I think the best way to experience this game is to go in as blind as possible because a lot of the fun of an adventure is the surprise discoveries you make along the way. So while this review won’t contain spoilers in the most traditional sense, there will be spoilers on a lot of aspects of the game that Nintendo didn’t dive into much with their pre release material so if that is something that you don’t want to know about, feel free to stop reading here. Right, let's get into it.
Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild and as such it builds upon the very solid open air Zelda gameplay foundation BotW laid. You still have your breakable weapons, different armour pieces, stamina, shrines, Koroks, Blood Moons, cooking, temperature, etc all wrapped up in a massive open physics sandbox that gives you the freedom to essentially make your own adventures.
The first change to get into are Link’s abilities. Gone are the Sheikah Slate abilities like Remote Bombs and Stasis and in come the new Zonai abilities from Link’s fancy new arm. The Ultrahand is the most impressive of these new abilities, allowing Link to pick up and manipulate most objects and being able to stick them together. Combined with the new Zonai objects you can find, like fans and wheels, you can essentially build anything your imagination limits you to. Need to cross a river? Stick some logs together and slap a fan on the back to make a raft. Want to get across a gap you can’t jump across? Stick some pieces of wood together to build a bridge. It’s so impressive how well the game gets your makeshift creations to work while allowing a pretty high cap of the number of objects allowed to be stuck together (there is a limit around 30 I think). The things people have been making have been genuinely incredible, from giant mechs to airborne battle vehicles, it truly does seem like imagination is the limit for the Ultrahand. And don’t worry if you’re not the most creative person in the world, the game does a great job of leaving specific objects nearby when you need them to point you in the right direction of what to build.
Next up we have Ascend which is exactly what it sounds like, Link has the ability to ascend through ceilings or structures above his head. The only limits to this one is that Link must be standing on something to use it and the object above has to be close enough and wide enough for the marker to turn blue. Once used, Link shoots right up through the ceiling, allowing you to reach areas that would’ve been much more difficult to reach otherwise. It’s great for quickly getting out of the new caves that have popped up around Hyrule and gaining elevation.
The third major new ability is Recall. This can be used on basically any non living object that can be moved and it takes something that has been moved and returns it back along the path it has travelled. So you can turn gears in the opposite direction to allow Link to ride up them or have a ball travel back and stop Recall early so it drops in a position you want it to. I’ve seen people pull off some crazy makeshift weapon tech with this ability and it’s genuinely astounding to watch.
Fuse is an ability that lets you fuse things to your weapon or shield. Weapons in this game have been decayed due to the Upheaval and are now much weaker so with the new Fuse ability you can fuse basically anything to your weapon to improve it. From really long sticks to spring shields, Fuse keeps the combat fresh by allowing so many weird and wacky combinations to experiment with. Like I was able to make an ice axe by fusing an Ice Keese wing to a sword and it’s really cool that just works. You can also fuse stuff to arrows to make stuff like fire, ice, electric, and even homing arrows so it feels like basically every item you find can be used in some way or another.
You can also find the Autobuild ability which has a bunch of preset builds for the Ultrahand that can be found as well as storing your last 30 builds which is really handy for quickly building something you want to use or storing a favourite build you worked hard on. It can use the Zonite material as well to create whatever objects you don’t have lying nearby for the thing you’re trying to autobuild.
Now these abilities are all pretty cool in isolation but the way they make exploration of the world much more fun and easier than BotW did is incredible. Being able to build vehicles that make traversing the land much quicker, or ascend through bits of a cliff face to reach higher ground instead of climbing it, or recall something that has fallen through the sky so you can jump off and glide to somewhere that looks interesting makes the exploration of TotK a lot more varied and more accessible and more exciting than what you could do in BotW (I know some people could pull off to crazy movement tech in that game but allowing people like me easier access to more movement options is massive). You still have your horses as well but being able to build makeshift cars and aeromobiles is so much more fun.
