The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom follows up on the promise in Breath of the Wild serving as a new foundation for the series and not a brief deviation. the sequel to one of the most brilliant open world games ever made has managed to one-up the predecessor in a direction simultaneously superior and different. BotW has not been overwritten, but this new take stretches its concepts to a new high.
i felt an unexpected fascination with how hyrule may have changed that i felt exceeded my explorative curiosity in my original playthrough of BotW. hyrule has been recontextualized. you do return to the same foundation as BotW, but it has been renovated, revised, and revitalized. all of the regions in this game are affected by phenomena that shift them away from their usual climate. the remixed world serves as a strong base for an exciting adventure, but the game provides even more.
the two separate realms act more like game modes than alternative worlds. the skies of hyrule are now populated with floating islands, which provide much denser content. outside of the small skyblock-sized drops in the sky, every piece of land you set foot on offers a challenge or quality resources. in contrast, the depths make the content much more sparse. spelunking through the depths often has you gathering resources or hunting for treasure. the search for these is made difficult by the dark vastness of the depths, spanning the entire area of the overworld while having much less to find. enemies in the depths also do a more severe form of damage, and there are combat challenges waiting for you scattered throughout this underworld. in these alternate areas, TotK has explored other open world designs as a treat on top (and under) the returning foundation. sky islands feel like a direct improvement on the design of Wind Waker, while the depths feel like an improvement on the experience of something like Hollow Knight's large and empty underground environment with the occasional tough enemy. i call them improved because, unlike those games, navigating through the vastness of the world is actually fun.
ultrahand, beyond serving as a stronger form of magnesis that lets you grab and rotate anything that isnt tied down or alive, gives the player the ability to build all sorts of contraptions. you can stick anything that isnt tied down in the world together. the game lets you go nuts & Bolts with making any vehicle you want to make out of the various zonai artifacts you get from the big gumball machines in the sky. using your haphazardly-frankensteined heap or carefully-planned contraption keeps traversal fresh in the familiar and unfamiliar lands.
recall compliments ultrahand perfectly. it's an improved stasis. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be rewound through its recent movements. its usage may be the most opaque, but recall becomes so invaluable once you figure out all of the things you can do with it. i feel like it's best if i abstain from praising this ability with more detail right now. as im writing this, the game is still new, and it's best if you figure out the ways this ability can be used for yourself.
there is yet another ability that compliments the others in fuse. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be fused to your weapon or shield. i'm not someone who had an issue with botw's weapon durability, but i imagine that this must fix it for many people. your abundance of weapons that you find in the field can now consistently be something you like by just dropping one of the many horns in your inventory at any given moment. this doesn't forgo that old system entirely because the base still has an impact, but you generally get to remake the weapon you desire as much as you want by having the blade in your materials.
all of the above allow for some really unique experimentation, but there is still one more ability. ascend is a bit of an odd one out among the four new abilities in the game. it can be used on static environments and the outcome of using the ability is always the same predictable result. some ascend skills can be learned, but it's got less to it than the other three. despite that, i adore the inclusion of this ability, as it still completely rewrites how you interact with the world and intertwines with usage of the other abilities. all of the abilities in this game are such a massive leap over the disconnected tools in link's BotW arsenal not just because of their inherently cool and impactful concepts but also because of just how well they mix together in usage and (mostly) concept.
the active story this time around is more ambitious, and it mostly pays off. the various characters that the game gives focus too have compelling stories with actual character development. this is a huge leap from its predecessor's empty husk of a cast. however, these stories do require TotK to act in branches instead of the wide open world in BotW. dungeons require longer questlines to be completed before you can actually approach them, and those questlines have to be initiated before you can make progress.
similarly, the beginning of the game is also much more linear. the game begins you with a slow buildup in the depths of hyrule castle. soon, you are placed into the great sky island, which serves as this game's great plateau. unlike the great plateau, the great sky island really pushes you along a set path. you can break the order, but everyone of the many people i've talked to this game about acquired every ability in the same order on their first run. the linear nature of the introduction to this game has been controversial, but i feel that it's generally a better introduction despite the lack of freedom. this introduction built excitement in the prologue under the castle, which really is not fast to just skip through on a second run. the linear great sky island also builds a sense of direction for players that might have felt lost or paralyzed by choice in BotW. i find myself preferring the great plateau's explicit freedom, but this is nevertheless a great parallel to it.
the sense of direction that the game pushes on to you feels imperative to it not feeling excessive. this game occupies a vague threshold around it being too big for its own good. BotW and now TotK often get compared to ubisoft's slop, but this has always came off as a desperately diminishing and disingenuous to me. every part of the plethora is so carefully polished. every tool for an intended solution provided for you, but the game also accounts for the ways which you may circumvent its trials, and makes careful design choices on whether to let you break it or not. this game is absurdly stable in both its physics and its game design. there might just be too much going on here. it justified its $70 price tag by being this behemoth of quality content, but this behemoth may be too big of a beast for most players comfortably approach.
i was worried that Tears of the Kingdom would not live up to the astronomical levels of hype that it had silently built for itself. nintendo held off from presenting much information on the game until it was just around the corner even though it was mostly complete a year before it launched according to aonuma. it felt like they might have nothing to show from minute changes in the trailers, with some changes requiring detailed analysis to even spot. those concerns did not find fruition in disappointment with the game's release. TotK excels in being just an iteration upon BotW, and has plenty of perks to warrant the reuse of BotW as a base.
