Tears of the Kingdom is built on ecosystems. Interconnected living things that support one another. As seen in the relationship between the depths, the land, and the sky. Or in how this game relates to Breath of the Wild. Or in how the game existed in my own life. Ecosystem is the word I kept coming back to as I played, diving down to and jumping up to interwoven systems and doing it over and over again, in a cycle that felt propulsive rather than stagnating.

Eventually, I had to stop. I played this game on and off for a year, coming back and going away and constantly surprised at how easy it was to simply enter again as if no time had passed. But eventually I could feel that my time with the game was coming to end, though there were still places to see and people to meet.

That's something beautiful about Tears of the Kingdom. Its naturalistic approach to game design is holistic, and extends to every part. So when I felt that I wanted to leave the game, to fight Ganondorf and put an end to my time in this version of Hyrule, there was no feeling that I was cutting it short.

Earlier this year I spent 100 hours or so playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a vastly inferior game, and so much of my time there could be attributed to a sort of coerced compulsion. I couldn't help myself completing checklists and fast traveling between map markers, and by the end of it I felt totally wrung out.

In Tears of the Kingdom I never for a single moment felt compelled by the game itself to do anything in particular. I simply went where it felt good to go next.

I can seldom think of a game where I've felt so little the pressure of design artifice. The tone here is almost lackadaisical, a set of systems, tools, places, characters just set out here for you to pass through as you will, or as you wont. It's up to you, you're just another part of the ecosystem.

So, it's been a little over a year since I opened Tears of the Kingdom for the first time and I still technically haven't beaten it. What I have done is spent over two hundred hours almost locked inside this game's Hyrule.

From the moment I got my hands on the game to the moment I decided I was done with it this game was almost all I could think about. Though its story leaves a decent amount to be desired, and I can think of a dozen things Breath of the Wild did better, Tears is a game I doubt I'll be forgetting about any time soon. The gameplay here is absolutely stellar, and better than its predecessor's almost perfectly across the board. Exploration is so much fun, ultrahand and fuse are such freeing mechanics, and somehow, they managed to preserve a sense of mystery to the same Hyrule I'd already spent hundreds of hours in in a different game.

One of the areas I think this game really shines in is its side content. They use the game's wealth of tools, and just let the player have fun doing them. The freedom from ultrahand also means I had more opportunities to just get lost on my own goofing off, which produced some of my favourite memories from the previous game. There were so many times I just decided to ignore the main story and ended up doing story flags before I was meant to, and wasn't punished for it, which was such a genuinely amazing feeling every time. And even when my offshoot exploration didn't result in story progress, I was having fun just finding things in this gigantic world. The atmosphere here is also just incredible. The new songs are really good, and I love this game's visual identity, and the many similarities and differences it has compared to the previous.

I will say, this game is one I've rated a ten, but I don't think this is a ten in the same way as BoTW. This game is not as flawless, and its obvious the developers took a lot more risks here, not all of which worked out perfectly. One of its main issues is actually how derivative it is. Though I enjoyed seeing the changes made to the familiar world, the story absolutely didn't have to follow the same four dungeons in the corners of the world structure, and I really wish the sage abilities were better handled. Also, for how derivative the game is, removing all traces of things like guardians was really disappointing. I also wish the game was more voiced. There were a couple times it would have been more natural for a character to speak, but it was obvious they just didn't have an actor for them. For a game of this scope and scale, putting more emphasis on the actual storytelling would have been so appreciated because this game has some of my favourite gameplay of anything I've ever played.

The thing is, though I can complain about Tears, for every bad memory I have of it, I have about ten good ones. I genuinely adore this game, and even after having a full year to think about it, I think this game was absolutely a worthy successor to one of the greatest games of all time, and whether it's traditional, open world, or something completely new, I can't wait to see what's next for 3D Zelda.

What a FANTASTIC game! What can I say that others haven't done so in great detail!

I had a rocky start with the game, being soft locked in the tutorial, but I am so glad i gave it another shot and made it through! The story is impactful, the gameplay addicting and it really builds upon BotW (if you loved it you'll adore this one too).

Only gripe is that this game is a bit unforgiving at the beginning. If you rush through the story line too fast without doing every single shrine on the way, you'll be way out of your depth and fast. However, if you manage the balance, you'll be a-ok!

Seriously, go play it!!

Well this was a big disappointment. I liked Breath of the Wild alright but wasn't crazy about it so was hopeful they had made some changes Unfortunately they went the wrong direction. The combination mechanic was neat but frustrating and it felt out of place in the game. The world was huge but devoid of character. The different regions were just interchangeable with the same basic stuff to do. The music was sparse and just kind of background stuff but nothing you'd listen to outside of maybe falling asleep to it. Sound design was well done though and the art style was same as BotW which i think is good but frame rate was worse.
If you just like wandering around aimlessly and spending forever traveling with the hope of entertainment hidden somewhere then I'm sure it's fine. I got fed up with the basic loop and when I realized after a couple dozen hours that yeah, this was all there was to do, I shelved it. A rare miss for the franchise. Here's hoping they start from scratch on the next one.