On top of the new abilities, there’s been a lot of really neat design changes that help make exploring the massive world better than before. Shrines that you haven’t completed have spirals of green light above them making them easier to spot from a distance, unactivated towers have four spotlights shining from their base, and there’s massive geoglyphs (we’ll get to those later) that catch the eye from afar. Essentially the world has been designed to make more interesting things much more easier to spot and that is essential to the core gameplay loop of this style of Zelda. The more things you find to explore, the more items you pick up and the more options you gain to use in combat as well as the shrines acting again as essentially piece of heart givers/stamina wheel improvements. The towers now launching you into the air is also a huge change because it allows you to spot shrines on the land, mark them with pins, and glide as close to them as you can get. Like they genuinely have improved the exploration aspect so much that I found almost double the amount of shrines in TotK than I did in BotW in 40 hours and I even went on to find all 152 shrines in TotK.
The next new aspect to discuss is the world itself. While this game does reuse the BotW Hyrule map, it has built upon it in a few ways. First we can now explore the skies with a bunch of new sky islands in a similar vein to Skyloft and the skies from Skyward Sword. The sky islands in TotK themselves aren’t that big outside of the starting area one. A lot of them are used to house shrines or you can find maps that point to hidden treasure elsewhere in the world (these tickled the Wind Waker treasure maps vibes for me), and there’s a couple with little skydiving minigames which are fun. The sky also tends to hold some of the cooler Zonai vehicle builds lying about which are great fun to use. You can also find these big capsule machines where if you put Zonai charges in you get a bunch of capsules containing Zonai parts like the fans and wheels mentioned earlier for you to pull out wherever and use to build with. The sky islands are also pretty handy for reaching different areas of the surface below without having to traverse the whole surface so it works well in tandem for movement options.
The surface is largely the same map as the one BotW used but the Upheaval event has caused a lot of changes throughout it. Exploring this Hyrule felt a lot like exploring the Kanto region in Pokemon Gold/Silver. Yes the core is still the same but there’s so many new things that it’s cool to see what’s changed. You have the new caves that have popped up which hold their own goodies. Every cave has a big glowing blue frog to find in it which gives a Bubbul Gem if you kill it, which can be used in a quest. The towns have undergone a lot of changes as the land has shifted and objects have fallen from the sky. Kakiriko now houses a bunch of ring ruins for example, so there’s a lot of fun to be had revisiting places and seeing what’s changed. They have also added a few new enemy types to the game so now you can find stuff like Floormasters, Like Likes, and even Gleeok from the very first Zelda game makes an appearance. I never had much of a problem with the limited enemy variety in BotW but it is nice seeing more variety here. Guardians are also gone which for me is a nice thing that helps with exploration because I always found those things an absolute pain to get away from.
The last area kept mostly under wraps prerelease are the Depths. There’s now massive holes around Hyrule that take you to beneath the surface to explore this dark and creepy area. This area can be a bit of a pain to explore if you’re not prepared as it is so dark at first that you can’t really see anything. You can use the new lightbulb plants found throughout Hyrule to bring light to this area as you explore. You can also find Lightroots which act as fast travel points and reveal an area of the map while also bringing light to an area of the Depths. What’s cool about the Lightroots is that they are also tied to the surface as every single Lightroot is the base of a Shrine so every time you find a Shrine on land, you can mark that location on your Depths map to find a Lightroot and vice versa. Again the way everything works in tandem is again, incredible. Exploring one area helps with exploring another and it all works so well. Now what the Depths hold are the treasure chests from the Sky maps as well as the Zonite need to expand your battery for operating Zonai devices. You can also find some of the better weapons in the game as well as a good supply of bomb flowers so the Depths are really handy for resource gathering once you’ve gotten a hang of exploring them. The Depths are also the main home of a new substance called Gloom. Gloom is this red like substance that if Link stands on it, instead of losing a heart, it breaks a heart, meaning you cannot recover that heart until Link returns to an area of light. This prevents players from being able to constantly eat recovery foods, adding an extra layer of challenge to the Depths and when you have Gloom variants of enemies who can break hearts from hitting you, then it can be pretty tough down there. What’s really impressive about the Depths though is that it literally covers the whole of the surface map. It’s genuinely incredible that you can jump from the sky and fall through a hole to the Depths without a single loading screen when all 3 areas cover the exact same size of map. And like this can be overwhelming but the improvements made to traversal as well as how well everything works in tandem genuinely makes this incredibly large world a lot more accessible to explore than the base one it was built off in BotW.