i felt an unexpected fascination with how hyrule may have changed that i felt exceeded my explorative curiosity in my original playthrough of BotW. hyrule has been recontextualized. you do return to the same foundation as BotW, but it has been renovated, revised, and revitalized. all of the regions in this game are affected by phenomena that shift them away from their usual climate. the remixed world serves as a strong base for an exciting adventure, but the game provides even more.
the two separate realms act more like game modes than alternative worlds. the skies of hyrule are now populated with floating islands, which provide much denser content. outside of the small skyblock-sized drops in the sky, every piece of land you set foot on offers a challenge or quality resources. in contrast, the depths make the content much more sparse. spelunking through the depths often has you gathering resources or hunting for treasure. the search for these is made difficult by the dark vastness of the depths, spanning the entire area of the overworld while having much less to find. enemies in the depths also do a more severe form of damage, and there are combat challenges waiting for you scattered throughout this underworld. in these alternate areas, TotK has explored other open world designs as a treat on top (and under) the returning foundation. sky islands feel like a direct improvement on the design of Wind Waker, while the depths feel like an improvement on the experience of something like Hollow Knight's large and empty underground environment with the occasional tough enemy. i call them improved because, unlike those games, navigating through the vastness of the world is actually fun.
ultrahand, beyond serving as a stronger form of magnesis that lets you grab and rotate anything that isnt tied down or alive, gives the player the ability to build all sorts of contraptions. you can stick anything that isnt tied down in the world together. the game lets you go nuts & Bolts with making any vehicle you want to make out of the various zonai artifacts you get from the big gumball machines in the sky. using your haphazardly-frankensteined heap or carefully-planned contraption keeps traversal fresh in the familiar and unfamiliar lands.
recall compliments ultrahand perfectly. it's an improved stasis. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be rewound through its recent movements. its usage may be the most opaque, but recall becomes so invaluable once you figure out all of the things you can do with it. i feel like it's best if i abstain from praising this ability with more detail right now. as im writing this, the game is still new, and it's best if you figure out the ways this ability can be used for yourself.
there is yet another ability that compliments the others in fuse. anything that isnt tied down or alive can be fused to your weapon or shield. i'm not someone who had an issue with botw's weapon durability, but i imagine that this must fix it for many people. your abundance of weapons that you find in the field can now consistently be something you like by just dropping one of the many horns in your inventory at any given moment. this doesn't forgo that old system entirely because the base still has an impact, but you generally get to remake the weapon you desire as much as you want by having the blade in your materials.
all of the above allow for some really unique experimentation, but there is still one more ability. ascend is a bit of an odd one out among the four new abilities in the game. it can be used on static environments and the outcome of using the ability is always the same predictable result. some ascend skills can be learned, but it's got less to it than the other three. despite that, i adore the inclusion of this ability, as it still completely rewrites how you interact with the world and intertwines with usage of the other abilities. all of the abilities in this game are such a massive leap over the disconnected tools in link's BotW arsenal not just because of their inherently cool and impactful concepts but also because of just how well they mix together in usage and (mostly) concept.
the active story this time around is more ambitious, and it mostly pays off. the various characters that the game gives focus too have compelling stories with actual character development. this is a huge leap from its predecessor's empty husk of a cast. however, these stories do require TotK to act in branches instead of the wide open world in BotW. dungeons require longer questlines to be completed before you can actually approach them, and those questlines have to be initiated before you can make progress.
similarly, the beginning of the game is also much more linear. the game begins you with a slow buildup in the depths of hyrule castle. soon, you are placed into the great sky island, which serves as this game's great plateau. unlike the great plateau, the great sky island really pushes you along a set path. you can break the order, but everyone of the many people i've talked to this game about acquired every ability in the same order on their first run. the linear nature of the introduction to this game has been controversial, but i feel that it's generally a better introduction despite the lack of freedom. this introduction built excitement in the prologue under the castle, which really is not fast to just skip through on a second run. the linear great sky island also builds a sense of direction for players that might have felt lost or paralyzed by choice in BotW. i find myself preferring the great plateau's explicit freedom, but this is nevertheless a great parallel to it.
the sense of direction that the game pushes on to you feels imperative to it not feeling excessive. this game occupies a vague threshold around it being too big for its own good. BotW and now TotK often get compared to ubisoft's slop, but this has always came off as a desperately diminishing and disingenuous to me. every part of the plethora is so carefully polished. every tool for an intended solution provided for you, but the game also accounts for the ways which you may circumvent its trials, and makes careful design choices on whether to let you break it or not. this game is absurdly stable in both its physics and its game design. there might just be too much going on here. it justified its $70 price tag by being this behemoth of quality content, but this behemoth may be too big of a beast for most players comfortably approach.
i was worried that Tears of the Kingdom would not live up to the astronomical levels of hype that it had silently built for itself. nintendo held off from presenting much information on the game until it was just around the corner even though it was mostly complete a year before it launched according to aonuma. it felt like they might have nothing to show from minute changes in the trailers, with some changes requiring detailed analysis to even spot. those concerns did not find fruition in disappointment with the game's release. TotK excels in being just an iteration upon BotW, and has plenty of perks to warrant the reuse of BotW as a base.