The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I wasn't sure how Nintendo would find a way to top their work in Breath of the Wild back when it came out, but I feel they have here – with years of more polish applied and refined exploration. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 71]

Tears of the Kingdom is a remarkable sequel. Not only does it improve on every single aspect of Breath of the Wild, but it expands the characters, locations, and setting in new and exciting ways. It provides the most ridiculous toolset imaginable that at every turn has left me astonished at what I’m able to achieve.

Ultimately, the lore isn’t the main attraction, and isn’t the reason the Zelda series has endured for almost half a century. What’s more compelling is the game’s nod to the collective story of how human imagination pushes us through our toughest challenges, and sometimes sends us soaring to heights unseen.

Tears of the Kingdom handily exceeds the sky-high expectations surrounding it. It’s an instant classic — and a testament to the unmatched ingenuity of Nintendo’s game design.

Building off the foundation of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom improves upon its predecessor in nearly every way. It's filled with wonder and discovery throughout, constantly rewarding your curiosity. New mechanics like Fuse, Ascend, and Ultrahand transform how you interact with the world and give you even more opportunities to think differently about traversal and problem solving. Temples are a good upgrade and feel more clever and fleshed out, and the new sky and underground areas are excellent and serve as stark contrasts to the surface. Some technical aspects can get in the way at times, but not nearly enough to diminish the experience. It's been a long time coming for Tears of the Kingdom, but Nintendo has once again delivered a fantastic adventure that shouldn't be missed.

Outstanding, outrageously big action-adventure that builds on the strengths of its predecessor and puts playful freedom above everything else. It offers a good mix of the familiar and the fresh and just barely misses the perfect rating.

If you’ve yet to step foot into the open world of Hyrule, Tears of the Kingdom is the best way to experience it, with just enough new ground to keep things interesting. But if you didn’t gel with the 2017 release, the story alone might not be worth the second attempt.

Una gran experiencia audiovisual, que cierra lo que empezo la primera entrega, de los mejores juegos de la historia.

Call this game Larper of the Wild, because it's pretty much the exact same game, but adding new things so it's not the exact same thing, while also not addressing much of the issues from the previous game. I would argue the enjoyement from this game sorta depends on if you have played BOTW previously or not. If you didn't, you will probably enjoy this better since you are exploring a whole new world. If you already played it, well it's just the same map. With a very similar gameplay and mechanics. The ultra hand is cool yeah but it won't suddenly make this game a whole new thing by itself.

My favorite series' second major blunder. I want to preface this by stating, TOTK is not a bad game. I know a lot of people will look at a 7 and loose their minds but stay with me here. Every time a Zelda game gets announced the hype is electric, everyone is on board. When that first TOTK teaser dropped in 2019/20 (don't remember exactly when) the one where Link and Zelda descend beneath the castle to find the mummified corpse of Ganon I was hooked. I thought we were going to get another darker LoZ game, like twilight princess but in a world beyond Hyrule. Imagine my immense disappointment when I learned it was the same world again with sky islands and essentially a giant cave system underground. I love Breath of the Wild, the game was unique in its minimalist approach and it works so well, but outside of the story change up and new crafting techniques available to link, it really felt like being shown the same game twice. Now there are improvements, very welcome improvements such as traditional dungeons, weapon creativity, a stronger story in my opinion and if you played on the switch 2; a playable framerate. However, they don't do enough to make me feel like this is a brand new Zelda game and not BOTW 70$ DLC. I want to love this game, and there are times I had fun playing it. But I don't have the urge to explore like I did the first time which is a shame, there are probably cool things hidden in the world but I genuinely can't be bothered to walk through the same areas for the 100th time in the hopes of finding a new shiny temporary weapon or shrine. I do worry Nintendo is going to get stuck in BOTW fever and this become their Forza Horizon or Call of Duty, where they'll just keep pumping out games in this Hyrule instead of changing it up like they used to. I can only hope the next Zelda has that semi-linear with open areas like the Ocarina to Twilight run it had. Or maybe I'm just old and this is what the people want.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Breath of the Wild était une Master Class. Tears Of the Kingdom un fourretout sans âme basé sur le crafting de mecha pour faire plaisir au public Japonais. C'est simple je n'ai pas fini le jeu à aucun moment on a envie de suivre le scénario.