Right, let's dive into the story side of things. The story here is one I found a lot more interesting than BotWs and probably up there with my favourite Zelda story in the series despite some issues in how it’s presented. The beginning with Link and Zelda exploring the depths beneath Hyrule Castle with this creepy music in the background brings an incredible atmosphere to kick things off. There’s an ominous feel to the whole exploration here that puts you at unease and one that culminates well to kick off the beginning of the game. The ending sequence is up there for my favourite final boss in the whole series, without spoiling anything, it was epic and extremely hype and I loved how the battle transitioned throughout. I thought people were exaggerating when they were saying the experience shook them but my gosh, I was astounded by the end.
Everything in between the beginning and end is where I have some nitpicks with how the story is presented. Once again we have memories that can be found in any order that tells the bulk of the story here. Tying these to the massive geoglyphs you can find around Hyrule is much appreciated compared to the photos used in BotW. These are much easier to find making the process less frustrating, and the story content is super interesting, detailing the events of the Imprisoning War that saw Ganondorf sealed away after he tried to overthrow the first King of Hyrule Rauru. There’s a rich history here that I find really interesting and seeing it all play out is super cool but I’m not a huge fan of how it’s told in such a disjointed manner. It’s an area I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more structure with, maybe make it clearer that there’s a recommended order to view these in like how they gave a recommendation on which area to explore when going through the main story quests. The modern day side of things deals with finding the sages and fixing the Master Sword side of things, more of the standard affair of Zelda here but I do appreciate the role the sages are given which help make them feel more memorable and I love how the Master Sword is restored, I had a lot of feels during the final sequence of that quest. So while I do have some issues with the way the story is told throughout the game, the actual content of the story makes my issue with it feel relatively minor and more like one of the few immediate aspects I think they can improve on next time.
The main story quest this time once again takes you through the lands of the Rito, the Gorons, the Zora, and the Gerudo as you visit each place to find out how the Upheaval has caused havoc with these races. These can be done in any order and each one sees Link team up with a sage to traverse the world to find a Temple that needs exploring. Each sage grants a new ability to Link, like Tulin provides a gust to propel Link further distances while gliding or Yunobo can be rolled up into a ball and fired like a cannon. The way Link teams up with the sages here is very reminiscent of Wind Waker but this time they have their own AI so you don’t have to deal with having to move them everywhere yourself. These new abilities act in a similar manner to how you would find an item to explore a specific dungeon with only in a less traditional manner. The Temples themselves are an improvement over the Divine Beasts as dungeons but unfortunately not quite on the same level as past Zelda games offerings. These Temples are designed in a way that is very open ended like the world itself. You’re often presented with 5 locks to undo by finding specific points in the temple to activate with your sage's ability and it’s fun figuring out how to get to each point but I do miss the structured dungeons of traditional Zelda. Like you have the dungeon map immediately, there’s no locked doors with keys to find, you just use the abilities you have to make your way through these Temples as you see fit. At its lowest point is the Water Temple which barely feels like a structure at all but then you have something like the Wind Temple or the Fire Temple which puts this new style of design to good use and makes an enjoyable experience out of them even if it does fall short to the traditional Zelda dungeon style for me. The unique areas and backgrounds do make these Temples a lot more varied and exciting to explore compared to the Divine Beasts and the area where things have improved most are the boss battles. We got proper unique boss battles back baby and each one is a masterpiece in design making for memorable fights. The first one I did was the Wind Temple and the way it incorporates Tulin’s unique ability makes for one of the most memorable Zelda bosses I’ve fought. The way the music dynamically changes up during the fight to add in a section from Rito Village WHICH IS DRAGON ROOST ISLAND FROM WIND WAKER SENT LITERAL CHILLS THROUGH ME. As a massive Wind Waker fan that fight was truly peak and something that felt like a homage to a game that is so special to me. All the boss fights are genuinely fantastic, they pulled out all the stops here and it does make up for the slightly lacklustre temples for me. There’s also a couple more dungeon-like areas on top of the four main ones so there’s plenty to get into here. For those wanting more puzzle focused challenges, once again it’s the shrines that provide those. They put Link’s new abilities to the test and are nice little headscratchers to figure out inbetween the main story quests.