PROS: Sound effects, art and interesting combination mechanic
CONS: Lack of direction and entertainment

I won't say is overrated because it is a great game. But yeah it is overrated (I had to say it).
BOTW existing is what poison this game the most since is basically the same game with the new merge mechanic (which is AMAZING, don't get me wrong)
But the game turns me in to the kind of player I don't wanna be: a league of legends player who spends 5 hours a day clicking for apples and frogs.
everything is built around wasting your time farming around and doing the least interesting quests I've seen in a long time.
Tha "story" was cool, except there's no story and the flashbacks are told with .mp4 that plays when you get closer.
I played 114 hours and I finished it but I didn't love it.

Tears of the Kingdom sofre ao tentar seguir os passos de um gigante como Breath of the Wild. Acaba faltando inovação e o encanto que fizeram do seu antecessor, que resulta em uma experiência que, sendo agradável, não atinge o mesmo nível de excelência do anterior por parecer mais do msm, isso se da pela falta de inovaçao e vc sentir mais do mesmo como se fosse uma dlc e nao um jogo novo, apesar de mecanicas diferentes e ate interessantes. Tears of the Kingdom parece uma tentativa de replicar o sucesso sem oferecer novidades substanciais. A história coesa e envolvente, mas que nao me emocionou tanto quanto o de antes. Tear e um jogo incrivel nao me entenda mau, mas sempre estara na sombra do qual realmente decidiu inovar e nao reciclar.

I got a new controller for my switch finally and spent some time tying up loose ends in this game. Finishing the map, doing the last few shrines I missed, and completing the ending one more time. It's very rare that I go back to open-world games as I never have the stomach to restart them. Instead I usually leave just a little of the game uncovered to make a revisit down the line worth it. This did the trick.

The Nintendo Switch's offerings post-covid are so few and far between for me that I didn't feel too bothered paying the premium for this game. In came into my life where getting lost in the world was a much needed break. It's functionally better in every way than the first one but I can't pretend that in the broad strokes I'm still playing the same game I did in 2017. In some ways thats fine because BOTW remains my favorite Zelda game since 2002, but all the additions can't replace the intial excitement I had for the first one. It's Spelunky 2 all over again for me.

I'm probably in minority but I hope the next game is wildly different. This series shines when it makes big leaps and falters when it stays in its lane for too long. It doesn't haven't to completely abandon what it has learn from these two games, but it doesn't have to live there.

Aún me cuesta trabajo creer que este juego existe. Sin entrar en la discusión de cuál es el mejor Zelda o el mejor entre Breath of the Wild y Tears of Kingdom. Creo que cada Zelda ofrece algo distinto, único, que no es repetible en los demás. Pero, como videojuego abordando tantas cosas como historia, tutoriales, diseño del mundo y acertijos, atmosfera, arte, sonido, gameplay y libertad creativa dentro de su impresionante ingeniería… no he visto experiencia que se le acerque ni poquito a la cantidad de cosas que ofrece TOTK, sin que sea apabullante u algo se sienta fuera de este universo.

Hyrule se siente más vivo que nunca y mucho más grande, aunque creo que esto es lo único que viene en detrimento del juego cuando exploras las profundidades. Me hubiera gustado algo más conciso y con un diseño diverso y divertido. Como cualquier otro templo de Zelda.

Fuera de eso, es impresionante como a pesar de que es un mundo ya conocido. Los cambios que sufre el territorio lo vuelven fresco y más aún, implementado con una serie de herramientas como la fusión de armas u objetos, que siempre puedes improvisar una acción diferente dependiendo del escenario. Y es justo eso donde encuentro lo impresionante del juego, lo estoy volviendo a jugar por segunda vez y cada día es una aventura diferente y decido utilizar el espacio a mi alrededor y mis herramientas a mi disposición de formas distintas. Con poder escalar lo que sea, utilizar el planeador para pasar rápidamente a otras zonas y el poder de subir a una superficie más alta hace que el juego se vuelva vertical. No hay repetición de combate en el juego, no hay repetición de armas y los enemigos improvisan en cómo atacar. Tu ruta de viaje puede cambiar cada segundo según tu antojo.

Por todo esto, es una experiencia que sé podría regresar siempre en años venideros. Y no únicamente por el diseño de juego, también porque es un mundo conocido que se siente nuevo. Con muchos guiños a los otros juegos de la serie y una historia emotiva para un juego que se caracteriza por no ser muy complejo en este tema. Además, el final, es creo que mi final favorito de cualquier videojuego y más siendo fan de esta serie.

Podría enumerar distintos momentos que hicieron que mi piel se enchinara o acertijos que me dibujaban una sonrisa en mi rostro por haberlos resuelto de forma astuta. Pero, nunca acabaría, son demasiados momentos, memorables NPC’s, lugares y aventuras que van a vivir en mi memoria por mucho tiempo.

Puedo decir, con seguridad, que este es mi videojuego favorito de todos los tiempos.

the building mechanics, while technically impressive, are completely irrelevant to botw's shortcomings. ultimately this game did nothing to actually improve on its predecessor, and it's worse in many ways. the boss combat design took a huge blow. the dungeons are somehow even worse and even smaller (this water temple ranks as one of the worst dungeons in the entire franchise). the world is messier, less coherent, and less fun to explore. the sky islands are tiny, the depths are empty, the story is held back by the same inane memory system that-- surprise-- sucks this time, too. one letdown after another. deeply formulaic, padded, and predictable. botw was magic, and this game buried that magic

driving the cars IS fun though.