On the 12th May 2023 Nintendo released the next game in their long running Legend of Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A sequel to the extremely successful game Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which as the Nintendo Switch launch title back in 2017. With the initial announcement some worried this game would amount to nothing more than expensive Breath of the Wild DLC, I must say that that’s not true. With all extras added to this game I’m not sure anyone could consider Tears of the Kingdom anything but a great follow up game that stands on it own merit as much as the support Breath of the Wild gives it.
The story in this game is greatly expanded from what Breath of Wild offered with 18 beautiful cutscenes and a captivating story in each region following the sages you collect across the story. I am not ashamed to say these stories touched me deeply and I can easily see myself revisiting them in years to come. The world is also greatly expanded, the area of Hyrule has been revamped and changed but is still familiar enough for those who put too many hours into Breath of the Wild to intuitively know our way around and finding the new things is also exciting. This time however we also get to explore the Sky and the Depths two brand new areas that we have never seen before and I loved exploring both.
Although the Sky islands are small and spread out they provide a unique challenge and provide a good resting spot from the monster if you just wish to chill and walk around in this world. The Depths on the other hand are as expansive as Hyrule itself and are a mirror to it. They provide a perfect challenge if you want some harder battles and provide a great exploring challenge too. I really enjoyed how seamless the transition is and only notice loading times when I skydive down the holes to the depths at max speed rather than glide down slowly which is pretty impressive consider the Switch hardware.
A few common issues from Breath of the Wild have transferred over but with new solutions making them much less of an issues. The first one is weapon durability, thanks to the new Fuse ability you can just make great weapons whenever you need. All you need is a semi-decent base weapon and a high level enemy monster drop and you have yourself a top end weapon made up and ready to go. This has left me with way less issues of wanting better weapons and I find myself using all my best as I know I can just a fuse a new one of similar quality when it eventually breaks. The second issue that carried over is the lack of ability to climb while it’s raining but thanks to a new armour set or potion you can just negate this issue completely and climb to your hearts content without worrying about the rain.
I do have a few gripes with the game such as Sage abilities being a bit hard to activate when you need them a few too many accidental activations and the lack of story addressing certain major elements from the Breath of the Wild such as the technology we used in our quest there. However a really nice touch is that all your horses from Breath of the Wild transfer over if you have the save data which has allowed me to traverse Hyrule once again with my trusted steed.
Myself and my Steed from Breath of the Wild exploring Hyrule Plains once again
The last point I want to mention is the creative freedom this game provides. Thanks to all the abilities there are many ways to complete shrines in unusual and perhaps unintended ways which makes every single one fun and exciting to do as you never know how your going to be able to solve it.
This creativity also extends outside of the mini challenges of the shrines thanks to the Zonai devices. I won’t go into them too much here but if you have seen any crazy death machines you can thank the Ultra hand ability and Zonai devices for that. I have used it a small amount and although I couldn’t get the launch mechanism quite right I did make a flying death machine using lasers and cannons that could easily take down enemy camps if I have enough battery power and I am only scratching the surface as I have seen other build what basically amounts to a real world modern fighter-bomber using just these abilities and devices and decimate enemy camps in one pass.
Another great feature is the house you are able to build in the outskirts of Tarrey town. The freedom to build in whatever shape or design you want with which ever room you chose.
The upper floor of my house with my bed room and painting room. My cooking and storage area was on the ground floor.
Overall Tears of the Kingdom is an outstanding game which is well worth your time playing that encourages each player to take their own path leading to each play through being different and exciting. Overall I would recommend the game as a solid entry in the Zelda series.
Have you played the latest Zelda game? Did you enjoy the latest offering in the series? Let us know below!
WRITTEN BY RavenSplat
EDITED BY Solace
IMAGES SOURCED FROM - Nintendo.co.uk - Images taken from in game by Ravensplat