Side quests and side adventures make a return from BotW. This is the area where the content overload starts to hit me most because there are so many of them. They can make for a nice change of pace and some are genuinely interesting. I really liked finding the ancient texts on the flower shaped sky islands and learning more about the history of the world. I feel like a lot of the side quests are kinda just alright, they feel like something like the Korok seeds where it’s best to do what you feel like doing otherwise they can wear thin and I think that’s the way they were designed. Basically something to add to your adventures along the way rather than be something to seek out and 100%.
It took me over 100 hours to reach the end credits of TotK. The improvements made to the exploration side of things saw me find every single Lightroot in the Depths and complete all 152 shrines before tackling the endgame. There was so much fun to be had in the optional quests I decided to take on along the way but despite having put so much time into it, there is still plenty I want to go back and do. The Lurelin village quest looked really interesting and there's a specific Gleelok I want to try and take down and that’s the magic of TotK. The weaknesses it has compared to traditional Zelda are more than made up for by the sheer sense of wonder and joy exploring this world brings. The incredible volume of content shoved into this tiny Switch game card means you are always discovering something, always noting something you want to come back and investigate, always finding something that can be of use to you later. TotK takes the sense of adventure Zelda has always instilled from its very beginning and pushes it to a level that is scarcely comprehensible. The freedom on offer here truly makes it feel like your imagination is the only limitation. For a game to absorb me in a world this large without me getting to a point where I’m beelining for the story portions is a testament to the wondrous design they put into getting everything to work and flow in tandem with one another. I find it hard to comprehend how this game managed to take BotW and blow it out of the water to such a large degree. The few issues I had with the game feel so minor compared to the joy I felt while deeply absorbed in playing the game. It’s incredible to me that they have so many technical systems in play here and the only faults I found in my play time was a couple of areas where the framerate drops and one instance where the game froze for a second while diving from the sky into the depths. The fact exploration in TotK gave me that same feeling of joy that Wind Waker did when exploring its seas has enamoured me with this game. I think it might very well have my favourite incarnation of Zelda and Ganondorf. Its story and bosses are up there with the best in the series and the creativity on offer here is on a whole nother level.
Tears of the Kingdom is a wondrous experience that captures the very essence of adventure. It takes the foundation laid by Breath of the Wild and somehow elevates the whole experience to heights that are scarcely imaginable. There’s a couple of areas where I’d like a little bit more of the traditional Zelda structure to return but otherwise this is a truly magical game and one that feels like a genuine contender for my favourite game of all time.
Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild and as such it builds upon the very solid open air Zelda gameplay foundation BotW laid. You still have your breakable weapons, different armour pieces, stamina, shrines, Koroks, Blood Moons, cooking, temperature, etc all wrapped up in a massive open physics sandbox that gives you the freedom to essentially make your own adventures.
The first change to get into are Link’s abilities. Gone are the Sheikah Slate abilities like Remote Bombs and Stasis and in come the new Zonai abilities from Link’s fancy new arm. The Ultrahand is the most impressive of these new abilities, allowing Link to pick up and manipulate most objects and being able to stick them together. Combined with the new Zonai objects you can find, like fans and wheels, you can essentially build anything your imagination limits you to. Need to cross a river? Stick some logs together and slap a fan on the back to make a raft. Want to get across a gap you can’t jump across? Stick some pieces of wood together to build a bridge. It’s so impressive how well the game gets your makeshift creations to work while allowing a pretty high cap of the number of objects allowed to be stuck together (there is a limit around 30 I think). The things people have been making have been genuinely incredible, from giant mechs to airborne battle vehicles, it truly does seem like imagination is the limit for the Ultrahand. And don’t worry if you’re not the most creative person in the world, the game does a great job of leaving specific objects nearby when you need them to point you in the right direction of what to build.
Next up we have Ascend which is exactly what it sounds like, Link has the ability to ascend through ceilings or structures above his head. The only limits to this one is that Link must be standing on something to use it and the object above has to be close enough and wide enough for the marker to turn blue. Once used, Link shoots right up through the ceiling, allowing you to reach areas that would’ve been much more difficult to reach otherwise. It’s great for quickly getting out of the new caves that have popped up around Hyrule and gaining elevation.
The third major new ability is Recall. This can be used on basically any non living object that can be moved and it takes something that has been moved and returns it back along the path it has travelled. So you can turn gears in the opposite direction to allow Link to ride up them or have a ball travel back and stop Recall early so it drops in a position you want it to. I’ve seen people pull off some crazy makeshift weapon tech with this ability and it’s genuinely astounding to watch.
