Raising the bar yet again
After 150+ hours I am finally ready to sit down and write this review. Sure it is well beyond the zeitgeist. Everyone has already said everything there is to say about this game, but I still wanted to put my thoughts into words. Zelda is probably the biggest dose of nostalgia there is for me. It was my very first video game ever. I started with the NES and a copy of The Legend of Zelda and Spy Hunter. Needless to say it was what I spent countless hours playing. Hard to believe it has been nearly 40 years since that first exposure and here I am still going on adventures with Link. Zelda has been re-envisioned several times over the years, and Tears of the Kingdom is the perfection of its latest formula. This game is one for the ages.
Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild. The game kicks off after the events of the game and in traditional Nintendo fashion it quickly finds a way to reset all the abilities and hearts/stamina. It is clever in how it is done, and thus begins a brand new adventure for Link to once again discover what happened to Princess Zelda. The story is a lot more involved, much like Breath of the Wild and the environmental storytelling is outstanding. I was invested in the characters, both new and old and everything makes this reinvention of the series feel more grounded in the universe.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Switch
Price I’d Pay: $69.99
The structure here is the same as Breath of the Wild, heck it is even the same map in a sense. This is still Hyrule but things have changed. Areas have undergone various changes over time and it feels familiar while also feeling fresh. Add in the sky islands as well as the mysterious depths and you have a game that feels three times larger than its predecessor, which can be overwhelming. What Nintendo excels at though is making it fun to explore. Every area tucks away interesting encounters and items to collect. I was learning new items and systems even after dozens of hours.
Exploring the world is truly what kept me coming back and staying for hours. Whether I was lighting up the depths or knocking out shrines to upgrade my stamina I couldn’t stop exploring. This game has the perfect loop of “just one more thing…” which had me playing for hours. This is the first time I have run out the charge on my Pro Controller. I skipped most enemies for the first 30 or so hours as combat just wasn’t what was interesting to me. There is so much to see and do and somehow Nintendo has made most of it extremely enjoyable.
Link’s new powers are based around his arm. These replace the ones found in the original game and are much more interesting than before. I admit that I miss the traditional finding items in dungeons to open exploration options, but these new powers are extremely fun to use. I constantly forgot about Ascend when traversing the world, which in itself feels like a cheat. Rewind is a clever way to do certain puzzles and it has been used to break the game which is awesome. Being able to fuse just about anything to anything else makes for some unique encounters and of course building gives so much freedom it feels more next gen than games on much more powerful consoles.
I thought I would hate the whole building mechanic, it has never been something that interests me in other games. Nintendo being Nintendo though has somehow made me feel I couldn’t live without it in future Zelda games. Being able to construct some outlandish contraptions to solve various puzzles is simply addicting. I was creating bridges at first while 50 hours in I was building complex machines to transfer items and of course Koroks across the map. Once you earn auto build it becomes a whole new game. This is the story of Tears of the Kingdom, just when you think you have seen it all, the game opens up a whole new world to explore.
I felt the beasts were the weakest part of Breath of the Wild and the temples in Tears feel much closer to traditional dungeons. There is still a sense of the past game here and these areas all felt tuned well. Some were clearly simpler than others, but the boss battles are all epic. Nintendo has an uncanny ability to make boss encounters feel so epic on all accounts. From the introduction to the mechanics itself. Zelda bosses are still the best in the business. It is impressive that after 40 years they still set the bar every single game.
If I had any complaints it would mostly come from the performance. While it does hold 30fps most of the time it can certainly dip. Nintendo’s aging hardware struggles to keep up with the sheer scope of the game. It is impressive what they accomplished, but I can’t help but wonder what this game would look and feel like on better hardware. The art design is doing a hard carry. So much of the world is interesting to explore and look at. The music is once again more muted, but when it hits, it hits hard. The second issue is the in-game economy is just broken. I didn’t update my game so I could keep using the duplication trick and I feel like nothing was missed in the process.
I could go on and on about this game. It has consumed my gaming time for the last two months and I have not wanted to play much else. I delayed doing the final mission for the longest time as I didn’t want it to end. There is still a ton for me to discover and unlock and I think I am going to keep going back for a long while. Rarely does a game that spans hundreds of hours keep me invested for even close to that long. Nintendo continues to keep this series fresh and while I do love what these new entries are doing, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I do kind of miss the classic design. Still Tears of the Kingdom is by far one of the best games of this generation and if you somehow haven’t played it yet, there is no excuse.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
