The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — A Masterful Sequel
The Legend of Zelda is a household name, going back all the way to the original game on the NES, released in 1986. The classic tale of the heroic, silent swordsman Link, defending the land of Hyrule from the evil machinations of the dark sorcerer Ganondorf, has been retold for almost 40 years. Since then, it’s become a massive franchise and cornerstone of Nintendo’s library, having similar staying power as Super Mario Bros., Pokémon, and Fire Emblem.
The series has stayed mostly grounded in standard fantasy, though it has dabbled in more sci-fi leanings here and there. It eventually became very prominent with the release of Breath of the Wild in 2017 for both Wii U and Switch, boasting not only a massive open world, but also more explicit magitek elements, most prominently the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. Boasting an impressive visual style, limitless exploration, and memorable cast members, it was an instant hit, with some claiming it to be one of the best games of all time, if not the best.
With such a tough act to follow, how would a sequel stack up to it?
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, released for the Nintendo Switch worldwide on May 12, 2023. Set several years after the first game, the land of Hyrule has started reconstruction after Calamity Ganon was finally sealed away. However, all this comes to a halt, as an ancient warlord known as Ganondorf reawakens underneath Hyrule Castle, and unleashes the Upheaval, a devastating cataclysm that spreads a horrible dark plague called “Gloom” all over Hyrule. With Link barely avoiding death, and Zelda having gone missing, it’s up to the Hero of the Wild to protect Hyrule once again, this time with new powers granted to him by a strange arm donated by the spirit of Rauru, the first king of Hyrule and one of the Zonai, a long-forgotten precursor race.
The stakes are so much higher. Is Link up to the challenge? Let’s find out. WARNING: Massive spoilers are likely to follow, so watch out.
Story
The main plot feels like a more expanded version of the first game’s, following similar plot beats like Link being grievously wounded and being healed by a then-unknown character, Zelda having gone missing, and the four corners of Hyrule now under siege by terrifying natural disasters thanks to Ganon. That said, it still manages to be quite compelling, especially with new members of the cast joining the story.
Whereas Link was more or less an unknown in Breath of the Wild, here, he’s actually well known by just about everyone, and the people of Hyrule are united by him, especially as he helps all four races with the maladies afflicting their homes. It’s a great contrast to Breath’s theme of isolation, where Tears is more focused on unity, even in a terrible crisis. While Link still has to do a lot of things himself, this time the various races don’t just stay secluded in their homes — they all unite and collaborate to prepare for the final battle against Ganondorf.
It was also very interesting to see how the peoples of Hyrule have grown, especially the new Four Sages. It’s most apparent with Tulin and Yunobo, representing the Rito and Goron respectively. Tulin was just Teba’s kid in the previous game, but now he’s a full-fledged warrior with a unique way of handling the trademark archery skills of the Rito — he holds the bow in his talons, and nocks arrows with his beak, leaving his arms free, so he can fly anywhere without needing to sacrifice combat ability. Yunobo, meanwhile, proves himself to be a lot more confident and capable, having shed much of his hesitation and nervousness, and he’s even founded his own mining company on Death Mountain. Quite a contrast!
A welcome addition was also giving far more characterization to Ganondorf, who, in the last game, was reduced to just the equivalent of a sentient natural disaster barely held in check. Here, he gets plenty of opportunity to show just how vile, cruel, and downright hateful he is. It’s best shown in the intro, where, after the seal on his body breaks, he very easily takes out Link — who, by this point, has maxed-out health and stamina, yet gets it all sapped away to the starting amounts — horribly mangles his arm and outright destroys the Master Sword. He lets Link live, deeming him unworthy of fighting him, and opts to just retreat to the Depths to steadily recover his power and wait for someone actually capable of fighting him to face him. He gets plenty more moments in the memory cutscenes as well, the best one being his effortless murder of Queen Sonia and then letting out a chilling, deranged laugh while he’s taken her Secret Stone.
I also highly enjoyed the presence of the Zonai, being the new precursor race of the setting. Though we only get two Zonai characters, Rauru and Mineru (who are just spirits at this point), their impact is still heavily felt. Especially Rauru, whose arm was keeping Ganondorf sealed for eons, and was grafted onto Link’s body both to save his life and to also let him use Rauru’s powers of time, telekinesis, fusion, and phasing through surfaces to defeat Ganondorf.
While all that is great, I will admit, Tears does feel a little stale given how it imitates key plot beats, especially the Memories being the same as the ones in Breath. And while I loved the new Four Sages’ character arcs, the spirits of the original Sages feel so much flatter in comparison. We don’t even get their names, their faces are obscured by large masks, and the cutscenes where they name their successors as the new Sage of their people are all the same, just with different viewpoints. I feel like this was necessary due to the non-linear structure of the game, but even then, they should have accounted for this in some way, to cut down on repetition.
