Platform: Nintendo Switch
Completion Time: 45 hours
Difficulty: N/A
Rating: 4/5
Summary: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cannot decide what it wants you to do. Whereas Breath of the Wild was indifferent to the player’s path and decision-making, Tears is so excited to Show and Tell its new game mechanics and epic, linear story beats that Link at times becomes a virtual Buridan’s Ass: caught in between equally appealing activities with hardly any reason to choose one over the other.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Mr. White: “I will! (Holds up the paw, as if half ashamed.) I wish for More Breath of the Wild.”
(Crash on the piano. At the same instant Mr. White utters a cry and lets the paw drop.)
Mrs. White and Herbert: “What’s the matter?”
Mr. White: (gazing with horror at the paw). “It moved! As I wished, it twisted in my hand like a snake.”
-The Monkey’s Paw. W.W. Jacobs, adapted for 2023.
Popular YouTube channel RedLetterMedia runs a series called ‘re:View’ in which the channel’s hosts analyze film and television. Two of the hosts most dedicated Star Trek fans, Rich and Mike, are tasked with most of the videos relating to that franchise. So when Paramount Plus launches each new season of Picard, treating The Next Generation to a sequel, RLM fans impatiently salivate waiting to watch these hosts react to the apparently large departure of the original show. In real-time, two dedicated enjoyers of the source material actively explore how the new material makes them enjoy The Next Generation less. In a similar way, some Game of Thrones fans discuss online their inability to watch the completed television series, even its critically acclaimed first 4 seasons, because of the panned ending.
Tears of the Kingdom made me enjoy Breath of the Wild less: not a whole lot less; not to the point where I dislike Breath of the Wild; but less.
Your Game Immersion Broke!
I really think this sequel let me peer behind the curtain too much. To rip away nearly all the progress the player made in Breath of the Wild, save for registered horses (lol), is to spend many moments remapping the game literally and figuratively. As I glided from one cartographer tower to the next, I had time to think. I thought if every NPC immediately recognizes me as this established helper and swordsman, why doesn’t the game itself treat me with that same familiarity? That is, why behave like I don’t know what the Great Plateau looks like when that’s where my journey began in 2017? And this time, rehashing identical plot points and a tutorial did not establish my first 5 hours with enough motivation to get after identifying similar territory. While the game’s central attempt to make up or these similarities is the addition of two new large zones, they are hardly ever as magnetic as the ground floor of Hyrule that I found myself spending tens of hours without touching either of the new areas. I’m arguing that’s the game’s fault, here. To showcase how many things they added on to Breath of the Wild, while retreading the beats from that game, simply made me feel like there was not a consensus from the developers on what I should be doing at any point.
“Play the exact same song!” “Ok!”
My favorite memories from Breath of the Wild revolved around thinking I was tricking the game into doing something my way, when in reality that game’s structure gave freedom in each puzzle to allow that illusion. It felt like a game finally understood how to be a big brother to me: get me close to a flow state with the most basic rules of an experience, then push me to do something out of that comfort zone while curating a half dozen ways to get past it. Higher and higher the stakes became in that game and still I felt like I was just cunningly skating by whenever I had to learn something new. A slacker’s favorite game, maybe. And with that illusion, what I think was a perfect indifference to what I did, came a feeling of respect and possibly admiration from the game’s developers. That’s why it hurt to see its sequel symbolize a plate too full to truly enjoy.
I did enjoy a lot of my time with Tears of the Kingdom, in the same way most people did. “Glorified Shop Class” has been rolling around since the game released. Indeed every time the game asked me to stitch together a Frankenstein’s Monster of fans, batteries, control sticks, and actual rockets just to transport my character one football field away was genuinely fun.
My issues came from the story beats being so familiar. And this is different than the normal echoes in the Zelda series. I don’t mind our tentpole character names appearing generation after generation. It’s always endearing to ponder what new batch of iterations Zelda, Link, Impa, But a retelling of the conflict from Breath of the Wild is a step to far: you are awakened to find that you’re the only hero capable of collecting the power of four great teammates to defeat Ganon so you engage with their spirits and they help you defeat the final boss VS. you are stripped of your powers and are the most capable person to gather the descendants of four great warriors to defeat Ganondorf, so you do. On top of this, the conflict in Tears of the Kingdom necessarily involves you hearing about how the last band of warriors at the dawn of the kingdom lost—the exact same backstory as Breath of the Wild. Nothing that an NPC or a cutscene describes as hopeless or dangerous ever seems that impossible because I’ve already done it.
Elden Ring
Is it just a symptom of having played Elden Ring (2022) that I felt the desire to overanalyze this game for teenagers? That game is all about steering towards anything that looks just capable enough for you to handle. The Tarnished’s first glance at its open world includes seeing a golden knight that most players will not get one hit on until they’ve spent a dozen hours in the game. Once I defeated my first Guardian in Breath of the Wild and realized their robotic legs were as durable as printing paper, I hardly ever missed a chance to fight them. Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t noticeably iterate on the simplistic combat system from its predecessor; I never felt the need to get strong enough to fight its newer Hydras scattered around the map.
