The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Year: 2023
Rating: E10+
Time Played: 100+ hours
After The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild broke the 3D Zelda franchise with its open-world gameplay, I was looking forward to the sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While I wanted more of the same things Breath of the Wild offered, there were weaknesses in that entry that I hoped Nintendo would fix in this follow-up title. I may be in the minority here—much in the same way that I don’t care as much for Majora’s Mask over Ocarina of Time—but I actually liked Breath of the Wild more than this game.
Let’s start off with what was great: the story. I felt the flashbacks in Breath of the Wild left some amount to be desired, but the story uncovered during Tears of the Kingdom was leagues better and made for a much more satisfying boss battle with Ganondorf. A lot of the “same” things, like glider exploration and combat, made this game fun to play, so at least there were a few more enemy types to fight and items to collect.
At some point, I stopped playing this game and almost had to force myself to get back into it. This was mostly because the main “building” mechanic didn’t vibe with me. Every weapon needed to be prepared ahead of time. Every tool needed to be constructed. These things took time and stalled the action. Even though there was more than twice the map size to explore, a lot more of it felt empty. And when I found a key location, it was locked behind the story I hadn’t discovered yet. Overall, I think the story did a lot of heavy lifting here, but Tears of the Kingdom felt like a minor downgrade to Breath of the Wild.
An amazing story, but otherwise a minor step back from Breath of the Wild, I give The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 4.0 stars out of 5.
