Tears of the kingdom more like tears of myself for multiple reasons. Playing this game was such an interesting experience. My first ever Zelda game was botw and I played it in 2020 so I knew nothing going in. It was an incredible experience and the sense of wonder, exploration, and immeasurable amounts of fun I had while playing it could not be understated. So when I heard there was a sequel coming up I could not wait. However, the game came out in May which was when I got really busy studying for a huge test and I knew I wanted to just play without limitations so I delayed playing the game until October when I would finish the test. Well I began and was having so much fun but then something just shifted after I finished the first dungeon (the wind temple for me) and the game kept losing me. The story had gripped me but the gameplay was not doing it for me and I wasn't having a good time exploring. It felt more so like a chore because of the traversing the map so I completed the fire temple and then water temple and put the game down in November because I was having fun somewhat but I was at times getting annoyed. However I picked it up again a few days ago and did have a lot of fun with the rest of the game (mostly). So now to get into my thoughts on everything.

First I'm gonna start with the story which was storytelling perfection. As I mentioned I have only played botw so beyond that I have no connection to Link or Zelda and I was tuned into the story the whole time. The story made me absolutely adore Zelda to the point that at the end when she came to help fight as a dragon I started crying and then when she was turned back I bawled and then when we had to dive for her I broke down lol. The sacrifice she made because she knew it was the only option was just wow. The time travel aspect was so cool and I like how there was this element all throughout the game of rediscovering this lost civilization of the Zonai it just added so much mystery and wonder to the plot. But ya really strong story wise I mean I'm a crier but I've never cried during a game so Zelda did that girl.

Now for the gameplay and heres where I fault the game a bit. A lot of the core mechanics I enjoyed in botw are still here so theres still a lot to love. Where this game loses me is the sages and aspects of the exploration. Exploring in botw felt awe inducing and every second I couldn't believe what I was witnessing but here that just wasn't there. Maybe it was because I already explored parts of this map but I don't think thats it. If I had to place it I would probably say its because of how you're encouraged to explore which is to use flight and height and so I would travel to a place by just warping to a tower, flying up, and then gliding there whereas in botw I actually had to walk there and got to explore along the way which some may think was more annoying but Rivali's gale really helped make that exploration fun. I truly think if this game had that I would have had so much more fun with it. I understand the Zonai devices can literally duplicate that but I didn't really explore the building because I didn't have a desire to so I didn't create flying machines or anything like that. Which brings me to my next issue which was that goddamn fifth temple and the pacing of this game. The pacing is just not great imo. You do the 4 temples, then you think you're gonna fight ganon but actually its not the final fight (which side note I accidentally almost entered the final ganon fight because I thought you had to go through the depths not to the top and was only stopped because I lacked bombs and rocks in the room right before all those murals). Once you beat the phantom ganons they are like theres actually a fifth sage and your like okay so then you have to find where that is do a whole quest there, then you figure it out climb the island and have to move this mask, then you do that and you have to build this body, then you do that and have to get the stone, then you do that and have to fight a boss, then you still have to get the master sword and its like my goodness I was fully prepared mentally to fight ganon hours ago. So ya not great pacing for me. And it makes it worse that the final temple relied heavily on the building feature I barley used adding to my annoyance lol. However I found the other 4 temples really fun (besides the sages who could never keep up) and stimulating. I loved the lightning temple especially because it had that unique battle before where you had to defend garudo town but even just the puzzle-solving in the temple itself was really engaging. Same with most of the shrines. The sky was fun to explore, the depths not so much. All the abilities were so creative, my favourite was probably recall and fuse because of how much versatility they added to the game. I also enjoyed how much fuse changed the weapons system and really helped that feel so fresh and innovative. The final boss was amazing and I went into it not knowing how to flurry rush because I never bothered to learn it in either game so I learned it in real time while fighting ganon. I sucked at first but it was actually really fun to learn and grow to finally take that loser down. The fight was challenging enough but not too hard (I did it with about 11 hearts) so I really liked that about it because I needed to get better to beat it. Plus the final dragon sequence was incredible.

The music in this game my goodness I want this soundtrack to own because its so good. I got chills so many times because of it and they really outdid themselves. The songs and score just made you feel so much and complimented any aspect of the story/gameplay so well. My favourites are probably the army ganon theme, catching Zelda, the dragon fight theme, and the sky islands theme plus also ofc the main theme. Not to mention the opening title sequence just so cinematic my goodness. Art design was also wonderful!! Anyways this was really long but I did enjoy this game overall, I think in a year or so I might pick it up again and see if my experience changes but for now I'm gonna go play every other Zelda game there is because I want to experience this whole series of games