Durability—meet Zonai Devices
Why? Why do Zonai devices expire after a length of time? Why can’t I charge these over and over again? If my flyer is souped up with enough fans to carry a blimp, enough batteries to make the Energizer Bunny screech, and enough rockets for NASA to file a missing property report, then why is that eagle shaped masterpiece blinking out of existence before I can take a selfie with ach of the game’s patrolling dragons? Let me charge that sucker until Hyrule’s various watch towers each report UFO sightings. Otherwise? This game should just have a paraglider. But did they get Overwatch 2-itis? “if we want to justify a sequel we can’t simply give them the paraglider again!” No they didn’t. I’m just a little bitter about those devices poofing away when I’m having fun. What I’m saying is I want a DLC that is just 100 various GTA V style custom maps where I’m using the flyers to do cool tricks. Let’s get that going.
The Blonde Dragon in the Room
Another AAA big budget, all-eyes-on-us moment for Nintendo. Another failed opportunity to make its titular character playable in any capacity. I don’t know why I’m so surprised they won’t let us play as Zelda. But I think I was at least hoping we wouldn’t receive ‘damsel in distress’ as a trope for our character’s motivation—again. It really doesn’t make sense even in the context of this tory: Zelda begins the game with Link adventuring, Uncharted couple style. So maybe this round was the final chance for me to remove any lingering naivete: these developers are not interesting in letting you play as Zelda, and they’re frightened we won’t play at all if she’s not in peril. I’ve always thought Link’s motivation is to save Hyrule: that place he lives in. Saving Zelda specifically should be an afterthought, just like any random shopkeeper or jerk knight. Whatever they decide to do next, it’s probably not what I envision. And that’s ok.
Finish Review.... COMPLETE
In a calendar year with so many breakout hits already released (Hi Fi Rush, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16), I was most excited for Tears of the Kingdom. When I began playing, I thought “oh this will be neat, it’s a nod to the opening of the last game” but by the time I finished, I routinely thought “was the last game this empty in between hubs, too?” You can’t perfectly nail down what this game is. Because the creativity involved with the new mechanics is tremendous work and the fact that the game doesn’t crash each time I fuse any two items is a miracle. But I did come here for the story and combat. And I left happy, but maybe not wowed. And expectations of ‘wow’ are partially the marketing’s responsibility and partly my own. Perhaps the expectation was to ‘feel the same feeling I had when I played Breath of the Wild for the first time.’ But the trick is: you can only do that once. Thanks for reading.
Completion Time: 45 hours
Difficulty: N/A
Rating: 4/5
Summary: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cannot decide what it wants you to do. Whereas Breath of the Wild was indifferent to the player’s path and decision-making, Tears is so excited to Show and Tell its new game mechanics and epic, linear story beats that Link at times becomes a virtual Buridan’s Ass: caught in between equally appealing activities with hardly any reason to choose one over the other.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Mr. White: “I will! (Holds up the paw, as if half ashamed.) I wish for More Breath of the Wild.”
(Crash on the piano. At the same instant Mr. White utters a cry and lets the paw drop.)
Mrs. White and Herbert: “What’s the matter?”
Mr. White: (gazing with horror at the paw). “It moved! As I wished, it twisted in my hand like a snake.”
-The Monkey’s Paw. W.W. Jacobs, adapted for 2023.
Popular YouTube channel RedLetterMedia runs a series called ‘re:View’ in which the channel’s hosts analyze film and television. Two of the hosts most dedicated Star Trek fans, Rich and Mike, are tasked with most of the videos relating to that franchise. So when Paramount Plus launches each new season of Picard, treating The Next Generation to a sequel, RLM fans impatiently salivate waiting to watch these hosts react to the apparently large departure of the original show. In real-time, two dedicated enjoyers of the source material actively explore how the new material makes them enjoy The Next Generation less. In a similar way, some Game of Thrones fans discuss online their inability to watch the completed television series, even its critically acclaimed first 4 seasons, because of the panned ending.
Tears of the Kingdom made me enjoy Breath of the Wild less: not a whole lot less; not to the point where I dislike Breath of the Wild; but less.
Your Game Immersion Broke!
I really think this sequel let me peer behind the curtain too much. To rip away nearly all the progress the player made in Breath of the Wild, save for registered horses (lol), is to spend many moments remapping the game literally and figuratively. As I glided from one cartographer tower to the next, I had time to think. I thought if every NPC immediately recognizes me as this established helper and swordsman, why doesn’t the game itself treat me with that same familiarity? That is, why behave like I don’t know what the Great Plateau looks like when that’s where my journey began in 2017? And this time, rehashing identical plot points and a tutorial did not establish my first 5 hours with enough motivation to get after identifying similar territory. While the game’s central attempt to make up or these similarities is the addition of two new large zones, they are hardly ever as magnetic as the ground floor of Hyrule that I found myself spending tens of hours without touching either of the new areas. I’m arguing that’s the game’s fault, here. To showcase how many things they added on to Breath of the Wild, while retreading the beats from that game, simply made me feel like there was not a consensus from the developers on what I should be doing at any point.
