It feels like each new Zelda game is a monumental moment in the gaming culture, evolving what was possible and potentially forging a new path for development. While they can’t all be winners, I’m looking at you, Link‘s Crossbow Training, each one has done well to introduce players to the possibilities and limits of whatever console they launch on.
Growing up in the last few decades, many gamers can likely mark the years by the Zelda games they had played at the time. It’s a series that somehow manages to evolve with each new version, and that’s not something that many expected after the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom, though, proved anyone who thought that foolish.
It’s not perfect, not by a mile, but the things it manages to do and the evolutions of the concepts from BOTW are nothing short of revolutionary. The release of TOTK has come as many expected, trending on Twitter since its release. While it’s unclear if it will have the same impact on game development as BOTW did, it’s clearly been a commercial and cultural success for Nintendo.
That’s another one for the history books
TOTK is noticeably different from the minute you enter the game, with there being a prologue to the prologue island, showing the reason for the Upheaval, this game’s version of the Calamity from BOTW. As usual, Link and Zelda inadvertently cause another world-changing event that threatens everyone who lives in Hyrule.
It’s not all bad though, as although Link got his right arm cursed and virtually killed, the ghost of a long-dead Zonai was able to graft his undead arm onto Link’s, saving his life. This curse and defeat at the very beginning is the reason that Link is in the condition he is at the start, which many were curious about ahead of launch. At this point, he has to learn all new abilities and find all new gear.
The Great Sky Island tutorial will likely take a couple of hours by itself, and it only gives the slightest look at what’s possible inside TOTK. You get a basic understanding of all the abilities in the game and the story up to that point, but then you’re set on your own journey. It’s been said many times before, but diving to the surface for the first time is an experience unlike anything else in narrative games.
One of the biggest improvements over BOTW is how much easier it is to get into TOTK, with the game offering a pretty straightforward set of objectives that you complete before the full world opens. It will likely be less useful for speedrunners, but the average player is sure to appreciate the much softer approach this game takes to an introduction.
That’s what makes the addition of the sky level so impressive, as players are able to see what is at stake if they’re unable to save Hyrule, a beautiful and wide-expanding kingdom. When you also consider the entirely separate layer that the Depths offers, Nintendo clearly heard players appreciated exploration in the last game and turned the dial up to 11.
The powers that are infused in Link’s new magic arm and the Nintendo Switch-esque Purah Pad have already proven to be incredibly popular with fans. If you don’t believe me, check out any of the popular posts on Twitter in the last 48 hours. Social media has been filled with players showing off their monstrous creations, including the infamous post from Kotaku about the giant robot with a flamethrower penis.
Not all that glitters is gold
As previously stated, TOTK isn’t perfect, and there are a number of bugs that are beginning to show the limitations of Nintendo’s current console. In long distances, objects appear extremely pixelated, and sometimes textures won’t load until you get within a certain distance from them. Admittedly, this isn’t noticeable all the time and only bothered me once or twice in tens of hours of playing.
When you’ve dived off the sky islands enough times, you’ll notice that it can be kind of hard to tell where the water is sometimes. Especially at night when you can’t see the light shining off the top of it, it’s too easy to get off course before you have a chance to correct it. This is really an early-game issue, but it’s something that’s annoying enough that it stands out.
There are other issues with performance, including major frame rate drops when the player is moving quickly across the map. There aren’t many settings in the game to mess with and these issues seem to persist whether you’re playing the handheld or TV version of the game.
This can largely be attributed to the current hardware and many have complained of similar issues in other games in recent years. With no new console from Nintendo confirmed for the next year, at least, it will be interesting to see if Nintendo is able to combat this or if players will just be forced to deal with these issues until the developer is able to release its next console.
That being said, with the expansiveness and sheer possibilities of the world in TOTK, it’s impressive that there aren’t more bugs in the game at launch. The fact that players can attach a wide variety of things to their weapons, shields, and create complex structures and there aren’t more bugs is nothing short of impressive. For many players, these slight performance issues are nothing compared to their appreciation for the open world as a whole.
This will largely depend on the player, but those who can’t stand to see their FPS drop below 59 will definitely be annoyed. That’s not to say it’s not worth playing, because it absolutely is, it’s just something that all players should be warned about, whether they have the smaller Switch Lite or the currently most-advanced OLED.
It’s no surprise
The Final Word
While Tears of the Kingdom suffers from noticeably more visual bugs and dropped framerate than its predecessor, this can largely be attributed to the sheer size of the world. As with BOTW, players will be comparing every game to this for the next five years, at least. It’s one of those things that you can’t understand unless you play for yourself and it’s wise to go in as fresh as possible.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!
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