Tears of the Kingdom is one of the most profoundly sad experiences I have had playing a game. It may seem to be a hyperbolic statement, but it is true; it is truly shocking just how much good this game squanders, wholly and absolutely. I am eighteen years old, nervous and afraid to graduate high school and go into the unfamiliar territory of adult life. It’s funny just how well the release of both games is timed. This is all to say, Breath of the Wild is an important game to me. It was my first game, the first game that truly captured me, my mind, body, and soul. The unparalleled freedom on display was wondrous for middle school me, and to me today.
The thing that made BotW so different, and so engaging, from every other open world I’ve played since, was the fact that it wasn’t scared to have lots of open space. Of course, there was still lots to do, but the main engine for exploration was not the fact that there was an external reward waiting for you on the other side of a hill, it was that you could go to that hill, even if it was difficult. And that maybe that hill had a good view, and there was something cool to see. To put it into succinct terms, BotW was allowed to leave things as they were. It was a world reeling from an apocalypse, a world of nature and sparse piano notes drifting through tree leaves and grassy fields. It was a world that was populated, not by people or checklists or things to do, but of places to see, of things to discover for no other reason than you could. To say it was magical feels like an understatement: it felt to me that there was a whole world imprinted onto that game cartridge. It was wondrous.
One of the key aspects holding this game back is the fact that the map is reused. This may not serve to be much of a problem at first, but once you realize just how wildly different the design philosophy and ethos are in Tears, things start to fall apart. Impressively, Tears of the Kingdom held this same wonder for me, initially. Upon realizing the breadth and scope of the Great Sky Island, I was incredibly excited. If we could expect this level of scope from the sky, this level of creativity and boundless ambition, then surely this would live up to its legendary predecessor. Truly, TotK is an incredibly bizarre game in this regard. On the surface, the two games look incredibly similar - and they are - but the design ethos of the sequel is so wildly different from the original that it’s so jarring when you’re reminded that this is, fundamentally, BotW but bigger and bolder. The game attempts to remind you of BotW only when it is convenient. The Great Sky Island is the Great Plateau, and clearly trying to emulate that idea, of a microcosm of the game serving as a tutorial. Unfortunately, with the scope of the game ballooning massively, it is impossible to do this in TotK. As a result, there are many mechanics - and in a truly baffling move, even an entire ability - that is simply left up to the player to find out on their own. This wouldn’t be an issue if these mechanics were not integral to the experience. Autobuild especially should have absolutely been given to you upon completing the tutorial area, and I really don’t know why it isn’t.
Comparing the Great Sky Island to the Great Plateau is a good way to see just how different - and more messy - TotK is as a game compared to BotW. The Great Sky Island has to introduce everything BotW did - climbing, sprinting, stamina, spirit orb / light of blessings, all four key abilities, temperature change, day/night cycle, cooking, story, and more, all while not overwhelming the player - in addition to Zonai devices, crystallized charges, energy wells, Zonaite, Ultrahand, a new story that is a direct sequel (so considerably more difficult), caves.. the list goes on. It is so massive, in fact, that there are entire swaths to the game not explained whatsoever, like different map layers, gloom, the entirety of the depths, Autobuild, Zonaite cost for building new structures via Autobuild, et cetera. Breath was already a massive game, and to add even more on top of that, while still accommodating new players who haven’t played Breath, means the game simply bites off more than it can chew.
There is a general sentiment that Tears is the true Breath, that the prequel was somehow just a test run. I don’t buy it. Truly, what is better in Tears that was in Breath? Combat remains wholly unchanged, with the exception of Fuse, which simply adds more busywork to the act of obtaining a strong weapon, and destroys weapon economy even more. Exploration is exactly the same, with the exception of Zonai devices, which only serve to make exploration easier, and areas gated off by story progression, like Thunderhead Isle, Construct Factory and Spirit Temple. Story is decidedly worse, a retread of the story of the prior game, but it has big anime beams and massive explosions and more cutscenes, so I guess that makes it better? Side quests are decidedly middle of the road, though I enjoyed the Lucky Clover Gazette quest chain.
So what is new? Mainly, story, traversal, and map. The main map of Hyrule, still by and large the most interesting place to explore, has been remixed with new environmental concerns, ruins falling from the sky, chasms splitting open the ground, and the general advancements of various settlements. Then there is the sky. It is truly, truly shocking to me that the tutorial area is the largest Sky Island in the game. These sky islands mostly serve as a distraction, and it’s really unfortunate, because they’re where the game is at its best: building Zonai contraptions to traverse the sky and visit far off locales. These are so small, however, that the non-dungeon sky islands were only around 10% of my total playtime. I don’t understand why they were so widely advertised when there are so little of them within the game.
If having too little space is the problem of the sky, then the depths have the same problem. The most memorable part of the game was falling down that first chasm, falling for what felt like forever, into the depths of the land. A whole new map, the size of all of Hyrule, is truly an exciting prospect. It is grand, like Hyrule, but that is where the similarities end, because there is simply no diversity in the depths. Spend a few hours down there and that’s it. There’s only two biomes - the main biome and lava falls - and only two main POI, being mines and Yiga hideouts. Everything else is just materials farming. Better weapons, the game’s only source of Zonaite, and the only source of crystallized charges. On paper, sure, it sounds like a lot. But without the visual variety that Hyrule offers, it’s simply unfun to explore, becoming a chore entirely by midgame, when you’re just going lightroot to lightroot, surprised by nothing and disappointed by everything.
The main map is BotW’s map, but with more things to do. it’s the best part of the game, but that’s because it’s from the better game: everything here, you’ve seen before. Shrines are the same, almost entirely a joke (although combat shrines are improved), there are towers, stables, villages, and now with caves and chasms dotting the map. The caves and wells are cool, but they’re not enough. There’s simply not enough here for it to be its own game.
