The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is, for better or worse, more Breath of the Wild. As someone who fell in love with the original Hyrule in 2017, I was thrilled to return to this familiar world. However, while the sequel has its enjoyable moments, it falls short of reaching its full potential. Many of the issues present in the first game are still here, leaving me shaking my fist at Nintendo, wondering why certain aspects weren't improved upon.

The story takes place a few years after the events of the first game, where Ganondorf, previously sealed beneath Hyrule Castle, is stirring once more. Link and Zelda are separated again, with the castle being lifted into the air and Zelda transported back in time to the beginning of Hyrule. Much like the first game, the bulk of TOTK's story is told through memories that you have to find in the overworld. As a result, I often times felt disconnected with the story, as I was once again experiencing a "retelling" of events that have already happened, rather than seeing them unfold before my very eyes. I also experienced the story in the wrong order, which led to some awkward situations. Despite this, I do think that the story is a step up from Breath of the Wild, and while it is no Red Dead Redemption 2 or even God of War, there are some nice moments sprinkled throughout though nothing that really impacted me very much outside of the ending.

Where this game shines for me though, is in how the land of Hyrule has evolved over the years. Although it uses the same map as the previous game, the changes in the landscape provide a sense of discovery and curiosity as you revisit old towns and locales. Climbing tall towers and filling my map with pins was a joy once again, as there was always something fascinating waiting for me to explore whether it was one of the many new caves, a poneglyph somewhere off in the distance, or a giant hole that leads deep underground. Some of my fondest moments playing this game, were rediscovering the towns and seeing how they have developed since the events of Breath of the Wild. There are lots of new NPCs which add to world as they all have something to say, whether it be a side-quest, a joke, or some insight into another NPC, I always found myself talking to them because they're fun to talk to!

"Tears of the Kingdom" also introduces new abilities for Link, such as Recall, Ultrahand, Autobuild, Fuse, and Ascend, each adding unique gameplay mechanics. None of the abilities felt wasted, and I always found myself using them in creative ways, whether it be for a puzzle or for my own curiosities. Perhaps the only somewhat disappointing ability here would be fuse, as you could only fuse one material onto one weapon which was a little more limited than I thought it would be.

With the introduction of the Fuse mechanic, every material you find in the world gains new purpose, adding depth to combat encounters. I found myself enjoying the creative ways I could utilize these abilities in puzzles and combat scenarios. The variety of options made encounters engaging, though I did find the overall difficulty lacking, especially in boss fights. During the first few hours of the game, I found myself dying quite often and having a hard time solving some of the shrine puzzles. However, as I began to understand how my new abilities worked and learned how to use my fuse materials in a more efficient manner, I found myself rarely running into any difficulty. Even the mighty Gleeoks which I have avoided when I first started playing, became easy prey that I could take on with ease. That isn't to say they aren't fun to fight however, but I never really did feel satisfied taking one out outside of my first time.

Another improvement over Breath of the Wild, would be the four main story dungeons that are related to each of the four main towns in Hyrule: Zora's Domain, Rito Village, Gerudo Town, and Goron City. They each have more thematic designs and interesting ways in which you have to enter them, unlike the guardians which were too drab and similar to each other. One dungeon has you jumping across mini ships before you fall into the eye of the storm where a large nordic ship resides for example, which happens to have one of my favorite boss fights in all of Zelda. However, I would say that the puzzles in these dungeons are hit or miss, as some are so bafflingly easy that you're left wondering if it was even a puzzle or not.

Clearing these dungeons provides you with a phantom which acts as both an AI companion and a means for you to access a "sage ability" which is this game's version of the Champion abilities from Breath of the Wild. These phantoms would fight alongside you, mimicing the battle styles of the 4 sages that you would encounter: Tulin, Riju, Sidon, and Yunobo. Unforunately, they're rather underwhelming and I never really felt as if I needed to have them by my side outside of using their abilities. I would have preferred to have the sages themselves as companions, where perhaps, you could increase your bond with them as you travel, unlocking new types of unique gear or even cutscenes.
Not a lot of the abilities felt game-changing either, with Tulin's being the only one I really use regularly which is a shame considering I had a lot of fun using the champion abilities in the previous game, not to mention they were easier to access.
Here, you would have to approach a phantom and interact with them to use their ability which is unneccessarily a hassle.

While the overworld has been a joy to explore, I can't say much the same for the two new maps added to the game: The sky islands and the Depths.
The sky islands are a collection of islands that float high above in the sky, and can be accessed mainly by recalling chunks of land and then riding them, while the depths is an entire underground map the size of Hyrule that you can access by jumping through large holes called chasms.
You can freely go through the three maps without loading screens, which is both fun and impressive to say the least.
However, I felt rather disappointed exploring these maps as they had very little going on for them.
The sky islands have virtually nothing for you to find, outside of small enemy encounters, some puzzles, and chests. The chasm is a large expanse filled with mostly combat encounters, loot in the form of armor pieces that used to be DLC in Breath of the Wild, as well as an optional story quest.
Outside of that however, there was nothing much interesting in their respective environments to make going through them as fun as exploring the overworld, even for the first time.

Similarly, I found that a lot of things about the game left me feeling the same way, such as the caves which are mostly repetitive mini-dungeons that offer very little outside of maybe a chest, some combat encounters, and a collectible related to a quest.
While I was excited at the beginning about the increased enemy variety, there were too little added to make it feel like a substantial improvement and many of them are easily dealt with.
Korok seeds are back, and there are now over a thousand of them for you to get, and yet the reward you get is the exact same as you did in Breath of the Wild.
Perhaps my biggest disappointment, is how upon beating the game, you are once again booted back to before you take on the final boss, thus removing any sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in clearing the story. There is no post-game either, outside of clearing the rest of the quests and seeing what else you haven't yet which is disappointing in this day and age.


This is hard for me to say as someone who was very much looking forward to this game for a very long time. While I enjoyed a lot of the time I spent playing this game, meeting its new wacky NPCs and taking on fun and even memorable quests, it is brought down by my disappointment thinking it could have been much better, especially when I compare it to Elden Ring which largely rewarded the player for exploring by having far more interesting secret locations, encounters, and battles.
Zelda's strengths have always been in its great dungeon designs and fun items. Breath of the Wild excelled in its exploration and freedom but lacked in what made Zelda great, and so a marriage of the two would have been phenomenal. However, I instead got more of what I liked in breath of the wild, and none of the real improvements I was hoping for.