Fuse is an ability that lets you fuse things to your weapon or shield. Weapons in this game have been decayed due to the Upheaval and are now much weaker so with the new Fuse ability you can fuse basically anything to your weapon to improve it. From really long sticks to spring shields, Fuse keeps the combat fresh by allowing so many weird and wacky combinations to experiment with. Like I was able to make an ice axe by fusing an Ice Keese wing to a sword and it’s really cool that just works. You can also fuse stuff to arrows to make stuff like fire, ice, electric, and even homing arrows so it feels like basically every item you find can be used in some way or another.
You can also find the Autobuild ability which has a bunch of preset builds for the Ultrahand that can be found as well as storing your last 30 builds which is really handy for quickly building something you want to use or storing a favourite build you worked hard on. It can use the Zonite material as well to create whatever objects you don’t have lying nearby for the thing you’re trying to autobuild.
Now these abilities are all pretty cool in isolation but the way they make exploration of the world much more fun and easier than BotW did is incredible. Being able to build vehicles that make traversing the land much quicker, or ascend through bits of a cliff face to reach higher ground instead of climbing it, or recall something that has fallen through the sky so you can jump off and glide to somewhere that looks interesting makes the exploration of TotK a lot more varied and more accessible and more exciting than what you could do in BotW (I know some people could pull off to crazy movement tech in that game but allowing people like me easier access to more movement options is massive). You still have your horses as well but being able to build makeshift cars and aeromobiles is so much more fun.
On top of the new abilities, there’s been a lot of really neat design changes that help make exploring the massive world better than before. Shrines that you haven’t completed have spirals of green light above them making them easier to spot from a distance, unactivated towers have four spotlights shining from their base, and there’s massive geoglyphs (we’ll get to those later) that catch the eye from afar. Essentially the world has been designed to make more interesting things much more easier to spot and that is essential to the core gameplay loop of this style of Zelda. The more things you find to explore, the more items you pick up and the more options you gain to use in combat as well as the shrines acting again as essentially piece of heart givers/stamina wheel improvements. The towers now launching you into the air is also a huge change because it allows you to spot shrines on the land, mark them with pins, and glide as close to them as you can get. Like they genuinely have improved the exploration aspect so much that I found almost double the amount of shrines in TotK than I did in BotW in 40 hours and I even went on to find all 152 shrines in TotK.
The next new aspect to discuss is the world itself. While this game does reuse the BotW Hyrule map, it has built upon it in a few ways. First we can now explore the skies with a bunch of new sky islands in a similar vein to Skyloft and the skies from Skyward Sword. The sky islands in TotK themselves aren’t that big outside of the starting area one. A lot of them are used to house shrines or you can find maps that point to hidden treasure elsewhere in the world (these tickled the Wind Waker treasure maps vibes for me), and there’s a couple with little skydiving minigames which are fun. The sky also tends to hold some of the cooler Zonai vehicle builds lying about which are great fun to use. You can also find these big capsule machines where if you put Zonai charges in you get a bunch of capsules containing Zonai parts like the fans and wheels mentioned earlier for you to pull out wherever and use to build with. The sky islands are also pretty handy for reaching different areas of the surface below without having to traverse the whole surface so it works well in tandem for movement options.
The surface is largely the same map as the one BotW used but the Upheaval event has caused a lot of changes throughout it. Exploring this Hyrule felt a lot like exploring the Kanto region in Pokemon Gold/Silver. Yes the core is still the same but there’s so many new things that it’s cool to see what’s changed. You have the new caves that have popped up which hold their own goodies. Every cave has a big glowing blue frog to find in it which gives a Bubbul Gem if you kill it, which can be used in a quest. The towns have undergone a lot of changes as the land has shifted and objects have fallen from the sky. Kakiriko now houses a bunch of ring ruins for example, so there’s a lot of fun to be had revisiting places and seeing what’s changed. They have also added a few new enemy types to the game so now you can find stuff like Floormasters, Like Likes, and even Gleeok from the very first Zelda game makes an appearance. I never had much of a problem with the limited enemy variety in BotW but it is nice seeing more variety here. Guardians are also gone which for me is a nice thing that helps with exploration because I always found those things an absolute pain to get away from.
