The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is TRULY a generational defining video game.
I just want to take a moment to really appreciate my adventurous experience with this game. The size and scale of this game goes above and beyond anything I could’ve ever expected for a sequel to BOTW and with ENDLESS possibilities on how YOU choose to play this game. To its core, TOTK plays pretty much like BOTW but in its own special way. The abilities you can use in this game gives you a lot at your disposal. Recall which is definitely a much needed and useful ability. It saves me time if I accidentally activate or drop a vehicle I made and simply using it for puzzles was so satisfying to find out how to best use this ability. We have Fuse which I believe is a great new addition but it could’ve been better. Fuse lets you combine weapons with just about anything. And due to this you can get VERY creative with weapons that are not only just stronger but can help you out in other ways like attaching a flamethrower on your shield to burn enemies or attaching a rocket to send up into the sky. My problem with this ability is that weapon durability isn’t a factor that improves with Fuse. I wish Nintendo did better on that aspect since like in BOTW I really didn’t like how easily weapons would brake and it would discourage me from using certain weapons. I also didn’t like Fuse with arrows. To me it felt like an afterthought on how I had to scroll through all of my items to fuse my arrows with items. It got frustratingly annoying as I progressed through the game. Ascend is yet another much needed ability that makes it a lot easier to explore the world and it helped me think more carefully on how I should approach situations in this game. And then we have Ultrahand which is by far the greatest idea (my opinion) that Nintendo came up with for this game. This ability allows you to connect objects to each other. With this, you can build ANYTHING. You can build basics stuff like cars, motorcycles, boats, planes etc. and then you can get complex and build giant moving fortresses, you can make giant robots that are shooting lasers or even build your own dragon and make them as complex as you want. This ability only limited by 2 things. 1) The resources you have to build with and 2) Limited by how creative you can be. And with new abilities begins a grand adventure. With most of the world being the same, there’s TONS of new changes made in the land of Hyrule, most of which I couldn’t get to or just didn’t notice. There’s plenty of new enemies and a new variations of enemies we know from BOTW. Combat is still fun as ever and the boss fights in this game are simple but perfectly executed. In BOTW you got powers from the 4 champions. This time you get powers from 5 sages in which these abilities help a lot for combat so make sure you use the best of what you got. You’ll have shrines to complete again which I believe are amazing. Most people will solve these shrines as intended but again, this game just has endless possibilities since you can in fact find your own special way to solve the puzzles in the shines. I am very much so amazed by it. And there’s lot of similar stuff that comes from BOTW like collecting korok seeds, taming and registering horses, upgrading clothing, cooking food etc, some of which add new aspects or changed aspects. And now there are 2 new sections to the map of Hyrule. We have the Depths which is a MASSIVE underground cavern that’s the size of Hyrule’s entire map. The Depths is by far the most challenging part to explore in TOTK. There’s gloom everywhere which will temporarily disable your hearts if you touch it and you can’t get them back unless you go back to the surface, eat specific food, or by teleporting to a lightroot. Not to mention it’s very dark in the Depths. Enemies also poss more of a threat since they’re covered in gloom so keep your guard up. Besides all of that you will explore many ruins and abandoned mines in the Depths all with secrets and treasures to find. You can also infiltrate fortresses that belong to the Yiga Clan. And personally for me, my favorite part of this game are the Sky Islands. Something many people need to consider is don’t underestimate these Sky Islands. Yes, they may be small but most of them are very complex and dense to explore. The way you fly from island is so much fun and dynamic. They offer some of the most fun challenges in the game and I loved it a lot. Before I talk about the story I also want to appreciate how the towers function in this game. It helps me a lot to get around Hyrule to explore.
Honestly though, the biggest flaw for me in TOTK is the story. I don’t hate it, what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t all that impressed by the story like how I was with BOTW. And don’t get me wrong, TOTK has its moments that really stood out. I honestly wish I did the Tear Memories sooner because it really did make the story a lot more interesting. All voice actors did good on their roles of their characters. There are new characters along with returning ones as well from BOTW. Also, I LOVED Ganon as a villain. His voice actor completely nailed his role and he’s just such a badass villain. Other than that I was pleased by a decent story that I was glad that I didn’t miss, especially during its climatic moments. While I wasn’t a big fan of the story, it’s still a damn good story nonetheless.
Just like my review, I have barely even scratched the surface of the amount of things I can do and see in TOTK. Even now at 120 hours I still have many upgrades to do for my gear and abilities with plenty more to do. TOTK feels like a totally new game that complements BOTW and I wouldn’t say a game of this scale is just a $70 DLC. And for anyone who believes that, I’m not here to say you’re wrong. I’m just here to say that I STRONGLY disagree. BOTW is already a phenomenal game and TOTK is just a masterpiece in its own right despite its flaws that I didn’t like but it was at least tolerable. With all that being said I wonder how Nintendo could possibly top off a game like TOTK.
