There’s one thing magical concerning the first time you dive from the Sky to the Floor in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. That one second seems like an entire distillation of what made Breath of the Wild really feel so particular to so many – the liberty, the joys, and the scope are all captured completely as you careen to the floor of Hyrule. You may see simply how huge the world is even earlier than you land, reminding you of simply how large the earlier sport was.
In some way, Tears of the Kingdom does the inconceivable and makes Breath of the Wild really feel like a proof of idea; it takes every thing its predecessor does, improves upon each single side, and provides you much more freedom, an excellent greater world, and tons extra secrets and techniques to uncover. It’s frankly staggering and makes for a completely unbelievable expertise.
Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel to Breath of the Wild in each sense of the phrase. The core of the sport hasn’t modified. The fight is essentially the identical, the Floor map is (at first look) equivalent, and even the construction begins off the identical. However though Hyrule may appear acquainted at first, as you are taking your first steps throughout the grassy fields, you’ll discover numerous little variations. There’s a brand new city, new ruins, rock faces and cliffs look totally different, and there are risks round each nook. There’s simply sufficient right here to make wanting round Hyrule a second time really feel contemporary. However it’s additionally clear Nintendo has listened to a few of the minor criticisms many had of the primary sport.
For one, there’s a extra prevalent story this time round. We’re not going to enter any element right here, however every area feels far more concerned within the overarching narrative, and new and returning characters all get moments to shine. Not each single goal follows the very same sample, both. Typically you’ll have to unravel some riddles, whereas others you simply must comply with a pal. However each single thread results in one thing new and thrilling – and typically, to higher heights and depths than ever earlier than.
From the sidequests to the NPCs and proper all the way down to the world itself, Tears of the Kingdom’s Hyrule, regardless of being the identical as Breath of the Wild’s, feels far more lived in. The sidequests are much more attention-grabbing with much more memorable characters, occasions, and rewards, and there are lengthy quest chains that additionally assist level you in the correct route for the story, resembling hinting at the place to discover a lacking merchandise. We’d be remiss to spoil any, however relaxation assured that Tarrey City is once more dwelling to probably the most rewarding of the bunch.
The Sky, the place you begin your journey, feels fully totally different from the sprawling exploration-encouraging world of the Floor. Made up of small collections of islands which can be unfold throughout an enormous house, these home little puzzles and challenges. There’s an actual thrill to discovering a brand new island, whether or not it’s only a treasure chest or a difficult miniboss.
However there’s one thing the developer has been retaining near its chest – a sprawling, darkish underbelly hidden beneath Hyrule. Whereas far more sparse than the Floor, the Depths challenges your navigation abilities and survivability as you weave your method round extraordinarily harmful enemies and puddles of black and pink sludge that inflicts Gloom, a brand new standing impact that quickly reduces your most hearts. We’re going to keep away from the plain FromSoftware comparability, however it’s a nerve-wracking expertise and feels fully not like the rest in both this sport or its predecessor.
Visually, Tears of the Kingdom builds on Breath of the Wild’s beautiful artwork fashion however, with this sequel being constructed for the Swap alone, you possibly can spot the entire additional element that’s been painted onto the world. Mountains are far more detailed, and there’s a greater variety of environments throughout the entire sport, resulting in some actually stunning pictures, significantly within the skies above Hyrule. Some music returns from Breath of the Wild, however we’re delighted that there are tons of recent songs and preparations on this sequel, a few of that are totally beautiful and introduced a tear to our eyes. It made coming to this new, greater model of “dwelling” that rather more particular.
Exploring any of those three maps is like opening a number of big toy chests and determining what to do together with your new instruments to get there. Your 4 new skills – Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall – crack open a world of prospects when it comes to fight, exploration, and puzzle-solving. Unintentionally dropped a platform you’re making an attempt to set within the air? Recollect it. Can’t climb up a cliff overhang? Ascend by way of it. Can’t recover from lava? Use Ultrahand to take advantage of audacious Zelda-style monster truck ever. Or simply stick collectively some slate and wheels and accept that.
In some methods, Hyrule is less complicated to get round than ever earlier than, however these small modifications that we hinted at above imply there are sometimes new issues to circumnavigate utilizing your new toys. We discovered nothing extra liberating than seeing one thing on the bottom and understanding we will simply fuse it to any of our unfused weapons, shields, or arrows. Lizalfos tails look ridiculous however they improve your weapon’s vary like a whip, and sure, you possibly can hit enemies with a beehive sword and it’s hilarious. Chuchu jelly is truly helpful now, including elemental properties to arrows, whereas the plethora of monster components can improve your assault energy tenfold. The chances are bursting on the seams always, however in a method that feels manageable.