The last area kept mostly under wraps prerelease are the Depths. There’s now massive holes around Hyrule that take you to beneath the surface to explore this dark and creepy area. This area can be a bit of a pain to explore if you’re not prepared as it is so dark at first that you can’t really see anything. You can use the new lightbulb plants found throughout Hyrule to bring light to this area as you explore. You can also find Lightroots which act as fast travel points and reveal an area of the map while also bringing light to an area of the Depths. What’s cool about the Lightroots is that they are also tied to the surface as every single Lightroot is the base of a Shrine so every time you find a Shrine on land, you can mark that location on your Depths map to find a Lightroot and vice versa. Again the way everything works in tandem is again, incredible. Exploring one area helps with exploring another and it all works so well. Now what the Depths hold are the treasure chests from the Sky maps as well as the Zonite need to expand your battery for operating Zonai devices. You can also find some of the better weapons in the game as well as a good supply of bomb flowers so the Depths are really handy for resource gathering once you’ve gotten a hang of exploring them. The Depths are also the main home of a new substance called Gloom. Gloom is this red like substance that if Link stands on it, instead of losing a heart, it breaks a heart, meaning you cannot recover that heart until Link returns to an area of light. This prevents players from being able to constantly eat recovery foods, adding an extra layer of challenge to the Depths and when you have Gloom variants of enemies who can break hearts from hitting you, then it can be pretty tough down there. What’s really impressive about the Depths though is that it literally covers the whole of the surface map. It’s genuinely incredible that you can jump from the sky and fall through a hole to the Depths without a single loading screen when all 3 areas cover the exact same size of map. And like this can be overwhelming but the improvements made to traversal as well as how well everything works in tandem genuinely makes this incredibly large world a lot more accessible to explore than the base one it was built off in BotW.
Right, let's dive into the story side of things. The story here is one I found a lot more interesting than BotWs and probably up there with my favourite Zelda story in the series despite some issues in how it’s presented. The beginning with Link and Zelda exploring the depths beneath Hyrule Castle with this creepy music in the background brings an incredible atmosphere to kick things off. There’s an ominous feel to the whole exploration here that puts you at unease and one that culminates well to kick off the beginning of the game. The ending sequence is up there for my favourite final boss in the whole series, without spoiling anything, it was epic and extremely hype and I loved how the battle transitioned throughout. I thought people were exaggerating when they were saying the experience shook them but my gosh, I was astounded by the end.
Everything in between the beginning and end is where I have some nitpicks with how the story is presented. Once again we have memories that can be found in any order that tells the bulk of the story here. Tying these to the massive geoglyphs you can find around Hyrule is much appreciated compared to the photos used in BotW. These are much easier to find making the process less frustrating, and the story content is super interesting, detailing the events of the Imprisoning War that saw Ganondorf sealed away after he tried to overthrow the first King of Hyrule Rauru. There’s a rich history here that I find really interesting and seeing it all play out is super cool but I’m not a huge fan of how it’s told in such a disjointed manner. It’s an area I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more structure with, maybe make it clearer that there’s a recommended order to view these in like how they gave a recommendation on which area to explore when going through the main story quests. The modern day side of things deals with finding the sages and fixing the Master Sword side of things, more of the standard affair of Zelda here but I do appreciate the role the sages are given which help make them feel more memorable and I love how the Master Sword is restored, I had a lot of feels during the final sequence of that quest. So while I do have some issues with the way the story is told throughout the game, the actual content of the story makes my issue with it feel relatively minor and more like one of the few immediate aspects I think they can improve on next time.