“Play the exact same song!” “Ok!”
My favorite memories from Breath of the Wild revolved around thinking I was tricking the game into doing something my way, when in reality that game’s structure gave freedom in each puzzle to allow that illusion. It felt like a game finally understood how to be a big brother to me: get me close to a flow state with the most basic rules of an experience, then push me to do something out of that comfort zone while curating a half dozen ways to get past it. Higher and higher the stakes became in that game and still I felt like I was just cunningly skating by whenever I had to learn something new. A slacker’s favorite game, maybe. And with that illusion, what I think was a perfect indifference to what I did, came a feeling of respect and possibly admiration from the game’s developers. That’s why it hurt to see its sequel symbolize a plate too full to truly enjoy.
I did enjoy a lot of my time with Tears of the Kingdom, in the same way most people did. “Glorified Shop Class” has been rolling around since the game released. Indeed every time the game asked me to stitch together a Frankenstein’s Monster of fans, batteries, control sticks, and actual rockets just to transport my character one football field away was genuinely fun.
My issues came from the story beats being so familiar. And this is different than the normal echoes in the Zelda series. I don’t mind our tentpole character names appearing generation after generation. It’s always endearing to ponder what new batch of iterations Zelda, Link, Impa, But a retelling of the conflict from Breath of the Wild is a step to far: you are awakened to find that you’re the only hero capable of collecting the power of four great teammates to defeat Ganon so you engage with their spirits and they help you defeat the final boss VS. you are stripped of your powers and are the most capable person to gather the descendants of four great warriors to defeat Ganondorf, so you do. On top of this, the conflict in Tears of the Kingdom necessarily involves you hearing about how the last band of warriors at the dawn of the kingdom lost—the exact same backstory as Breath of the Wild. Nothing that an NPC or a cutscene describes as hopeless or dangerous ever seems that impossible because I’ve already done it.
Elden Ring
Is it just a symptom of having played Elden Ring (2022) that I felt the desire to overanalyze this game for teenagers? That game is all about steering towards anything that looks just capable enough for you to handle. The Tarnished’s first glance at its open world includes seeing a golden knight that most players will not get one hit on until they’ve spent a dozen hours in the game. Once I defeated my first Guardian in Breath of the Wild and realized their robotic legs were as durable as printing paper, I hardly ever missed a chance to fight them. Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t noticeably iterate on the simplistic combat system from its predecessor; I never felt the need to get strong enough to fight its newer Hydras scattered around the map.
Durability—meet Zonai Devices
Why? Why do Zonai devices expire after a length of time? Why can’t I charge these over and over again? If my flyer is souped up with enough fans to carry a blimp, enough batteries to make the Energizer Bunny screech, and enough rockets for NASA to file a missing property report, then why is that eagle shaped masterpiece blinking out of existence before I can take a selfie with ach of the game’s patrolling dragons? Let me charge that sucker until Hyrule’s various watch towers each report UFO sightings. Otherwise? This game should just have a paraglider. But did they get Overwatch 2-itis? “if we want to justify a sequel we can’t simply give them the paraglider again!” No they didn’t. I’m just a little bitter about those devices poofing away when I’m having fun. What I’m saying is I want a DLC that is just 100 various GTA V style custom maps where I’m using the flyers to do cool tricks. Let’s get that going.
The Blonde Dragon in the Room
Another AAA big budget, all-eyes-on-us moment for Nintendo. Another failed opportunity to make its titular character playable in any capacity. I don’t know why I’m so surprised they won’t let us play as Zelda. But I think I was at least hoping we wouldn’t receive ‘damsel in distress’ as a trope for our character’s motivation—again. It really doesn’t make sense even in the context of this tory: Zelda begins the game with Link adventuring, Uncharted couple style. So maybe this round was the final chance for me to remove any lingering naivete: these developers are not interesting in letting you play as Zelda, and they’re frightened we won’t play at all if she’s not in peril. I’ve always thought Link’s motivation is to save Hyrule: that place he lives in. Saving Zelda specifically should be an afterthought, just like any random shopkeeper or jerk knight. Whatever they decide to do next, it’s probably not what I envision. And that’s ok.
Finish Review.... COMPLETE
In a calendar year with so many breakout hits already released (Hi Fi Rush, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16), I was most excited for Tears of the Kingdom. When I began playing, I thought “oh this will be neat, it’s a nod to the opening of the last game” but by the time I finished, I routinely thought “was the last game this empty in between hubs, too?” You can’t perfectly nail down what this game is. Because the creativity involved with the new mechanics is tremendous work and the fact that the game doesn’t crash each time I fuse any two items is a miracle. But I did come here for the story and combat. And I left happy, but maybe not wowed. And expectations of ‘wow’ are partially the marketing’s responsibility and partly my own. Perhaps the expectation was to ‘feel the same feeling I had when I played Breath of the Wild for the first time.’ But the trick is: you can only do that once. Thanks for reading.