are memorable. 

• Final sequence of the game is especially good, perhaps the best in the franchise. 

• Additional enemy types makes the game feel more varied. 

CONS

• High difficulty at the start could discourage some players.

• Bosses are typically on the easy side; minibosses are usually more engaging. 

• Returning enemy types behave almost identically to Breath of the Wild.

• Grinding materials to upgrade armor or cook good food can be tedious. 

• Infrequent but noticeable performance drops.

• Though still fun, Shrines don't feel as difficult or rewarding as the previous game's. 

 WORTH PLAYING?

Immediately, my answer is a resounding yes. As far as I'm concerned, Breath of the Wild is one of the greatest games I've ever played, and Tears of the Kingdom is even better in basically every way without devaluing its predecessor. They are must-own and must-play games to me.

However, I will say that though Tears of the Kingdom steers closer to the Zelda formula, it's still a stark departure from it. Traditional Zelda fans who disliked Breath of the Wild won't end up loving Tears of the Kingdom just because it's better executed. The focus on building contraptions and the like could also make some shy away.

Paradoxically, I think that while playing Breath of the Wild first makes Tears of the Kingdom's improvements more impressive, it also highlights how close to its predecessor it really is. Playing both back to back will surely lead to fatigue, but having multiple years between playthroughs made everything feel both fresh and familiar. It's fully playable standalone, but I think the evolution from Breath of the Wild is what puts the game over the top for me. 

Nevertheless, Tears of the Kingdom is genuinely perhaps the greatest game I've ever played, and it'll take a lot to beat it. I was fully engrossed in it in a way that only its predecessor did. I lost hours of sleep by accident just playing. It's a game design masterpiece in my opinion. 

And yet, having finished it and completed everything I wanted to in it... it ended up being emotionally unfulfulling for me in a way I wasn't expecting. Because all I wished for while playing was that I wanted to share that incredible experience with my dad.

I think he would've absolutely loved it. Maybe I should just take solace in that.