Tears of the Kingdom is Breath of the Wild but louder, bolder, bigger. It's a worse game for it.
The thing that made BotW so different, and so engaging, from every other open world I’ve played since, was the fact that it wasn’t scared to have lots of open space. Of course, there was still lots to do, but the main engine for exploration was not the fact that there was an external reward waiting for you on the other side of a hill, it was that you could go to that hill, even if it was difficult. And that maybe that hill had a good view, and there was something cool to see. To put it into succinct terms, BotW was allowed to leave things as they were. It was a world reeling from an apocalypse, a world of nature and sparse piano notes drifting through tree leaves and grassy fields. It was a world that was populated, not by people or checklists or things to do, but of places to see, of things to discover for no other reason than you could. To say it was magical feels like an understatement: it felt to me that there was a whole world imprinted onto that game cartridge. It was wondrous.
One of the key aspects holding this game back is the fact that the map is reused. This may not serve to be much of a problem at first, but once you realize just how wildly different the design philosophy and ethos are in Tears, things start to fall apart. Impressively, Tears of the Kingdom held this same wonder for me, initially. Upon realizing the breadth and scope of the Great Sky Island, I was incredibly excited. If we could expect this level of scope from the sky, this level of creativity and boundless ambition, then surely this would live up to its legendary predecessor. Truly, TotK is an incredibly bizarre game in this regard. On the surface, the two games look incredibly similar - and they are - but the design ethos of the sequel is so wildly different from the original that it’s so jarring when you’re reminded that this is, fundamentally, BotW but bigger and bolder. The game attempts to remind you of BotW only when it is convenient. The Great Sky Island is the Great Plateau, and clearly trying to emulate that idea, of a microcosm of the game serving as a tutorial. Unfortunately, with the scope of the game ballooning massively, it is impossible to do this in TotK. As a result, there are many mechanics - and in a truly baffling move, even an entire ability - that is simply left up to the player to find out on their own. This wouldn’t be an issue if these mechanics were not integral to the experience. Autobuild especially should have absolutely been given to you upon completing the tutorial area, and I really don’t know why it isn’t.
Comparing the Great Sky Island to the Great Plateau is a good way to see just how different - and more messy - TotK is as a game compared to BotW. The Great Sky Island has to introduce everything BotW did - climbing, sprinting, stamina, spirit orb / light of blessings, all four key abilities, temperature change, day/night cycle, cooking, story, and more, all while not overwhelming the player - in addition to Zonai devices, crystallized charges, energy wells, Zonaite, Ultrahand, a new story that is a direct sequel (so considerably more difficult), caves.. the list goes on. It is so massive, in fact, that there are entire swaths to the game not explained whatsoever, like different map layers, gloom, the entirety of the depths, Autobuild, Zonaite cost for building new structures via Autobuild, et cetera. Breath was already a massive game, and to add even more on top of that, while still accommodating new players who haven’t played Breath, means the game simply bites off more than it can chew.
There is a general sentiment that Tears is the true Breath, that the prequel was somehow just a test run. I don’t buy it. Truly, what is better in Tears that was in Breath? Combat remains wholly unchanged, with the exception of Fuse, which simply adds more busywork to the act of obtaining a strong weapon, and destroys weapon economy even more. Exploration is exactly the same, with the exception of Zonai devices, which only serve to make exploration easier, and areas gated off by story progression, like Thunderhead Isle, Construct Factory and Spirit Temple. Story is decidedly worse, a retread of the story of the prior game, but it has big anime beams and massive explosions and more cutscenes, so I guess that makes it better? Side quests are decidedly middle of the road, though I enjoyed the Lucky Clover Gazette quest chain.
So what is new? Mainly, story, traversal, and map. The main map of Hyrule, still by and large the most interesting place to explore, has been remixed with new environmental concerns, ruins falling from the sky, chasms splitting open the ground, and the general advancements of various settlements. Then there is the sky. It is truly, truly shocking to me that the tutorial area is the largest Sky Island in the game. These sky islands mostly serve as a distraction, and it’s really unfortunate, because they’re where the game is at its best: building Zonai contraptions to traverse the sky and visit far off locales. These are so small, however, that the non-dungeon sky islands were only around 10% of my total playtime. I don’t understand why they were so widely advertised when there are so little of them within the game.
If having too little space is the problem of the sky, then the depths have the same problem. The most memorable part of the game was falling down that first chasm, falling for what felt like forever, into the depths of the land. A whole new map, the size of all of Hyrule, is truly an exciting prospect. It is grand, like Hyrule, but that is where the similarities end, because there is simply no diversity in the depths. Spend a few hours down there and that’s it. There’s only two biomes - the main biome and lava falls - and only two main POI, being mines and Yiga hideouts. Everything else is just materials farming. Better weapons, the game’s only source of Zonaite, and the only source of crystallized charges. On paper, sure, it sounds like a lot. But without the visual variety that Hyrule offers, it’s simply unfun to explore, becoming a chore entirely by midgame, when you’re just going lightroot to lightroot, surprised by nothing and disappointed by everything.
The main map is BotW’s map, but with more things to do. it’s the best part of the game, but that’s because it’s from the better game: everything here, you’ve seen before. Shrines are the same, almost entirely a joke (although combat shrines are improved), there are towers, stables, villages, and now with caves and chasms dotting the map. The caves and wells are cool, but they’re not enough. There’s simply not enough here for it to be its own game.
Tears of the Kingdom is Breath of the Wild but louder, bolder, bigger. It's a worse game for it.
LordDarias
10 months ago