From the story to the soundtrack, this game just hits different. Throughout the whole game, you can feel that Remedy has their own vision of what a game should be - and this vision is just so fucking good. This game feels like Remedy made a TV series, but then decided "let's just make it a game". The story is as deep as stories can be, the graphics made me fall in love with this dark, muddy color-grading and the soundtrack is absolutely insane.

And it couldn't be more fitting to this game than not even being able to comprehend or explain why this game is so good - it just is, and you can only try to understand when you play it yourself.

Tears of the Kingdom is one of the best games I have ever played, and when it comes to open worlds, it even clinches the #1 spot in my opinion. Yes, it is a sequel, so if you played Breath of the Wild, you will probably not feel the same as you felt when that first modern open world Zelda game came out. However, at least that was what happened to me, you will think about how the developers managed to make everything feel new, special and almost magic in a world that you have been to before - This is where this game really shines.

The story is oh so well written and neatly implemented into the universe that BOTW initiated. Not often have I had a moment in a game where I thought "holy f*ck, please let this game never end". And this moment happened about 60 hours into my playthrough. "60 hours?" you may think. Yes, TOTK is a long game, and I would not recommend playing this as a matter of clearing your backlog. One of the greatest strengths is how they combined the open world and the story. If you want to progress in the story, that's ok, but if you don't, that's even better.

The team behind this game proved that a sequel can build on it's predecessor and by implementing new innovative ways to play (sky islands, underworld, building mechanics), there is not one occasion where you think "I kinda miss that from BOTW".

Furthermore, the soundtrack is just incredible, and is easily comparable to the likes of RDR2 and Elden Ring.

Now, why does this game not get 5 stars?
For one, graphics. And I don't mean the graphic style, I hope that it is to stay, but without that aliasing and maybe a higher base resolution, it would definitely look better.
Secondly, the main dungeons do fall short in comparison to BOTW, as they do feel repetitive and boring gameplay wise.


This game is a piece of art