I just want to take a moment to really appreciate my adventurous experience with this game. The size and scale of this game goes above and beyond anything I could’ve ever expected for a sequel to BOTW and with ENDLESS possibilities on how YOU choose to play this game. To its core, TOTK plays pretty much like BOTW but in its own special way. The abilities you can use in this game gives you a lot at your disposal. Recall which is definitely a much needed and useful ability. It saves me time if I accidentally activate or drop a vehicle I made and simply using it for puzzles was so satisfying to find out how to best use this ability. We have Fuse which I believe is a great new addition but it could’ve been better. Fuse lets you combine weapons with just about anything. And due to this you can get VERY creative with weapons that are not only just stronger but can help you out in other ways like attaching a flamethrower on your shield to burn enemies or attaching a rocket to send up into the sky. My problem with this ability is that weapon durability isn’t a factor that improves with Fuse. I wish Nintendo did better on that aspect since like in BOTW I really didn’t like how easily weapons would brake and it would discourage me from using certain weapons. I also didn’t like Fuse with arrows. To me it felt like an afterthought on how I had to scroll through all of my items to fuse my arrows with items. It got frustratingly annoying as I progressed through the game. Ascend is yet another much needed ability that makes it a lot easier to explore the world and it helped me think more carefully on how I should approach situations in this game. And then we have Ultrahand which is by far the greatest idea (my opinion) that Nintendo came up with for this game. This ability allows you to connect objects to each other. With this, you can build ANYTHING. You can build basics stuff like cars, motorcycles, boats, planes etc. and then you can get complex and build giant moving fortresses, you can make giant robots that are shooting lasers or even build your own dragon and make them as complex as you want. This ability only limited by 2 things. 1) The resources you have to build with and 2) Limited by how creative you can be. And with new abilities begins a grand adventure. With most of the world being the same, there’s TONS of new changes made in the land of Hyrule, most of which I couldn’t get to or just didn’t notice. There’s plenty of new enemies and a new variations of enemies we know from BOTW. Combat is still fun as ever and the boss fights in this game are simple but perfectly executed. In BOTW you got powers from the 4 champions. This time you get powers from 5 sages in which these abilities help a lot for combat so make sure you use the best of what you got. You’ll have shrines to complete again which I believe are amazing. Most people will solve these shrines as intended but again, this game just has endless possibilities since you can in fact find your own special way to solve the puzzles in the shines. I am very much so amazed by it. And there’s lot of similar stuff that comes from BOTW like collecting korok seeds, taming and registering horses, upgrading clothing, cooking food etc, some of which add new aspects or changed aspects. And now there are 2 new sections to the map of Hyrule. We have the Depths which is a MASSIVE underground cavern that’s the size of Hyrule’s entire map. The Depths is by far the most challenging part to explore in TOTK. There’s gloom everywhere which will temporarily disable your hearts if you touch it and you can’t get them back unless you go back to the surface, eat specific food, or by teleporting to a lightroot. Not to mention it’s very dark in the Depths. Enemies also poss more of a threat since they’re covered in gloom so keep your guard up. Besides all of that you will explore many ruins and abandoned mines in the Depths all with secrets and treasures to find. You can also infiltrate fortresses that belong to the Yiga Clan. And personally for me, my favorite part of this game are the Sky Islands. Something many people need to consider is don’t underestimate these Sky Islands. Yes, they may be small but most of them are very complex and dense to explore. The way you fly from island is so much fun and dynamic. They offer some of the most fun challenges in the game and I loved it a lot. Before I talk about the story I also want to appreciate how the towers function in this game. It helps me a lot to get around Hyrule to explore.
Honestly though, the biggest flaw for me in TOTK is the story. I don’t hate it, what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t all that impressed by the story like how I was with BOTW. And don’t get me wrong, TOTK has its moments that really stood out. I honestly wish I did the Tear Memories sooner because it really did make the story a lot more interesting. All voice actors did good on their roles of their characters. There are new characters along with returning ones as well from BOTW. Also, I LOVED Ganon as a villain. His voice actor completely nailed his role and he’s just such a badass villain. Other than that I was pleased by a decent story that I was glad that I didn’t miss, especially during its climatic moments. While I wasn’t a big fan of the story, it’s still a damn good story nonetheless.
Just like my review, I have barely even scratched the surface of the amount of things I can do and see in TOTK. Even now at 120 hours I still have many upgrades to do for my gear and abilities with plenty more to do. TOTK feels like a totally new game that complements BOTW and I wouldn’t say a game of this scale is just a $70 DLC. And for anyone who believes that, I’m not here to say you’re wrong. I’m just here to say that I STRONGLY disagree. BOTW is already a phenomenal game and TOTK is just a masterpiece in its own right despite its flaws that I didn’t like but it was at least tolerable. With all that being said I wonder how Nintendo could possibly top off a game like TOTK.