I will say that the final boss was far more satisfying to fight compared to last time. Instead of just Link going it alone with only spirits distantly aiding him, now he has his new Four Sages friends to join him, at least until he faces Ganondorf himself. And the man is a step-up from Calamity Ganon, showing that thousands of years in the Depths have done nothing to dampen his power. The man fights almost exactly like Link, with similar aggression, dodging, and faking you out to bait you into triggering a Flurry Rush for him. And though he transforms into a mindless beast again for the true final battle, here it feels a lot more in character and explicit, as he willingly consumes his Secret Stone — an act that would make him into an immortal dragon, but forever suppress his mind, making him into little more than an animal — just to kill Link. If not for Zelda as the Light Dragon coming to save Link, Ganondorf would have won for sure!
Overall, the game’s story is fairly good, and what flaws it has don’t stop it from being enjoyable.
Gameplay
Tears’ gameplay is an expanded version of what Breath established previously. Like before, Link must explore all of Hyrule, while scavenging materials and equipment to defend against monsters unleashed by the Upheaval. A key part of combat is equipment durability, as all melee weapons, shields, and bows will eventually break after being used or damaged enough times. Nintendo took a chief complaint of the last game, weapon durability forcing you to keep looking for weapons after they break, and not only justified it in-story (the Gloom corroding nearly every single weapon across Hyrule), but also expanded it with the Fuse power. Now, Link can Fuse different objects (mainly monster horns and other weapons, but other things can fuse to them too) to his gear, either giving huge attack and durability boosts, or giving different effects, like mushrooms and springs bouncing enemies away on impact.
In place of the Sheikah Slate and its Runes, Link’s arm courtesy of Rauru gives him a new set of powers. They all feel way more impressive than the last set, especially Ultrahand, which not only lets Link lift ALL objects, not just metallic ones, but even lets him stick them together to construct different things he needs, whether it’s a bridge to get across a gap or a raft with a fan attached to cross a large body of water. This allows for crazy amounts of creativity, to the point you can feasibly create humongous mecha if you have the parts and the patience!
The new Four Sages lend their powers to Link once he helps their peoples, with the side benefit of them also allowing Link to summon spectral avatars of them to his side. Now on top of their new powers, he can also have all of them physically aiding him in the world, so he’s no longer always alone. While I love the ability to have a “party in my pocket” as it were, there are some issues. The Sages’ powers can only be used if you’re physically near them and press a button, instead of having a dedicated button you can use anywhere. And as they love to run around and get in the way of each other, it makes it a lot more tedious to try and activate one’s power. And sometimes they’ll trigger when you don’t want to, since grabbing stuff and using a power is mapped to the same button. Many players have joked about trying to grab something like an apple, only for Tulin to suddenly get in the way and activate his wind gust power, blowing the apple away… just for fun apparently.
Hyrule has also been expanded in dramatic ways after the Upheaval. In addition to the numerous floating ruins in the Sky, which can only be accessed by using something like the Skyview Towers to catapult you into the air, there is also the Depths, a massive underground region that mirrors Hyrule near exactly and must be entered via massive Chasms that have Gloom radiating out of them. For example, where there are lakes in Hyrule, there will usually be huge stone walls, and mountainous regions on the Surface turn into huge pits within the Depths. However, the Depths are much more dangerous, since nearly every monster is coated in Gloom, which will sap your max health away with every blow unless you find a Lightroot or return to the surface. Speaking of Lightroots, the Depths are dark as hell, and the only way to permanently light up the place is to find said Lightroots (which are all found matching where Shrines are on the surface) and activate them, illuminating large regions of the world. Have fun!
In place of the Guardians, you may instead encounter something far more terrifying — Gloom Hands, a collection of twisted arms rising from a mobile Gloom puddle. These hands can only be defeated by shooting the eyes in their hands, while you have to be careful fighting them, as the Gloom can sap your health, especially if they grab you. On top of that, there’s a chance that upon defeating the Gloom Hands, a spectral double of Ganondorf’s mummified body will appear, dubbed Phantom Ganon and putting up a major fight. On top of this, the sky turns blood red as if a Blood Moon is in effect, magnifying the scare factor.
Graphics
Tears of the Kingdom looks more or less the same visually as Breath of the Wild, with the same style of graphics as the 2017 title. While this does mean it looks near identical to the last game, it still ends up being incredibly gorgeous. Hyrule still looks amazing as ever, and now that you can fly high into the sky, you can get a much better view of the whole region from way high up.
In terms of design aesthetics, it’s still a timeless visual design that will ensure it ages well past a few years. I always appreciate games like this, because it means they won’t fall into the trap of looking outdated as graphics power goes up. They’ll still look amazing even on hardware that is outclassed by everything else.
While the game still runs at a max of 30 FPS, I feel that it’s acceptable, because it otherwise runs flawlessly on the Switch. I don’t recall encountering any issues with performance, which means this game runs very well.
Pros
In many aspects, Tears is superior to Breath. There are numerous improvements, chief among them being the expanded weapons systems. The Fuse Power lets you attach nearly anything to your weapons, and I do mean nearly anything — if you can pick it up with your own hands or the Ultrahand power, you can attach it your weapons and shields. Even if the actual effectiveness becomes minimal, it’s still very impressive and can lead to comical outside-the-box tactics.
