Fans of the “Legend of Zelda” have eagerly been waiting for the sequel to “Breath of Wild” since it was first teased at the 2019 E3. After years of waiting, “Tears of the Kingdom” finally released on May 12 and it was well worth the wait.
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” takes everything players came to love from “Breath of the Wild,” but makes it better. “Breath of the Wild” was already a highly reviewed game and considered by many to be one of the best games ever made.
With “Breath of the Wild” holding a score of 97% on Metacritic, it doesn’t seem like there is much room for improvement to be made in “Tears of the Kingdom,” yet it has everything we didn’t know we were missing out on.
“Tears of the Kingdom” takes place following the events of “Breath of the Wild” and includes many features players came to love from the previous “Zelda” title, just enhanced.
The open-world map of Hyrule is largely the same as it was in the previous game, however it has expanded into the sky with floating islands and areas of the map are looking a little different due to the events in the opening cinematic.
In “Breath of the Wild,” Link obtained a few key abilities through the Sheikah Slate to help get through puzzles, traverse the world and take on enemies. Instead of including the same abilities as before, “Tears of the Kingdom” features four new ones: Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend and Recall.
Link can pick up, move and rotate almost any object with Ultrahand and can attach objects together to create things such as bridges or vehicles. Fuse allows for Link to fuse a large variety of objects to his current weapon, shield or arrow. With Ascend, Link can now phase through solid objects above him and Recall makes objects move backwards through time.
“Tears of the Kingdom” includes a few smaller but nice nonetheless changes compared to the 2017 title, including an overhaul on the inventory, new updates to the stable, a quicker way to drop a weapon when finding a new one in a chest, a revamped cooking system and more.
Everything about the “Tears of the Kingdom” is done expertfully and it is clear a lot of love and dedication was put into the game. The music is gorgeous, as always and the art style is the same as it was in “Breath of the Wild,” but most of the 3d models appear to have been slightly updated.
“Tears of the Kingdom” feels like a love letter to previous “Zelda” titles and like the more grown-up version compared to the 2017 release of “Breath of the Wild.” The overall theming feels darker from the moment you open the game and leans into the scarier aspects of “Zelda” games and it’s amazing.
“Tears of the Kingdom” can be purchased for the Nintendo Switch for $69.99 or the collector’s edition can be purchased for $129.99. While $70 is definitely expensive for a video game, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is genuinely worth the price.
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