Are you looking to spend the next 150 hours of your life screaming at the ceiling in frustration? If so, then Elden Ring is for you! Hold on, that’s not the right game. Let’s see…here we are: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
A lot of people were skeptical about this game when it was first announced, as they thought that it could never stand up to the greatness of Breath of the Wild. However, when the first gameplay trailers were released, people quickly changed their minds about the game. Now, only a few months after the game’s release, it has already sold half of the copies that Breath of the Wild has. But is the game really as good as its beloved predecessor?
Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is the superior game — it’s not even close. Looking back at Breath of the Wild, it had a vast open world to explore, but it felt mostly empty when you run along a path or ride your horse for an hour without seeing a living soul. Yes, that game’s story was about everyone being gone, but sometimes too much immersiveness can make for lacking gameplay. Tears of the Kingdom not only tripled the amount of exploration you will be doing, but it also packed the world full of both new and returning characters alongside more interesting sidequests and a more intriguing main quest line.
If you’re a returning player from Breath of the Wild, you might find your jaw hit the floor, crash through the floor, and plummet into the center of the Earth when you realize that this game has almost nothing to do with Breath of the Wild. All the ancient Sheikah technology, strange ghosts of Link’s past, and giant mechanical animals the size of continents have all packed up and gone home. However, this works to the game’s advantage, as it allows new players to enjoy the game without having to know the whole story.
Hyrule Castle may now be 800 miles in the sky, but it isn’t crying at all, so what is Nintendo thinking with this completely false and misleading title? While at first glance it may seem that the ‘Tears’ are a metaphor for the suffering of Hyrule’s people over the course of the game, but it turns out it’s quite a bit more literal than that. There are now some fun glowy rocks that make you super strong, but unlike the Avengers, this giant, red-haired Thanos only needs one of these stones to rule over Hyrule. Zelda got one as well, but she decided to have a spontaneous family reunion in the past, so Link is alone in facing the evil. Much like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom allows you to move at your own pace. As soon as you finish the tutorial, you can either play the game that they made for you or do a swan dive directly into Ganondorf’s house, though it is significantly more dangerous this time around.
A lot of people are disappointed with triple-A games raising prices to $69.99, and with good reason, but this game definitely makes up for its high price with much more exciting gameplay, new and interesting mechanics, a more intriguing and thought-out story, and many, many characters and side-quests.
Whether you are a returning player from Breath of the Wild or a new player looking for a fun experience, Tears of the Kingdom is one of the best options. Granted, it’s not a perfect game. People are still annoyed at the weapon durability system, some encounters seem completely unfair, and you still cannot keep a pet crab in Link’s house, but these are miniscule complaints compared to what great things Tears of the Kingdom has to offer.
