This review contains spoilers
Incredible problem-solving mechanics are unfortunately somewhat wasted on a copy-and-pasted world that lacks the originality and wonder required to sustain its 100+ hour playtime (if you intend to see everything it has to offer).
Not only is the game too similar to Breath of the Wild (retaining its poor combat system, clunky UI and ability to eat food and swap clothing at any time in the pause menu), but most areas with "new" content are too similar to others within this very game. The Depths is mostly empty with the occasional mine, enemy camp (with reused enemies) or boss fight (also reused). The Sky Islands are mostly a handful of repeated base structures with minor variations across the map, with the same enemies and bosses and often the same rewards.
There are far too many "Rauru's Blessing" shrines that offer no challenge or puzzle whatsoever - and they waste the player's time with unnecessary load screens. The shrines in general are somewhat improved over BotW, but are still far too easy. I would often solve a puzzle and say "that's it?" when reaching the exit. Dungeons may be themed better than before, but are still boring, trivial check-lists of basic "puzzles" that don't build on each other and escalate the challenge.
The UI is awful, the combat and weapon systems are unchanged (right down to the awkward activations for Flurry Rush), and most sidequests are just a grindy mess.
Still, this fully realised version of Hyrule is staggering, even if it's mostly the same as before. The new building, fusing and time-manipulation abilities are downright genius, and are where most of my fun came from. If the game leaned far more into becoming a challenging, player-first immersive sim, or a (I can't believe I'm saying this) "Souls-like" world full of unique, demanding boss fights in each region, then this would have been a much more engaging game for me.
Here's a fun idea - when exploring new areas of The Depths, fast travel should be disabled until you find another light root. Or just turn it off entirely. This would make the player really have to commit to exploring this place, and build some fun vehicle to escape to the surface again. The feeling of isolation in the abyss is kind of ruined when you can open a map at any time to warp back to the lush green fields of Hyrule above. Exploring caves in Minecraft wouldn't be as engaging or tense if the player could warp back to their house at any time, it's the risk that makes it satisfying and worthwhile.
The disappointment I felt when I realised nothing had changed from BotW was palpable. The new stuff is great, it really is, but I can't be screaming with positives about this title after so many issues were carried over from the prior game. I'll happily take more open-world Zelda, but it needs a complete overhaul. New combat system with a better dodge/parry system, a brand new world with new races of characters to meet and new bosses to fight, and a story structure that doesn't rely on unsatisfactory flashbacks that Link never seems to mention to anyone.
There's so much more I could say here, I'm trying to convince two months of stray thoughts into a few paragraphs. Just know that Tears of the Kingdom has a bounty of fun moments, but it's let down by poor systems, unfulfilling exploration, grindy missions, and distractingly lackluster technical performance on the Switch. It's a miracle it runs at all, but the game suffers being tied to such bad hardware.
Not only is the game too similar to Breath of the Wild (retaining its poor combat system, clunky UI and ability to eat food and swap clothing at any time in the pause menu), but most areas with "new" content are too similar to others within this very game. The Depths is mostly empty with the occasional mine, enemy camp (with reused enemies) or boss fight (also reused). The Sky Islands are mostly a handful of repeated base structures with minor variations across the map, with the same enemies and bosses and often the same rewards.
There are far too many "Rauru's Blessing" shrines that offer no challenge or puzzle whatsoever - and they waste the player's time with unnecessary load screens. The shrines in general are somewhat improved over BotW, but are still far too easy. I would often solve a puzzle and say "that's it?" when reaching the exit. Dungeons may be themed better than before, but are still boring, trivial check-lists of basic "puzzles" that don't build on each other and escalate the challenge.
The UI is awful, the combat and weapon systems are unchanged (right down to the awkward activations for Flurry Rush), and most sidequests are just a grindy mess.
Still, this fully realised version of Hyrule is staggering, even if it's mostly the same as before. The new building, fusing and time-manipulation abilities are downright genius, and are where most of my fun came from. If the game leaned far more into becoming a challenging, player-first immersive sim, or a (I can't believe I'm saying this) "Souls-like" world full of unique, demanding boss fights in each region, then this would have been a much more engaging game for me.
Here's a fun idea - when exploring new areas of The Depths, fast travel should be disabled until you find another light root. Or just turn it off entirely. This would make the player really have to commit to exploring this place, and build some fun vehicle to escape to the surface again. The feeling of isolation in the abyss is kind of ruined when you can open a map at any time to warp back to the lush green fields of Hyrule above. Exploring caves in Minecraft wouldn't be as engaging or tense if the player could warp back to their house at any time, it's the risk that makes it satisfying and worthwhile.
The disappointment I felt when I realised nothing had changed from BotW was palpable. The new stuff is great, it really is, but I can't be screaming with positives about this title after so many issues were carried over from the prior game. I'll happily take more open-world Zelda, but it needs a complete overhaul. New combat system with a better dodge/parry system, a brand new world with new races of characters to meet and new bosses to fight, and a story structure that doesn't rely on unsatisfactory flashbacks that Link never seems to mention to anyone.
There's so much more I could say here, I'm trying to convince two months of stray thoughts into a few paragraphs. Just know that Tears of the Kingdom has a bounty of fun moments, but it's let down by poor systems, unfulfilling exploration, grindy missions, and distractingly lackluster technical performance on the Switch. It's a miracle it runs at all, but the game suffers being tied to such bad hardware.