Of the entire new skills, Ultrahand is the one you’ll be utilizing probably the most, and whereas it feels a bit of clunky for the primary few hours, the sport encourages you to follow sufficient that it quickly turns into second nature. In case you’re not probably the most artistic particular person, you don’t want to fret, as you’ll all the time discover objects mendacity round that trace at what you possibly can construct, or use the unlockable Autobuild ability which logs your earlier creations and means that you can recreate them through the use of the required supplies in entrance of you. You may go for easy options or probably the most elaborate builds to unravel just about every thing. Did we use Ultrahand to stay a rocket (a Zonai Machine, a one-time merchandise that you need to use to help your Ultrahand constructing) to a Korok’s backpack? In fact we did. However you could possibly additionally make the world’s largest slide and a bit of kart on your Korok pal to trip. In all probability.
It typically feels just like the sky’s the restrict in Tears of the Kingdom, though there are restrictions in place to cease issues from feeling overwhelming. One factor that particularly helps is that the sport is usually much more difficult than Breath of the Wild. There are heaps extra enemies on the map, typically present in teams – they usually’re not shy about ganging up on you, both. Many new enemies require brand-new methods to take down, and returning ones have stronger variations. And whereas weapon sturdiness is again, monsters drop gear so steadily that it felt even much less of a difficulty right here.
We died rather a lot, particularly originally of the sport, however we love that we had to consider our method extra fastidiously with every encounter. Fuse turns out to be useful to deal extra harm or freeze different opponents as we try to take out the extra harmful ones. And typically, when an archer was sniping us, we’d sneak up on them through the use of Ascend to get to the highest of a tower on the snap of a finger. So though the world is at our fingertips due to our new abilities, the problem tempers them and prevents them from turning into overpowered.
Going again to the story, some locations make use of those skills – together with a regional ally who you’ll must utilise to progress – greater than others. Extra traditional-style dungeons make a return in Tears of the Kingdom. All of them are visually distinct, with distinctive bosses and puzzles to unravel, they usually handle to mix the open nature of BOTW properly with these traditional multi-floor dungeons of the previous. They’re not fairly the enclosed, linear fashion of Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess’ personal, per se, however they’re a marked enchancment over the Divine Beasts and a variety of enjoyable to get by way of.
For these extra bite-sized puzzles, Shrines make a return too, however there’s much more selection this time round. Fight shrines are largely gone and changed with both tutorial-style ones that educate you find out how to utilise throwing objects successfully or sneak assaults or challenges which strip you of all your armour and weapons and drive you to begin from the fundamentals and use your new abilities to defeat some Constructs. Among the options had us scratching our heads for some time, but when there’s one factor Zelda nails for us, it’s the satisfaction of progressing and understanding. Even when typically our resolution was simply to construct a large bridge.
The puzzles really feel extra organically built-in into the world as properly. There are tons of cave programs in Tears of the Kingdom that home some moderately unsettling enemies and/or goodies, and these little networks can typically really feel like miniature dungeons. The Sky is basically one huge puzzle as a result of it makes you assume about find out how to progress or get round, however there are additionally little challenges that unlock extra Shrines or that encourage you to create options to defeating a few of the new overworld bosses.
Actually, we couldn’t get sufficient of travelling between all three maps. Our curiosity felled us within the underground a number of instances as we tried to tackle more durable enemies, however as we obtained stronger and accustomed to the tough world beneath, that satisfaction of lastly taking down a monster was thrilling. The distinction between the Sky, Floor, and Depth is refreshing, with all three bringing totally different types of gameplay, visuals, and music to the desk, however they by no means really feel indifferent from each other. And all three maps are seamless – there are not any load instances as you bounce from the Floor to the Depths, or as you shoot your self from the Floor to the Sky.
Given this, it’s evident that Tears of the Kingdom is pushing the system to its limits. The body price is capped at 30FPS each handheld and docked, and for probably the most half, the sport stays round or simply beneath that. Throughout elaborate Ultrahand builds or busy fights and places, efficiency can dip to the low 20s (and even decrease) pretty steadily. It’s not massively disruptive, and it didn’t really feel any worse than Breath of the Wild – significantly after Nintendo launched a pre-launch patch in the course of the evaluation interval – however it serves as a staunch reminder of the now-six-year-old console’s limitations.
Nonetheless, it’s fairly wonderful that this complete world has been squeezed onto a bit of Swap cartridge, and people efficiency points did not have an effect on our enjoyment in any respect. Whether or not we had been standing on an island excessive within the sky, gazing down by way of the clouds because the solar set throughout Hyrule, or plummeting by way of these skies because the blood moon rose, we fell in love with the open world of Hyrule yet again.
So, is Tears of the Kingdom higher than Breath of the Wild? That’ll be down to private choice, however we will assure that you’re going to adore this if you happen to cherished its predecessor. Tears of the Kingdom recaptures that magic in new and thrilling methods whereas bettering upon and sharpening virtually each side. This is a gigantic, breathtaking sequel, and a really particular online game.