Game Review: The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom

 

Perfection. 

It’s a term which is used to reflect the very pinnacle of quality. The idea in that something delivers on all facets of its design and intent in a way that compromises nothing yet delivers on everything. I know there is the consideration that nothing can truly be perfect right? No matter how impressive something may seem, if you look hard enough you will find a crack or a blemish somewhere to make note of.  Personally, I consider perfection to be subjective, it’s all about what you see in something and whether you see the flaws or the successes.   The reason I talk about the subjective consideration behind perfection is because I only just finished playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and I can say without a fathom of a doubt that this game is a clear example of perfection.

Developed and published by Nintendo and released on May 12th, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch; Tears of the Kingdom serves as a direct sequel to 2017’s Zelda title, Breath of the Wild.  Taking place a few years after the events of the prior game, this sequel puts players in the role of Link as he must once more save the Kingdom of Hyule and Princess Zelda from an ancient theat. The game format is a third person, open-world, action-adventure game which presents the player with a familiar map to explore with new additions and variations added. The main selling point of this sequel is the inclusion of the Sky Islands and the Depths. Both the skies above and the pits deep below the kingdom of Hyrule are now opened to explore in some truly interesting ways. As well as new environments to explore, the other biggest element behind this new game is the creative approach you are provided. There is a plethora of tools and abilities at your disposal which will make progressing through the game a far different experience than the one you had six years ago. 

The storyline of Tears of the Kingdom follows Link and Zelda as they unknowingly free the Demon King Ganondorf from his ten thousand year long imprisonment beneath Hyrule Castle. In the wake of his revival, the Demon King begins to spread gloom across the region. Before the duo can do anything to stop his revival, Zelda is teleported away by a mysterious secret stone and Link is carried away to safety by a strange glowing arm. After being saved, Link wakes up to find himself in one of the many Sky Islands which have since revealed themselves in the wake of Ganondorf’s Upheaval.  It is here that Link learns of the ancient Zonai race which preceded the kingdom before it’s founding. It’s ruler, King Rauru presents himself to Link in the form of a spirit and informs him that he must use the arm he has gifted to him in order to overcome Ganondorf’s evil.  From here Link’s goal is to journey out across the sky, land and depths of Hyrule to search for Zelda, reunite the Sages of legend and defeat the Demon King once and for all. 

One of the most interesting points to consider about the narrative behind Tears of the Kingdom is how much more integrated it feels compared to Breath of the Wild. My main takeaway from the narrative of the prior game was that it existed mostly in the foreground and allowed the world to be the main driving force of your adventure. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because the narrative that was there still held promise and some level of intrigue. In Tears of the Kingdom’s case though, the narrative is clearly given more of a presence in the world with a greater scale and weight behind it.  The journey to uncover what happened to Zelda and take down Ganondorf is kept relevant throughout all of your adventure. One of the key aspects of how you will come to learn of the past of the kingdom through Dragon Tears.  Geoglyphs scattered all across the land hold memories of the ancient past and will educate you on the foundation of the kingdom and what led to the rise of the Demon King and the subsequent Imprisoning War.  It’s such a smartly layered element that as you learn about the past, it helps reveal key elements about the present and offers revelations to mysteries you may have considered non-related.  Everything about this narrative is woven to be cohesive with all of your objectives. The story arcs all lap over and culminate into a clear conclusion which comes off as wonderfully epic and satisfying.

The narrative is only as good as the world it is set up in though, right? Well, the big question for a lot of fans including myself, was how can you make this world feel different? I already sunk a large chunk of time into exploring the region of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, how was Nintendo going to be able to justify asking me sink a whole other 100+ hours into this world when it was going to be the exact same map? The answer lies not just on the land, but high above and low below.  The land regions you explore are fundamentally the same terrain and environments you explored in the prior game; however, the development team played it smart by adding new locations, obstacles and points of interest into the map to help differentiate it to a point that things didn’t come off as too familiar. Where the game really flexes its world design though is in the Sky Islands and the Depths.  Each region in Hyrule has a collection of Sky Islands floating high above them and you have the ability to ascend up to them and explore these islands to your hearts content. These islands are remnants of the Zonai’s civilization and subsequently they hold on them the structures and tools from their past. These environments introduce a new enemy type in the form of Constructs. The Constructs served as the Zonai’s labor force; they were mechanical droids designed to serve and protect. Though the Zonai may be long gone, these Constructs still remain and deem you as a potential threat. As you explore these islands and defeat the Constructs you will come to learn a fair bit about their civilization.  Revelation lies not only high above however, as deep beneath the foundation of Hyrule, the Depths have opened up for exploration.  Similar to the Sky Islands, the Depths also hold the remnants of the Zonai’s rule but there is far more danger deep in the shadows of this environment because of Ganondorf’s gloom. The major thing to note about the Depths is its scale. This underground area is literally a 1:1 replication of the surface map in terms of expanse and scale. That is no joke, you are essentially given two brand new maps to explore along with the already existing map. The commitment to expanding this world is clear to see at every opportunity with the more you explore these places, it’s just a phenomenal feat in world design. 

So we have narrative and world design covered, but what about the gameplay? The main driving force behind what keeps you engaging in this world; how does it stack up compared to the initial entry? Well fundamentally you will be doing a lot of the same things you were doing in Breath of the Wild.  You’ll still be walking, riding, climbing, falling, paragliding, fighting and cooking all across the regions. What the key difference here though if you’ll be doing that all in much more style.  The prime selling point behind Tears of the Kingdom is its collection of new abilities. In a bold choice, the prior abilities from the first game have been all replaced with brand new abilities.  With them you will be able to ascend to the surface of any environment so long as you have a surface above you to ascend through. You’ll be able to recall time and send items backwards in their original motion. The biggest abilities of note for me though are the Ulltrahand and Fuse abilities.  Bestowed upon you by King Rauru, you are gifted the Zonai’s abilities to manipulate the objects around you and fuse them together.  These features offer the player near limitless freedom in the constructs and weapons they can create. Nearly every single item in this world can be fused, manipulated and attached together to create something new.  Whether it’s creating stronger weaponry or devising vehicles to overcome terrain; the creative capacity is there for you to play around with and the amount of ingenuity in this system is near limitless.  I’m not nearly as creative as other people out on the internet but all you need to do is check Twitter or YouTube to see the raw potential behind this system. 

Every component of Tears of the Kingdom feels like it was designed in clear unison with one another. Everything simply complements each other in this game where you don’t feel like any of the core systems or design elements is wasted.  You will be using everything provided to you at all the right moments and opportunities.  When I saw a sequel was being made for Breath of the Wild, I had to consider how it was going to be possible to ever really top what was already a fundamentally brilliant game? Tears of the Kingdom answers that questions by continuing to innovate and build on the strong foundation on what came before it. With a far more engaging narrative layered into a world of fantastical proportions high and low with a heavily refined combat and exploration system, there’s not a single flaw you could ever pull out of me when talking about this game. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is in my honest opinion, a perfect video game experience from start to finish.