Playing A Game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch

Tears of the Kingdom, in revisiting Breath of the Wild's story and environment, isn't just a Zelda anomaly; it's also a big risk. How is a game with the same mechanics, and same environment, supposed to measure up to the sense of wonder - the awesome scale and the intimidating scope - that felt so fresh back in 2017?

With the Depths, is how. Hyrule's Depths, a dark mirror of the overworld, are equally sprawling but well... dark. So dark that you can't see your surroundings, can't see a cliff right in front of you!, without guide lamps. It's confusing, it's spooky, the gloom weakens you, and there are probably monsters hiding right over there!

The Depths recapture the same feelings that made Breath of the Wild so memorable: being overwhelmed by a huge new world, and terrified by its angry inhabitants; getting taunted by its dangers as you carefully work on quests in its margins; gradually powering up and becoming more comfortable in it; and eventually overpowering it by eating its big, weird baddies for breakfast.

Depths aside, many parts of Tears of the Kingdom may appear familiar, but there are enough new angles and remixed challenges to distinguish them from Link's last adventure:

  • The overworld's terrain is mostly the same, but thanks to Skyview Towers shooting you into the air, you don't need to re-tread the same ground all over again.
  • Rito, Zora, Goron, and Gerudo towns need you to solve their problems by beating their dungeons - again - but the dungeons are new, their challenges are new, the bosses are original, and companions with unique abilities tag along!
  • There are another zillion hidden Koroks to find, but they bring some new mini-objectives, like transportation puzzles to help a Korok reach its friend! (granted, I found those ones pretty tedious, but... they're new!)

And tons of content, from caves and shrine puzzles to random sidequests, take clever advantage of TotK's brand new abilities. Using Ascend to traverse vertical obstacles always feels rad. And using Ultrahand construction to solve Addison's hold-up-a-signpost physics puzzles is an easy favorite.

(Ultrahand construction overall works surprisingly well, and is a lot of fun, but does come with clear limits. Like, custom-building a house in Tarrey Town is a trip -- until you reach the 15-piece limit.)

As for the main story, calling it "better than the last game" may not mean much, but it's really not bad. TotK uses the same non-linear-flashback-memories structure as before, except, the plot it reveals actually has meaningful twists and turns. Its characters are still a bit ... vapid, but uncovering the story is worth the effort.

And it lends real weight to the events of the final battle, which is pretty cool, too. Ganon's final form is definitely one of Zelda's more memorable end-bosses.

Tears of the Kingdom isn't without flaws, and if I'm being honest, didn't resolve as many of BotW's quality-of-life issues as I wanted. They added a portable cooking pot! but it's ... single-use, so not super practical. Two-handed weapons still kinda suck compared to one-handers and shields. Climbing in the rain is still a slippery annoyance, even with the new Froggy suit -- it just isn't completely effective.

But! Like last time, those issues melt away in light of Tears of the Kingdom's awe-inspiring new environments, its refreshing twists on the old, and the incredible amount of stuff you can do in its even-more-massive world.

Breath of the Wild set a high bar for any follow-up, but Tears of the Kingdom totally clears it.

Better than: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Not as good as: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I dunno if there'll be DLC, let alone what the 'C' might be: but I hope, I pine, for an equivalent to Skyrim's Hearthfire add-on. More house locations? More room options? Some windows?? Whatever, I just want more house stuff!

Progress: Beat Ganon, found all the shrines and lightroots, did almost all the sidequests.

Rating: Awesome