The main story quest this time once again takes you through the lands of the Rito, the Gorons, the Zora, and the Gerudo as you visit each place to find out how the Upheaval has caused havoc with these races. These can be done in any order and each one sees Link team up with a sage to traverse the world to find a Temple that needs exploring. Each sage grants a new ability to Link, like Tulin provides a gust to propel Link further distances while gliding or Yunobo can be rolled up into a ball and fired like a cannon. The way Link teams up with the sages here is very reminiscent of Wind Waker but this time they have their own AI so you don’t have to deal with having to move them everywhere yourself. These new abilities act in a similar manner to how you would find an item to explore a specific dungeon with only in a less traditional manner. The Temples themselves are an improvement over the Divine Beasts as dungeons but unfortunately not quite on the same level as past Zelda games offerings. These Temples are designed in a way that is very open ended like the world itself. You’re often presented with 5 locks to undo by finding specific points in the temple to activate with your sage's ability and it’s fun figuring out how to get to each point but I do miss the structured dungeons of traditional Zelda. Like you have the dungeon map immediately, there’s no locked doors with keys to find, you just use the abilities you have to make your way through these Temples as you see fit. At its lowest point is the Water Temple which barely feels like a structure at all but then you have something like the Wind Temple or the Fire Temple which puts this new style of design to good use and makes an enjoyable experience out of them even if it does fall short to the traditional Zelda dungeon style for me. The unique areas and backgrounds do make these Temples a lot more varied and exciting to explore compared to the Divine Beasts and the area where things have improved most are the boss battles. We got proper unique boss battles back baby and each one is a masterpiece in design making for memorable fights. The first one I did was the Wind Temple and the way it incorporates Tulin’s unique ability makes for one of the most memorable Zelda bosses I’ve fought. The way the music dynamically changes up during the fight to add in a section from Rito Village WHICH IS DRAGON ROOST ISLAND FROM WIND WAKER SENT LITERAL CHILLS THROUGH ME. As a massive Wind Waker fan that fight was truly peak and something that felt like a homage to a game that is so special to me. All the boss fights are genuinely fantastic, they pulled out all the stops here and it does make up for the slightly lacklustre temples for me. There’s also a couple more dungeon-like areas on top of the four main ones so there’s plenty to get into here. For those wanting more puzzle focused challenges, once again it’s the shrines that provide those. They put Link’s new abilities to the test and are nice little headscratchers to figure out inbetween the main story quests.
Side quests and side adventures make a return from BotW. This is the area where the content overload starts to hit me most because there are so many of them. They can make for a nice change of pace and some are genuinely interesting. I really liked finding the ancient texts on the flower shaped sky islands and learning more about the history of the world. I feel like a lot of the side quests are kinda just alright, they feel like something like the Korok seeds where it’s best to do what you feel like doing otherwise they can wear thin and I think that’s the way they were designed. Basically something to add to your adventures along the way rather than be something to seek out and 100%.
It took me over 100 hours to reach the end credits of TotK. The improvements made to the exploration side of things saw me find every single Lightroot in the Depths and complete all 152 shrines before tackling the endgame. There was so much fun to be had in the optional quests I decided to take on along the way but despite having put so much time into it, there is still plenty I want to go back and do. The Lurelin village quest looked really interesting and there's a specific Gleelok I want to try and take down and that’s the magic of TotK. The weaknesses it has compared to traditional Zelda are more than made up for by the sheer sense of wonder and joy exploring this world brings. The incredible volume of content shoved into this tiny Switch game card means you are always discovering something, always noting something you want to come back and investigate, always finding something that can be of use to you later. TotK takes the sense of adventure Zelda has always instilled from its very beginning and pushes it to a level that is scarcely comprehensible. The freedom on offer here truly makes it feel like your imagination is the only limitation. For a game to absorb me in a world this large without me getting to a point where I’m beelining for the story portions is a testament to the wondrous design they put into getting everything to work and flow in tandem with one another. I find it hard to comprehend how this game managed to take BotW and blow it out of the water to such a large degree. The few issues I had with the game feel so minor compared to the joy I felt while deeply absorbed in playing the game. It’s incredible to me that they have so many technical systems in play here and the only faults I found in my play time was a couple of areas where the framerate drops and one instance where the game froze for a second while diving from the sky into the depths. The fact exploration in TotK gave me that same feeling of joy that Wind Waker did when exploring its seas has enamoured me with this game. I think it might very well have my favourite incarnation of Zelda and Ganondorf. Its story and bosses are up there with the best in the series and the creativity on offer here is on a whole nother level.
Tears of the Kingdom is a wondrous experience that captures the very essence of adventure. It takes the foundation laid by Breath of the Wild and somehow elevates the whole experience to heights that are scarcely imaginable. There’s a couple of areas where I’d like a little bit more of the traditional Zelda structure to return but otherwise this is a truly magical game and one that feels like a genuine contender for my favourite game of all time.