Speaking of Ultrahand, it feels like the developers looked at Magnesis from the last game and went “Alright but what if we multiplied it by a hundred?” With this power, you can make just about anything you can think of. A fan-powered car or boat are acceptable, as are just really long bridges… but with a good amount of patience, creativity, and resources, you can make huge constructs that really let you show off your creativity and ingenuity. A big boat with turrets and cannons? You got it. A spinning tower with lasers to shred everything in sight? Can do. An honest-to-Hylia giant robot, armed to the teeth with all manner of guns? Very doable!
While you still venture through Hyrule, the developers cleverly expanded the original map threefold. The Surface has all sorts of caves that can be entered thanks to the Upheaval, with treasures and secret enemy encounters lying in wait. The Zonai ruins falling from the sky have also altered the landscape a fair bit. Meanwhile, the Sky, where the majority of the ruins are located, can be accessed at any time as long as you can get that high. And of course, the Depths, being much more dangerous to traverse, but also very rewarding with the Zonaite and previously amiibo-exclusive items being found there.
The developers must have heard about the concerns that the bosses all felt samey, so instead, each main story boss is a unique creature that most certainly fits that era’s aesthetic. Standout examples are Colgera and Queen Gibdo, being a huge insectoid ice creature in the Hebra Mountains and a horrific moth queen in the Gerudo Desert, respectively. Compare them to the various “x-blight Ganons” of before, who all looked like mishmashes of Ganon and Sheikah tech on their bodies.
There’s plenty of callbacks to the previous game’s sidequests too, which is a nice touch. One big example is Tarrey Town, which was a long, expansive questline about setting up a company town for a construction company with a policy of hiring people with names ending in “-son”. It’s a bustling town by the end, and in Tears, it’s even more prosperous, as the company is now utilizing fallen Zonai tech to improve their construction efforts.
On that note, the Zonai themselves are a fantastic addition. I’m sad that we only got to see Rauru and Mineru, especially in the ending where Mineru’s spirit finally passes on, now rendering the Zonai extinct… at least canonically. I like to assume there are Zonai descendants elsewhere in the world, they just haven’t been found yet.
Cons
While Tears is a great game, there are still some issues that are noticeable. One of them deals with the spirit avatars that accompany Link in place of the Sages. The Champions’ Powers in the last game were very powerful and useful, like Revali’s Gale sending you skyward with an on-demand updraft and Daruk’s Protection negating all damage up to three times, albeit all balanced with a cooldown, and mapped to specific buttons. Here, however, the Sages’ powers can only be used by approaching their respective avatar and pressing A on the “Let’s go!” prompt. This is far clunkier than before, as the spirit avatars like to wander around when you’re trying to get their attention, and there’s a real possibility of accidentally using someone else’s power when you didn’t want it. This is on top of having to actually summon the spirit avatars to your side just to have their powers available, instead of being with you no matter what.
Similarly, the actual powers are kind of lackluster. The Champions gave Link an instant full heal (with extra hearts) on a killing blow, an instant updraft, full (temporary) protection against oncoming damage, and a wide-ranged lightning storm. By comparison, the Sages only offer a forward gust of wind, a manually aimed rolling attack that lacks verticality, a temporary water shield that can be used while attacking to launch a water wave, and priming a lightning strike to fire wherever your arrow lands. This, on top of the issues with the avatars needing to be prompted to use them, makes them rather clunky and awkward, especially in a heated fight.
Ultrahand can result in fantastic, impressive constructs, but in addition to the need for Zonai Charges to power devices, some Zonai Devices like wings will eventually disappear when active for long enough. While I kind of understand it as another balancing measure, in practice it’s incredibly frustrating to be casually flying through the skies on my plane to reach a distant destination, only for my plane’s body eventually disappearing when I’m only halfway there. This has resulted in numerous players just fashioning an “air bike” out of two fans and a control stick, so that you can go anywhere as long as you have charge without being forced to bail out because your vehicle decides to disappear for faked balance.
Similarly, the Fuse power can make for monstrously powerful combos, but actually using it is an exercise in tedium. If you want to Fuse an item to your sword or shield, you must go to your inventory, select the item, put it in your hands, then drop it on the ground. Then you are allowed to Fuse the object to your gear. Outside of combat, it’s mildly annoying, but in combat, it can make for precious time wasted on trying to produce a Fused weapon to replace your broken one, especially during a boss battle. Luckily, this doesn’t apply for bows, which just let you select different items for your arrows when you’re already nocking one, even temporarily pausing to let you find the item.
Final Verdict
Tears of the Kingdom improves on some aspects of Breath of the Wild while kind of being worse in others. Regardless, it’s a fantastic game, and it’s well worth your while. I know I enjoyed all my hours of exploring Hyrule a second time.
In closing, I give this game a 9/10. It’s good!
